NGO Action News – 21 November 2024

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Middle East

• On 2 December, 7amleh will organise, in Brussels, the event “Advancing Palestinian Digital Rights: Strategies for Engagement within the EU” that will inter alia explore how EU laws and regulations affect digital rights globally, with a specific focus on Palestinians as a case study; investigate the role of Big Tech in regulating and restricting digital spaces, and how this impacts Palestinian voices; discuss how different organizations and coalitions that have a base in the EU can create stronger synergies within the digital rights space; and exchange ideas on mobilizing support for Palestinian digital rights through intersectional approaches.
• On 21 November, Peace Now published the article “The Demolitions in Al-Bustan, Silwan: On the Path to Destroying an Entire Neighborhood?” on Israeli settlement activities in occupied East Jerusalem. In 2024, at least nine buildings have been demolished leaving dozens of Palestinian residents homeless. The scale of the demolitions raises concerns that the Israeli government and Jerusalem Municipality intend to fully implement their plan to “Judaize” the neighbourhood without considering reasonable and fair solutions for its Palestinian residents.
• On 21 November, B’Tselem issued the press release “Personal accountability is a key element in the struggle for justice and freedom for all” on the issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders is a key element in the struggle for justice and freedom for all human beings living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and that, therefore, all states parties to ICC must respect the Pre-Trial Chamber’s decision and enforce the warrants.
• On 20 November, on the occasion of World Children’s Day the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights issued a press release “Gaza Children Endure the Horrors of Genocidal War”. In the document the NGO highlights the suffering of children in Gaza during the current war and reiterates its call to the international community to uphold its legal and moral responsibilities to force Israel to stop its military actions against the Palestinian people in Gaza, including by imposing an immediate halt to arms exports to Israel and compelling it to comply with the International Court of Justice’s provisional measures to prevent a genocide.
• On 20 November, on the occasion of World Children’s Day Addameer issued the press release “Palestinian Children Facing Arrest, Death, and Systematic Destruction of Childhood”. In the document the NGO outlines how Palestinian children suffer from continuous crimes committed by the Israeli occupation, facing killing, arrest and abuse under a repressive policy that targets Palestinians across locations and across different groups. More than 270 Palestinian children are held in Israeli prisons. Addameer calls on Third States to compel Israel to immediately halt all its crimes against children, to respect and implement the ICJ Advisory Opinion deeming the Israeli occupation illegal, to fully boycott this occupation, impose sanctions on those responsible and hold them accountable for all their crimes.
• On 20 November, Al Mezan issued a report highlighting the devastating impact of Israel’s starvation policies against more than two million Palestinians in Gaza, with children bearing the brunt of this policy. The NGO emphasizes that continued impunity has been a major factor driving Israel’s escalation of war crimes and crimes against humanity, particularly against Palestinians in Gaza, and reiterates its calls for action by the international community, especially the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
• On 19 November, Adalah informed that the Israeli parliament had passed a law targeting the rights of Palestinian children and their families, revoking welfare benefits from parents of minors convicted of security offenses deemed terrorist acts by the courts, commenting “Through this legislation […] the Knesset is not only imposing harsher penalties but also weaponizing welfare benefits against Palestinians—attacking fundamental rights that have no connection to criminal law. By introducing this measure, which amounts to collective punishment aimed exclusively at Palestinians, the law clearly seeks to deepen Israel’s two-tiered legal system. In this system, Palestinian minors are prosecuted under the guise of “security” and “terrorism” offenses, with fewer protections and harsher punishments, while Jewish Israelis are subjected to a separate legal framework based on criminal charges.”
• On 19 November, Yesh Din published the report “Restrictions on freedom of movement by Israel upon Palestinians in the West Bank since 2023: The case of the Abu Awwad family” in which it uses the fate of one Palestinian family in the occupied West Bank as a test case that represents the destructive effect Israel’s roadblock and restriction of movement policy has on the daily lives of many Palestinians, a policy that has worsened under the pretext of the Gaza War and Israeli security needs.
• On 14 November, ACRI published the article “Visiting Permits for Palestinians with First-Degree Relatives in Israel”, which highlights the fact that since 7 October 2023, Israel has not accepted applications from Palestinians in the occupied West Bank for permits to visit their families in Israel and as a result parents cannot visit their children or provide for them, and first-degree family members cannot help ill family members in need of medical care.

Africa, Asia and Europe

• Throughout November, the People’s Forum will organise a number of events focusing on Palestine, among them a children’s book reading.
• On 19 November, the Palestinian Return Centre informed that it had received the UK Foreign Secretary’s response on an arms embargo on Israel, which outlined several measures taken by the United Kingdom in light of the escalating situation, among them the suspension of export licenses for goods that could be used in the Gaza War, increased humanitarian aid, support for emergency medical care and advocacy for international law.
• On 17 November, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor published the article “‘They killed them without them moving a muscle’: Field executions, starvation, and forced displacement by Israeli army in northern Gaza” documenting dozens of deliberate killings and new field executions carried out by Israeli occupation forces against numerous civilians in northern Gaza. The NGO calls on the United Nations and the international community to immediately intervene to save hundreds of thousands of residents in northern Gaza, stop Israel’s war that has entered its second consecutive year, impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel, hold it accountable for all its crimes and take all practical measures to protect Palestinian civilians.
• On 15 November, Law for Palestine published the article “Rethinking International Law After Gaza Symposium: Unlawful Occupation as Ongoing Aggression – Rethinking Legal Responses in the Context of Palestine”, which argues that recent legal developments, particularly the ICJ’s advisory opinion, have intensified the call to recognise the Israeli occupation not only as an illegal act but as an outright form of aggression and that the failure to halt Israeli aggression in Palestine has not only prolonged the suffering of the Palestinian people but has also sown the seeds of destruction for the entire international legal order.

Americas

• On 3 December, the Columbia University Center for Palestine Studies will hold the event “The Message and the Messengers – a conversation between Ta-Nehisi Coates and Rashid Khalidi”.
• On 21 November, Human Rights Watch published the article “Palestine: ICC Warrants Revive Hope for Long-Delayed Justice” on the ICC judges’ decision to issue arrest warrants against senior Israeli leaders and a Hamas official, outlining the background to the decision and stating that in addition to strong political messaging in defence of justice, ICC members should also take concrete steps to limit or, where possible, nullify the effects of potential sanctions against the court, as a lack of accountability for crimes by Israel and Palestinian armed groups had fuelled abuses across the Middle East.
• On 20 November, Churches for Middle East Peace issued the press release “CMEP Co-Sponsors Take a Stand for the Holy Land Campaign” on the campaign created to call attention to Israel’s confiscation of Christian and Muslim property and escalation of violence against Palestinians.

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 21 November, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory Muhannad Hadi issued the statement “Insecurity could bring the humanitarian operation in Gaza to a standstill” warning that the delivery of critical aid across Gaza, including food, water, fuel and medical supplies, was grinding to a halt putting the survival of two million Palestinians at risk. While humanitarian agencies remain committed to staying and delivering, conditions for safe and unimpeded humanitarian access across Gaza must be established through lawful means.