NGO Action News – 04  November 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
04  November 2013

AFRICA

• The Ahmed Kathrada Foundation endorsed on 27 October 2013 an international campaign for the Freedom of Marwan Barghouthi and All Palestinian Political Prisoners.Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu also expressed his support to the campaign.

EUROPE

• L’Association belgo-palestinienne (ABP), the BDS-Belgium campaign, the European Coordination Committee for Palestine (ECCP), Intal Palestine Bruxelles and Palestina Solidariteit are organizing a public meeting with Noura Erekat (Beasley School of Law, human rights attorney and activist) and Leila Farsakh (Palestinian political economist, Associate Professor of Political Science at University of Massachusetts Boston) on 7 November 2013 at the Café Monk in Brussels. Event starts at 7.00pm. Space limited.

• Le Comité pour une Paix Juste au Proche-Orient is organizing several different artistic events and conferences throughout the month of November 2013.

• Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) is organizing a fundraiser in Edinburgh on 9 November 2013. William Parry, MAP’s Communications and Media Officer, will take part in the event.

• Le Mur a Des Oreilles recorded on 24 October 2013 an exclusive interview about Palestine with the British director Ken Loach.

• L’Union des Progressistes Juifs de Belgique is hosting on 15 November 2013 in Brussels a conference with Marianne Blume (ABP member) who will talk about her recent visits to the Gaza Strip.

MIDDLE EAST

• Visualizing Palestine published on 31 October 2013 their latest visual Where Law Stands on The Wall, focusing on the on-going construction of Israel’s barrier in the West Bank.

NORTH AMERICA

• Adalah-NY issued a press release on 29 October 2013 about their musical protest against the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in New York. Photos of the event are available here.

• The American Friends Service Committee released on 28 October 2013 a Monster Mash Remix – Boycott SodaStream song. You can listen to the performance here.

• Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign is organizing a protest in front of London Drugs in Vancouver on 3 November 2013 to ask the store to stop selling SodaStream products. This demonstration is part of the Canada-wide SodaStream boycott campaign of the Canadian Boycott Coalition.

• Brooklyn For Peace is organizing an event at the Friends Meeting House in Brooklyn on 6 November 2013 with Professor Rashid Khalidi who will be speaking about his new book, Brokers of Deceit: How the US Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East.

• Churches for Middle East Peace is running a campaign to support the current peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. Find out more here.

• The JCC in Manhattan is presenting the 7th Annual Other Israel Film Festival taking place in New York City from 14 to 21 November 2013.

• J Street U Georgetown, Georgetown Israel Alliance and Students for Justice in Palestine Georgetown are hosting a screening of the film The Other Son by Lorraine Lévy at the ICC Auditorium of the Georgetown University on 6 November 2013.

• Jewish Voice for Peace and Mondoweiss have 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 We need the courage to do away with existing institutions, policies, and paradigms has been published on 30 October 2013.

• Jewish Voice For Peace – Boston is screening the documentary Pressure Points: Israel, Berkeley, and the Divestment Resolution on 11 November 2013. JVP Boston’s Organizer, Liza Behrendt, will describe the work done in the Boston area on divestment after the screening.

• The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund organized a gala in San Francisco on 3 November 2013 with Dr. Hanan Ashrawi (PLO member).

• St. Louis Dump Veolia issued a press release on 29 October 2013 stating that Veolia Water North America withdrew itself from consideration for a contract to consult with the St. Louis Water Division, following almost a year of public protest of the corporation over, among other things, its complicity in Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights.

• The United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) calls on its supporters to take action against the arrest of Palestinian community leader Rasmea Odeh on 22 October 2013 over immigration fraud charges.

• The Voice of Palestine presented on 30 October 2013 its new programme featuring a discussion with Charlotte Kates from the Vancouver-based Palestine Awareness Coalition.

ISRAEL AND PALESTINE

• Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel and the Society of St. Yves presented a photographic exhibition, Families Interrupted, on 23 October 2013. The exhibition explores the devastating effects of Israel’s ban on family reunification on Palestinian families.

• Al-Haq issued on 31 October 2013 a weekly focus entitled Settler Violence Continues Across the West Bank

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

• Al Shabaka – The Palestinian Policy Network released on 24 October 2013 a new policy brief on Palestine’s UNESCO Membership.

• Breaking The Silence will go on a month-long US book tour (West Coast) starting 12 November 2013 in Tacoma, WA, to present Our Harsh Logic: Israeli Soldiers’ Testimonies from the Occupied Territories, 2000 – 2010. Yehuda Shaul, Co-founder and Co-director of Breaking The Silence, will take part in the tour.

• The European Union Mission in Jerusalem is organizing the Euro-Palestinian Water film festival from 21 October to 7 November 2013 in different Palestinian cities.

• The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) released on 31 October 2013 its weekly Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory covering the period from 24 to 30 October 2013.

• 20 Palestinian organizations as well as individuals released on 21 October 2013 a statement calling on the PLO and Palestinian Government to halt all forms of cooperation with the World Bank-sponsored Red Sea – Dead Sea Conveyance Project (RSDSCP) and to take an unequivocal public stance of rejection to the project.

GLOBAL

• The Christian Science Monitor published a new series of infographics entitled Why Israeli Settlements Expand More During Peace Talks?

• Human Rights Watch called on the IDF, in an article published on 27 October 2013, to stop harassing members of Addameer, a rights group that provides legal services and advocates for the rights of Palestinians in detention. HRW reported that the Israeli military imposed severe restrictions and penalties on Addameer’s staff, either without even alleging any violent activity, or without due process.

UNITED NATIONS

• OCHA oPt released on 31 October 2013 its latest Protection of Civilians report covering the period from 22 to 28 October 2013. The September issue of their monthly Humanitarian Bulletin was published on 30 October 2013.

• The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Professor Richard Falk, presented its latest report to the General Assembly in New York on 30 October 2013. The report bears a particular emphasis on corporate responsibility in international crimes related to Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.

• The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator, Mr. James W. Rawley, called on 1 November 2013 for urgent action to address the power crisis affecting the 1.7 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.