PUTRAJAYA - Saudi Arabia on Friday urged Muslim countries to contribute to the one billion dollar emergency fund pledged five years ago to help the Palestinian people.
Saudi Arabia's Finance Minister Ibrahim Abdul Aziz Al-Assaf, who chairs the Al Aqsa and Al Quds funds, urged International Development Bank (IDB) member nations to provide additional resources to the two funds.
"By June 2005, total contributions to the two funds amounted to 738 million dollars," he said in a statement at the annual board meeting of the IDB, the financial arm of the world's biggest Muslim grouping, the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference.
The Al Aqsa and Al Quds Funds were established with a 1.0 billion dollar pledge by the Arab League in 2000 to provide the Palestinian people with emergency aid.
The funds focus on providing financial assistance for education, healthcare and infrastructure.
Al-Assaf said that so far the two funds had approved projects and programmes valued at 262 million dollars.
Joining the appeal, IDB president Ahmad Mohamed Ali said Palestinians needed the support of the Muslim world.
"The segregation wall is devastating every aspect of Palestinian life. People have become prisoners in their own homes... and 50 percent of the people live below the poverty line," he said.
06/24/2005 10:17 GMT