Indonesian envoy offers medical transportation unit for Palestine

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesian Ambassador to Jordan and Palestine Andy Rachmianto paid a visit to a Palestinian refugee camp in Talbiyah on Tuesday to hand over a medical transportation unit donated by several Indonesian medicine and food companies.

The donation was initiated by the Indonesian Drug and Food Supervisory Agency (BPOM) in cooperation with the Jordan Hasehmite Charity Organization (JHCO) and Medical Aids for Palestine (MAP), the Indonesian Embassy in Amman, Jordan, noted in a press statement on Wednesday.

The refugee camp houses some 25 thousand displaced Palestinians.

Ambassador Andy Rachmianto revealed that the Indonesian embassy had come up with programs to assist Palestinian and Syrian refugees in Jordan as a priority under its humanitarian diplomacy.

"Indonesia always cares for and supports the Palestinian people, including those being accommodated in refugee camps," he remarked.

The BPOM and several pharmaceutical and food companies were able to amass funds reaching US$117 thousand during a fund-raising event for Palestine.

In addition to the medical transportation unit, the remaining funds will be utilized by JHCO to procure food, winter clothing, and medical equipment for Palestinian refugees.

The Indonesian embassy has held fund-raising activities in cooperation with several NGOs, universities, and celebrities for Palestinian refugees.

Palestinian refugees and those called internally displaced persons (IDP) constitute the largest and longest-standing case of forced displacement in the world today, according to the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights.

Palestinians were exiled against their will and hence the refugee status during al-Nakba in 1948 when Zionist militants forcefully expelled 750 thousand Palestinians from their homes. Another 350 thousand Palestinians were displaced when Israel illegally seized their land during the Six-Day War in 1967.

Some 40 percent of the refugees in the world presently are Palestinians. Palestinian refugees, or internally displaced persons, constitute some 74 percent of the Palestinian population of over nine million.

At least 950 thousand Palestinians are considered refugees from 1967. Some 80 percent of all Palestinian refugees reside outside camps operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

Some 4.6 million refugees were registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in 2008. Nearly one-third of them live in 58 recognized refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.