NGO Action News – 02 December 2013

This newsletter informs about recent and upcoming activities of Civil Society Organizations affiliated with the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. The Committee and the Division for Palestinian Rights of the UN Secretariat provide the information “as is” without warranty of any kind, and do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, or reliability of the information contained in the websites linked in the newsletter.

NGO Action News
02 December 2013

EUROPE

• Café Palestine is organizing its monthly gat_blankhering in Brussels on 5 December 2013. It will be dedicated to the life and experiences of young Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The short documentary Not a dreamland: artists and alternative subcultures in Gaza (Anne Paq and ActiveStills crew of photographers documenting the occupation) will be presented. A discussion with Rania Kharma (Palestinian student), Inge Neefs (Belgian activist) and Anne Paq (ActiveStills) will follow the screening.

• Caabu issued a press release on 28 November 2013 urging the British Government to push towards a resolution to the dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

• The Cambridge Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Cambridge University Palestine Society and One Democratic State in Palestine are organizing a meeting with Palestinian doctor and author Ghada Karmi and Israeli historian Ilan Pappé on 2 December 2013 in Cambridge.

• Le Comité pour une Paix Juste au Proche-Orient is currently hosting the exhibit Palestine, terre de non-Droits de l’homme at the Rectorat of the Campus du Limpertsberg in Luxembourg until 12 December 2012.

• The European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine (ECCP)and the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) issued a joint statement on 29 November 2013 focusing on the recent demolitions and announcement of more Israeli settlement units in the West Bank.

• The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign hosted on 29 November 2013 an event exploring how Palestinians and internationals use art as a method of both cultural and political resistance to the Israeli occupation, apartheid and colonialism. The renowned Irish artist and political activist, Robert Ballagh, took part in the activity.

• Medical Aid for Palestinians is hosting on 5 December 2013 the London launch of a new research paper by the Lancet-Palestinian Health Alliance (LPHA) entitled The health of Palestinians inside and outside the occupied Palestinian territory.

• The Palestine Solidarity Campaign is organizing the event Reporting Palestine – bias in the BBC? on 5 December 2013 in London. Former BBC correspondent in the Gaza Strip,James Rodgers and Amena Saleem, journalist and activist, will take part in the event.

• War on Want, School of Law at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London) and the Russell Tribunal on Palestine are hosting on 13 December 2013 at SOAS eminent feminist scholar-activists Angela Davis and Gina Dent for a discussion on Justice for Palestine and the Stop G4S campaign.

NORTH AMERICA

• Adalah-NY will hold its 7th annual Anti-Apartheid Holiday Carolling Choir on 14 December 2013 in front of Lev Leviev’s jewellery store in NYC. This event is to protest against Mr. Leviev’s companies’ involvement with on-going Israeli settlement construction and expansion in Palestine.

• Adalah-NY, Jewish Voice for Peace – NY, and Park Slope Food Coop Members for BDS are organizing a musical protest against SodaStream on 7 December 2013.

• Americans for Peace Now, Churches for Middle East Peace, Foundation for Middle East Peace and the Middle East Institute are hosting on 6 December 2013 in Washington a conversation between Akiva Eldar (Senior political columnist, Al-Monitor news site’s Israel Pulse) and Ori Nir (Americans for Peace Now) under the title Israel and Palestine: What’s Next?

• Jewish Voice for Peace and Mondoweiss put together a collection of articles to mark the 20 years since the signature of the Oslo Accords, entitled What Comes Next?: A forum on the end of the two-State paradigm, investigating the current state of thinking about one-State and two-State solutions. Their latest article The struggle we are fighting for is the right to assert what our life will look like by Frank Barat (Russell Tribunal), Leila Farsakh (Palestinian economist) and Noura Erakat (adjunct professor at Georgetown University) has been published on 27 November 2013.

• Middle East Children’s Alliance is organizing its 11th Annual Holiday Crafts Bazaar in Berkeley on 7 and 8 December 2013, featuring handmade products by a Bedouin women’s cooperative in the West Bank, pottery from Hebron, and ceramic Handala cartoon character magnets.

• The United Church of Canada is inviting its members and supporters to hold acts of public witness on 3 December 2013 in Vancouver at the London Drugs retail stores (Granville and Georgia) from noon to highlight the need for a just peace in the Holy Land. This activity takes place within the United Church campaign Unsettling Goods: Choose Peace in Palestine and Israel.

• The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation is calling on supporters to help in their 2013 Boycott SodaStream Days of Action. Demonstrations against SodaStream (see list of activities here) are being planned to focus on Target retail stores and will be held from 2 December to 10 December 2013. As well, the Campaign launched a petition on 26 November 2013 to ask Bartell Drugs in Seattle to stop selling SodaStream products.

• The Voice of Palestine presented on 26 November 2013 a new interview with the human rights activist Eva Bartlett discussing the situation in the Gaza Strip.

ISRAEL AND PALESTINE

• The Alternative Information Center (AIC) will organize its 21st international political camp from 22 to 27 December 2013.

• Al-Haq, in conjunction with Act Alliance,the Centre Catholique International de Genève, Fastenopfer,Franciscans International and MISEREOR is hosting on 3 December 2013 in Geneva a side event entitled Addressing Justice, Due Diligence and Access to Remedy in the Context of Extractive Industries: Cases in the Philippines, Mozambique, southern Africa, Palestine and Thailand.

• The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), on 28 November 2013, released its weekly Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory covering the period from 21 November to 27 November 2013. PCHR also published on 26 November 2013 the second report of its kind, entitled Through Women’s Eye. The report focuses on the gender-specific implications and consequences of the 2012 Israeli “Operation Pillar of Defense” on the Gaza Strip.

• The Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network, Al Dameer Association for Human Rights, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights issued a joint statement on 27 November 2013 calling for an immediate end of the suffering of the people in the Gaza Strip caused by the regular electricity outages.

• The Palestinian Peace Coalition will hold a Conference on Negotiations: Prospects and Challenges on 5 December 2013 at the Grand Park Hotel in Ramallah.

GLOBAL

• The Right Livelihood Awards have been presented on 2 December 2013. Raji Sourani (PCHR), the first Palestinian to receive this award, took part in the official ceremony and delivered a speech at the Swedish Parliament.

UNITED NATIONS

• The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP), the Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine to the United Nations and UNRWA co-organized a special concert with Palestinian artists on 25 November 2013 in the ECOSOC Chamber to mark the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People (29 November). Nai Barghouti (singer-songwriter) and Mohammad Assaf (2013 Arab Idol and UNRWA Youth Ambassador) performed on stage and attracted an enthusiastic audience of 500+ delegates, UN staff and NGO representatives. Watch the full concert here.

• The UN General Assembly adopted on 26 November 2013 four resolutions under the agenda item “Question of Palestine”. By the resolution on the CEIRPP, the Assembly proclaimed 2014 the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People and requested the Committee to organize activities around that observance, in cooperation with Governments, the UN system, IGOs and NGOs. The text was adopted by recorded vote of 110 in favour to 7 against (Australia, Canada, Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, US), with 56 abstentions.

• The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People was observed on 25 November 2013 in New York under the auspices of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. Please click here for a comprehensive list of speakers and here for a summary of the event.

• OCHA oPt released its Weekly Report on the Protection of Civilians on 29 November 2013 and its monthly Humanitarian Bulletin on 27 November 2013.

• UNRWA unveiled on 28 November 2013 the first part of its newly digitized media archive, which consists of over half a million negatives, prints, slides, films and videocassettes covering all aspects of the life and history of Palestine refugees from 1948 to the present day.