NGO Action News – 16 February 2018

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
16 February 2018

Global 

• On 13 February, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International (AI), Physicians for Human Rights (PHR)-Israel and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights released a joint press release, expressing great concern about negative trends regarding access to vital medical services for patients from Gaza. 

• On 12 February, the Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA), a coalition of over 70 international NGOs working in the OPT, released its new report “50 Years of Occupation: Dispossession, Deprivation and De-Development”. 

• On 12 February, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor drew attention to the humanitarian situation of Palestinian travellers stranded on both sides of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

• Citing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which provides that children shall only be detained as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate time, Human Rights Watch expressed on 12 February concern at the pre-trial detention of 17-year-old Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi.

Middle East

• On 15 February, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights released a briefing paper highlighting the impact of aerial spraying by Israeli forces on farmlands and livelihoods in the Gaza Strip.

• On 14 February, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) reported on Israeli plans to build a new religious settlement in East Jerusalem and called on the international community to ensure respect for the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention in the OPT including East Jerusalem.

• On 13 February, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association informed that in the context of campaigns to defend their human rights, Palestinian administrative detainees had decided to boycott proceedings in Israeli military courts.

• On 12 February, Peace Now criticized plans approved the same day by the Higher Planning Committee of the Israeli Civil Administration in the occupied West Bank as effectively leading to the establishment of new Israeli settlements, further undermining prospects for peace through a two-State solution.

• On 11 February, the Geneva Initiative published its annual report, featuring educational activities implemented in 2017 by its two offices: the Palestinian Peace Coalition in Palestine and H.L. Education for Peace in Israel.

North America

• On 10 March, the Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights is hosting in Cambridge, MA, Ilan Pappe, Professor of History and Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at Exeter University, for a talk on his 2017 book “The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Occupied Territories”.

• On 1 March, American Friends of the Parents Circle – Families Forum is organizing a webinar on “Radicalization in Israel; Anti-normalization in Palestine – What’s a Peacemaker to Do?” Online registration is open.

• On 23 February, the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University (NYU) is hosting a screening of the film “Take my Pictures for Me”, directed by Mohammed Al-Azza and Amahl Bishara. A discussion with Amahl Bishara and Zachary Lockman, Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at NYU, is planned after the screening.

• On 21 February, the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C., in partnership with the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) and the OneVoice Movement, is inviting to a discussion with Maya Berry, Arab American Institute; Khaled Elgindy, the Brookings Institution; Abdallah Hamarsheh, Zimam; and Obada Shtaya, OneVoice Movement, on “Envisioning Palestine: Strategies for Palestinian Self-Determination”.

• On 20 February, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University is hosting Palestinian researcher Toufic Haddad for a talk on his book “Palestine Ltd: Neoliberalism and Nationalism in the Occupied Territory”.

• Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP)has launched the campaign “Lent 2018: Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem”, calling for a shared city for two peoples and the three Abrahamic faith traditions. The campaign has already featured several webinars with Jerusalem expert Danny Seidemann, legal expert Moien Odeh and Lara Friedman, President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP).

• On 12 February, Dream Defenders released a statement in support of Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi, signed by actors, athletes, artists and activists.

• On 7 February, CMEP welcomed reports that over one hundred Members of the US Congress had added their names to a letter urging President Trump to reinstate funding to UNRWA.

Latin America 

• From 13 to 17 March, the World Social Forum will take place in Salvador da Bahia (Brazil) under the theme “Resisting is Creating, Resisting is Transforming”. Information about the deadlines for registration is available online.

Europe

• On 21 February, the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at Essex University is hosting Akanksha Mehta, lecturer in International Relations and Gender at the University of Sussex, for a talk on “Negotiating Space on the Right: Everyday Politics of Israeli Zionist Settler Women in the Southern West Bank”.

• On 2 February, Norwegian Member of Parliament Bjørnar Moxnes officially nominated the Palestinian-led global BDS movement for a Nobel Peace Prize. The UK-based Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) have launched a petition seeking signatures to urge the Nobel Committee to grant the prize to the BDS movement.

United Nations

• On 22 February, the Permanent Missions of Bolivia, France, Kuwait and Sweden to the United Nations are hosting at UNHQ in New York (CR 1, 10 a.m.) an Arria-formula meeting of the UN Security Council on “Prospects for the Two-State Solution for Peace”. Statements by former US President Jimmy Carter, former UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry, former UNRWA Commissioner-General Karen Koning AbuZayd, and the Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) Jan Egeland will be delivered at the meeting.