NGO Action News – 13 January 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
13 January 2017

Middle East

• On 12 January, a delegation of Israeli intellectuals and former ambassadors presented Helen Le Gal, Ambassador of France to Israel, with the “Petition of 1200” in support of the French Initiative. The 1200 Israeli signatories, which include Nobel Prize laureate Daniel Kahneman, 20 Israel Prize laureates, five former ambassadors, former Attorney General Michael Ben-Yair, former Minister Yair Zaban, and five former Members of Knesset, call for an immediate end to the Israeli occupation, the establishment of an independent sovereign State of Palestine, and its acceptance as a full member of the United Nations.

• In a press release issued on 11 January (“Collective punishment in Jabal al-Mukabber: Jerusalem Municipality served some 40 demolition orders”), B’Tselem expressed concern about punitive measures imposed against the extended family of a Palestinian assailant who killed four Israeli soldiers and injured 15 others in Jerusalem last Sunday.

• On 4 January, ahead of the issuance of revised Standing Orders on the “seam zone”  located between the separation wall and the Green Line, HaMoKed sent a letter to the Israeli Civil Administration calling for the abolition of the current permit regime for Palestinians who live in or want to enter the “seam zone”.

North America

• On 6 January, Lara Friedman, Director of Government and Policy Relations at Americans for Peace Now, analysed in The Huffington Post the potential implications of domestic legislation requiring the US to de-fund any UN agency that admits the State of Palestine as a member.

• After the US House of Representatives passed on 5 January a resolution objecting to UNSC Resolution 2334 (2016), the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights called on citizens to engage with their Members of Congress to help reverse their positions on the matter (“Take Action: Congress Voting on Pro-Settlement Resolutions”).

*****

Contact us: palestinianrights@un.org

Visit the UNISPAL Website
Like UNISPAL on Facebook
Follow UNISPAL on Twitter