NGO Action News – 19 August 2016

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
19 August 2016

• On 27 September, Palestine Solidarity Campaign will be holding an event“Stories from Palestine”, in Bradford, UK, that will focus on the experiences and stories of the Palestinian people, with guest speaker Khaleel Desai, a human rights lawyer who spent 2015 living and working in Palestine. The event will also feature a photography exhibition.

• On 6 October, Palestine Solidarity Campaign will be hosting a film screening “Where Should the Birds Fly?” in Richmond, UK.The documentary tells the story of two young Gaza women, survivors of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead. The screening will be followed by a talk by Dr Tania Mathias, Member of Parliament about her experience working in Gaza with UNRWA.

• On 24 and 25 August, a number of CSOs such as Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and If Americans Knew, will sponsor in the Boston area a talk by Richard Forer, author of “Breakthrough: Transforming Fear into Compassion – a New Perspective on the Israel-Palestine Conflict”.

• On 14 September, the Jerusalem Fund will be holding a discussion entitled Palestine in the Democratic Party Platforms: 1988 and 2016 in Washington D.C. with by Dr. James J. Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute, an organization created to encourage the participation of Arab Americans in the political and civic life in the US. Dr. Zogby is a member of the Executive Committee of the Democratic National Committee. He will discuss the efforts led by progressive presidential candidates – Jesse Jackson in 1988 and Bernie Sanders in 2016 to mainstream the issue of Palestinian rights.· On 28 September, the Jerusalem Fund will be holding a discussion entitled Emancipated Palestinian Futures? Hard Lessons from the South African Dream Deferred in Washington, with Dr. Irene Calis about the lessons which need to be drawn from the South African transition from Apartheid.

• From 14 to17 October, the US Campaign to End the Occupation will be hosting its annual conference in Arlington, Virginia. The conference will include plenaries, workshops, a lobby day, and a performance by Palestinian oud virtuoso and composer Simon Shaheen.

• The United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will commemorate the annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, on 29 November 2016, the anniversary of the 1947 UN partition resolution for Palestine. Events will include a special session of the Committee at the UN Headquarters in New York and inauguration of the Committee exhibit, organized with the Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, entitled “Palestinian Embroidery: Threads of Continuity, Identity and Empowerment” and others. Further information will be circulated in due course.