NGO Action News – 14 November 2024

Middle East

• On 23 November, 7amleh will hold, jointly with the Tech Workers Coalition, the webinar “Palestine Advocacy and Tech Worker Suppression”, which will provide a view into “Big Tech’s complicity” with the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza through the lens of 25 stories of workers in the technology sector.
• On 10 November, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights issued a press release under its “Genocide in Gaza Updates”. In the document “Israeli Military Escalates Genocidal Violence in Jabalia” PCHR strongly condemns the ongoing Israeli policy of targeting Palestinian homes and residential buildings, which continues to result in the killings and injuries of Palestinian civilians, including one of the most recent attacks in northern Gaza, where 24 Palestinians were killed and 30 others wounded.
• On 13 November, Al-Shabakah published a roundtable article “Trump’s Return: Implications for the Palestinian Struggle”, in which Al-Shabaka analysts Tariq Kenney-Shawa, Abdullah Al-Arian, Andrew Kadi, and Hanna Alshaikh offer insights into how U.S. President-elect Trump would compare to his predecessor, what his presidency would mean for U.S. policy across the Arab region, what could lie ahead for Palestine solidarity organizing in the U.S., and what the material impact would be on the ground in Palestine.
• On 13 November, the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center issued a press release on the destruction of Al-Bustan Center in East Jerusalem, in which the NGO condemns this deliberate violation of human rights and international law. The center had been a pillar of support for Palestinian residents, providing cultural, educational, and social resources.
• On 12 November, the Institute for Palestine Studies published the article “Dissolving Limits to Order, Disrupting the University of Chicago for Gaza”, on student activism in the United States during the Gaza War and its locus within the wider U.S. action vis-à-vis the question of Palestine.
• On 7 November, Addameer issued the report “Palestinian Female Prisoners in Occupation Prisons: Harsh Conditions and Inhumane Living Conditions!”. In the document, the NGO highlights how the treatment of Palestinian women in Israeli detention has deteriorated since 7 October 2023. Since that date, over 430 Palestinian women had been detained, of whom 94 Palestinian female prisoners remain in prisons, and ca. 30 of them under arbitrary administrative detention.
• On 7 November, ACRI published the info sheet “Deportation of Families of Terrorists: Questions and Answers” to explain the details of the Israeli Deportation of Families of Terrorists Law, 5785-2024, which the Israeli parliament had just passed. According to the NGO, the law is intended to label the Arab citizens and residents of Israel as disloyal, whose presence is contingent on containment, although all Israeli citizens and residents are entitled to rights and protections, including immunity from deportation from their country, and the right to a fair trial if they are suspected of criminal offenses.

Africa, Asia and Europe

• Throughout November, the Peoples Forum will organise a number of events focusing on Palestine, among them a children’s book reading.
• On 12 November, J Street issued the press release “J Street to Biden Administration: Time to Withhold Some US Weapons to Israel for Continuing to Block Humanitarian Assistance to Gaza” in which the NGO highlights that Israel had not met any of the benchmarks of the
  13 October letter from the U.S. demanding that Israel improve humanitarian access to Gaza.
• On 12 November, NRC together with seven other humanitarian organizations published a joint statement entitled “Israel Receives Failing Grade on U.S. Demands in Gaza”, in which the NGOs released a scorecard assessing progress against the demands in the letter by the U.S. Secretaries of State and Defense of 13 October, concluding that Israel has failed to comply with its ally’s demands – at enormous human cost for Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
• On 12 November, Agence Médias Palestine published the article “‘Médicide’: la destruction systématique et délibérée par Israël de la santé des Palestiniens” (in French) that chronicles the destruction of the Palestinian health care in Gaza since October 2023.
• On 10 November, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor issued the press release “As Israel insists on using starvation as weapon, famine in northern Gaza must be officially declared” in which the NGO argues that it was time to formally declare famine in the Gaza Strip, particularly in the north, which is experiencing an unprecedented siege, bombardment, and deprivation of all basic necessities for survival, as such a declaration would require the international community to take legal actions against Israel, such as punishing it with sanctions, preventing it from receiving weapons, and acting quickly to establish a humanitarian corridor and bring in aid and supplies to prevent thousands of Palestinians from starving to death.

United Nations

• On 26 November, the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will commemorate the 2024 International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Similar events will take place at other UN offices worldwide.
• On 13 November, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Philippe Lazzarini briefed the General Assembly’s Special Political and Decolonization (Fourth Committee). He highlighted how the Agency had been attacked during the Gaza War. “At least 243 UNRWA personnel have been killed, others have been detained and report being tortured. More than two-thirds of UNRWA premises have been damaged or destroyed,” he said. UNRWA also suffered from a political and media campaign and was now under threat of dissolution throughout the OPT following the recent Israeli legislation. He requested Member States to act to prevent the implementation of the legislation against UNRWA; to ensure that any plan for a political transition delineates UNRWA’s role; and to maintain funding to UNRWA, and not to withhold or divert funds on the assumption that the Agency can no longer operate.
• On 12 November, the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People held its second consultations with CSOs in 2024, in a closed format and under Chatham House Rule. Participants proposed specific actions for Member States’ consideration including inter alia a three-way arms embargo on Israel, a push for the release of Palestinian prisoners, and establishing an international Committee on Israeli Reparations.