NGO Action News – 21 September 2023

NGO Action News

21 September 2023

Middle East

• On 20 September, Peace Now published a chronological overview of key political decisions and actions taken by Israel since the Netanyahu government was formed in late December 2022, highlighting how settlement expansion and the annexation became its central policy.
• On 19 September, Gisha published an update noting that on 17 September Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories announced that the reopening of Erez Crossing after the three-day closure for the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana would be postponed “until further notice.” Gisha called the measure “an act of collective punishment.”
• On 18 September, B’Tselem published an article titled “The pogroms are working – the transfer is already happening,” which describes measures employed by Israel to make life in many Palestinian communities in the West Bank miserable, in order to force residents to uproot themselves, seemingly of their own accord.
• On 17 September, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) issued a press release condemning the injury of a Palestinian journalist by the Israeli forces on 16 September while he was covering clashes in eastern Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.
• On 15 September, Al-Haq delivered a joint oral intervention under Item 3, during the 54th session of the Human Rights Council, welcoming the Special Rapporteur’s report and calling for effective measures to end Israel’s discriminatory policies, including restrictions on Palestinian healthcare access inside and outside Gaza.
• During the 54th regular session of the United Nations Human Rights Council that began on 11 September, BADIL Resource Centre for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights submitted to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, a written statement, an oral statement, and an urgent petition under Item 3. These interventions underscored the arbitrary nature of the ongoing detention of Palestinian prisoner Walid Daqqah, who continues to be held in Israeli prisons despite having completed his original sentence on 25 March 2023.

Asia and Europe

• On 26 September, the Association Belgo-Palestinienne will host a lecture in Brussels titled “Forever imprisoned Palestinians: human rights under occupation,” by Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 (in French). The event will be in English with simultaneous translation into French.
• On 25 September, Law for Palestine will hold a webinar titled “Occupying Minds and Crafting Futures: The Israelization of Palestinian Education in Jerusalem.” The event will provide a platform for comprehensive discussions and analyses of the current situation of Palestinian schools in Jerusalem, as well as recent developments in the Israeli parliament.
• On 20 September, Association France Palestine Solidarité published an article (in French) noting that between the evening of 19^th and the morning of 20^th September 2023, Israeli troops carried out offensives in the occupied West Bank, including in Jenin and Jericho, causing at least five deaths. The same day, Agence Media Palestine also published an article (in French) on the raid in Jenin.
• On 20 September, Agence Media Palestine published an article (in French) on the Israeli military’s use of drones, a related increase in the number of Palestinian deaths, and the lack of public debate about the legality or morality of military drones.
• On 18 September, the European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine launched a petition campaign asking Europeans to send a message to their Ministries of Foreign Affairs asking them to protect human rights defenders in Masafer Yatta amid intensified Israeli repression.
• On 16 September, the Palestinian Return Center published an article to commemorate the anniversary of the 1982 massacre of several thousand Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon, noting that the perpetrators have largely gone unpunished.

North America

• On 28 September, Columbia University Center for Palestine Studies is hosting a lecture in New York by author Isabella Hammad on narrative form and its relationship to discourse around Palestine and Palestinian history through the lens of Anagnorisis, or Recognition. The event will commemorate the 20^th anniversary of the death of public intellectual and literary critic Edward W. Said.
• On 28 September, Americans for Peace Now will hold a webinar discussion with Haaretz diplomatic correspondent, Amir Tibon, on US-Israel relations following Netanyahu’s visit to New York.
• From 22-24 September, Friends of Sabeel North America is sponsoring the Palestine Writes Literature Festival at the University of Pennsylvania. This is the only North American literature festival dedicated to celebrating and promoting cultural productions of Palestinian writers and artists.
• On 19 September, The Jerusalem Fund published an article titled “Behind the Push for Saudi-Israeli Accord: Geopolitics, Ambitions, and Palestinian Concerns,” highlighting the need to address Palestinian interests as the US seeks to broker a normalization agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
• On 12 September, the Foundation for Middle East Peace organized an online conversation titled “Forcible Transfer is a War Crime: West Bank Pogroms are Working” which focused on the ways the Israeli government, its security forces, and Israeli settlers target Palestinian communities by making their lives economically untenable and unsafe so that they are compelled to abandon their homes and lands. The recording is available online.

United Nations

• On 19 September, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, addressed a ministerial meeting on the side-lines of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly, giving a statement titled “Peace Day Effort: An Effort for Middle East Peace.”
• On 15 September, UNSCO issued a report for the meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee in New York on 20 September 2023. The report notes that 30 years since the Oslo Accords, the legacy of Palestinian statehood is at risk, and proposes a way forward towards reversing the deterioration of the situation on the ground, the fragility of the Palestinian Authority and insufficient engagement between the parties.
• The Annual report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People to the General Assembly (A/78/35) is now available online in all UN official languages.

This newsletter informs about recent and upcoming activities of Civil Society Organizations working on the question of Palestine. 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. Translations of the NGO Action News in other languages will be available soon. 

http://www.facebook.com/UN.palestinianrights    http://www.twitter.com/UNISPAL