NGO Action News - 10 March 2017 - Question of Palestine

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
10 March 2017

Middle East

Al-Haq has issued a call for papers for an international conference scheduled to take place on 27 September 2017 with the title “The Threshold from Occupation to Annexation: Assessing the Legality of Israel’s 50-year Occupation of Palestinian territory occupied since 1967”. The deadline for submission of papers is 15 April.

On 9 March, B’Tselem reported that the Israeli army had sprayed with herbicides farmland along the fence with Gaza, destroying crops on 200 hectares.

On 8 March, B’Tselem issued a new report with the title “Getting off Scot-Free: Israel’s Refusal to Compensate Palestinians for Damages Caused by its Security Forces”.

On 7 March, the Knesset passed an amendment to the Entry into Israel Law denying visas to any foreign national who has issued a public call to support Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) against Israel and/or West Bank settlements. Grave concern about the bill was expressed by several groups including J Street in the United States and the World Council of Churches (WCC).

On 5 March, Peace Now, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and Yesh Din submitted a petition to the Israeli High Court of Justice on behalf of 27 Palestinian local councils and 13 Israeli civil society organizations, requesting the court to repeal the “Regularization Law” and to issue an interim injunction to prevent its implementation. Prior to that, on 8 February, a High Court petition with the same aim had been jointly submitted on behalf of 17 Palestinian municipalities by Adalah, the Jerusalem Legal Aid Centre and Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights.

In a joint statement made public on 24 February, over 15 human rights organizations from Israel expressed grave concern about the refusal by the Israeli authorities to allow Omar Shakir of Human Rights Watch to enter Israel. In relation to the case, the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) issued a strong condemnation on 27 February.

Europe

On 22 March, Women Wage Peace in cooperation with the Inclusive Peace and Transition Initiative are hosting in Geneva at the Maison de la Paix a discussion entitled “Can Women Revive the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process?”

The EuroMed Rights Network has issued a new Training Guide on EU Advocacy, providing updated information on relevant EU policies and decision-making structures.

North America

On 24 March, Prof. Diana Buttu, former legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team, will hold at the Belfer Centre at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government a seminar entitled “Trump, Palestine and the One State Solution”.

On 22 March, the Belfer Centre is hosting a talk on “Women and Freedom: Lessons from Organizing in Jordan and Palestine”. Invited speakers are Marshall Ganz, Lecturer in Public Policy at the Kennedy School and Nisreen Haj Ahmad, co-founder of Ahel and Mujtama’, an Amman-based organization providing training on community organizing and campaigning in the Middle East.

On 17 March, the Jerusalem Fund in Washington, D.C. is opening an art exhibition entitled “From over the Wall: Reflections form the Old Town of Jerusalem.”

On 16 March, The Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University is hosting Hilik Bar, Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, and Ambassador Husam Zomlot, Chief of the PLO Delegation in Washington, for a conversation on “new visions and strategies for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”.

United Nations

On 17 March, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will host distinguished Palestinian leader Dr. Hanan Ashrawi for an interactive briefing on the margins of the sixty-first session of the Commission on the Status of Women. The briefing, which will be moderated by Professor Anne-Marie Goetz from New York University’s Centre for Global Affairs, is taking place at 11 a.m. in the Trusteeship Council Chamber of the United Nations Headquarters in New York. To attend Dr. Ashrawi’s briefing please RSVP by 15 March 2017. For questions or additional information please email palestinianrights@un.org.

On 8 March, International Women’s Day was observed at UNHQ with an event on “Women in the changing world of work: planet 50-50 by 2030″. As the Commission on the Status of Women opens on 13 March, an overview of side events is available at http://www.unwomen.org/en/csw/csw61-2017/side-events/calendar-of-side-events.

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NGO Action News – 10 March 2017