Brand new vehicles

The car pictured here on the right was donated by the Spanish government to the Palestinian Authority. This car is so new that plastic still covers the headrests in the front seats. The police mechanics in the back of the picture are fitting police lights to the roof of the car, also donated by Spain.

Left: A Palestinian Policeman adjusts his gun on the back of a Ford transit van, donated, as shown by the plaque pictured below, under British Aid.

As a British passport holder myself, I hold a not surprising interest in how my country supports the fledgling Palestinian Authority via its aid programme. When John Major visited the poverty-stricken, over populated, developmentally-retarded Gaza Strip in 1995, he announced that Britain would be donating....30 police vehicles to the Palestinian Authority! Nice call, John. Although it has been nice to see the Palestinian Police enjoying themselves at high speeds in Ramallah, it would have been nice to see a more suitable purchase. Perhaps I'm being unfair, after all, Britain does have other aid packages for Palestine but does not rank highly amongst the other donors of the European Union. I must point out that in May 1996, the ODA (British Goverment Aid Agency funded a proposal I wrote in December 1993 for a food quality control unit in the Birzeit Environmental Health Centre. Better late than never, although several "shops" have aparently been set up by less than scrupulous individuals in the meantime, to pocket the available funding from other countries.

New licence plates

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