NGO Action News – 05 May 2017

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
05 May 2017

Global

• On 5 May, European trade unions issued a statement to express solidarity with Palestinian prisoners who went on hunger strike on 17 April. The Worldwide Movement for Human Rights (FIDH), Al-Haq, Al Mezan and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) issued on 3 May a joint press release calling on the international community to ensure respect for the basic rights of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention. B’Tselem noted the same day that even if conditions improved, Israel would still be holding in custody thousands of Palestinian prisoners without a fair trial, or no trial at all. On 2 May, Human Rights Watch also published a dispatch entitled “Hunger Strikes Highlight Isolation of Palestinian Prisoners – Detainees Seek Better Conditions, Access to Families.”

Middle East

• From 13 to 18 May, the Palestine Festival of Literature (PalFest) will take place in Ramallah, Jerusalem, Nablus and Haifa.

• On 2 May, World Press Freedom Day, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) launched in Gaza City a campaign entitled “No Silencing the Press in Palestine”. Following the event, #SilencePress trended on Twitter. Al Mezan issued on 3 May a statement calling for the protection of Palestinian journalists and their rights.

• To mark International Workers’ Day on 1 May, Al Mezan published on 30 April a press release calling for the protection of Palestinian labour rights.

• On 1 May, HaMoked reported the case of a Ramallah-based Palestinian woman being denied for a year a permit to visit her 17-year old son who is imprisoned in Israel. According to the organization, the Israeli military has refused to recognize kinship between mother and son.

• On 28 April, Peace Now reported that hundreds of activists had been stopped by Israel Police on their way to protest against settler violence near Baladim outpost in the West Bank.

Europe

• On 5 May, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) cited the case of a 5-year-old girl from Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip who reportedly died after being denied an exit permit to travel to East Jerusalem for medical treatment. MAP further detailed on 4 May the severe consequences of Gaza’s worsening fuel shortage (“Gaza Fuel Crisis Update: No long-term Solutions in Sight”). The previous week, the organization reported that four hospitals in Gaza had been shut down due to fuel shortages and published an infographic illustrating the effects of the occupation on Palestinians’ mental health. 

North America 

• The Arab Canadian Lawyers Association will be hosting “An Evening of Prof. Michael Lynk” in Toronto on 10 May. Professor Lynk is the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967. 

• Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights, an association based in Portland, Oregon, will host “Life & Prison in Palestine: A Cartoonist’s Eye” on 7 May. The event will feature Mohammad Sabaaneh, a cartoonist from Ramallah and former prisoner in Israel, who authored the new book White and Black: Political Cartoons from Palestine.

• On 27 April, J Street welcomed the U.S. State Department’s statement regarding the role of civil society organizations in democratic governance.