NGO Action News – 22 February 2024

Middle East

• On 21 February, B’Tselem published an article noting that Israeli plans to create a buffer or “security zone” inside the Gaza Strip are illegal and constitute a war crime, especially as Israel is destroying everything in the area designated for it, and it will be off-limits to Palestinians, even those who lived or cultivated fields in it before the war.
• On 21 February, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) issued a press release condemning the killing of PCHR lawyer Nour Naser Abu Al-Nour and seven of her family members, including her two-years-old daughter, by an Israeli airstrike on her home in Rafah.
• On 19 February, Adalah, HaMoked, and other Israeli human rights organizations jointly submitted an appeal to the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, urging her to take immediate action to halt the systematic abuse of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons and detention facilities. This month, Physicians for Human Rights – Israel also published an investigative report on the incarceration conditions of Palestinians in Israel since 7 October, highlighting systematic violations of human rights.
• On 18 February, HaMoked – Centre for the Defense of the Individual issued a press release announcing that the High Court of Justice in Israel had rejected its petition to reveal the whereabouts of 62 Gazans incarcerated in Israel, thus allowing them to remain in protracted incommunicado detention. The detainees, two of them minors, were arrested following the outbreak of the war on 7 October 2023.
• On 15 February, Peace Now published a report titled “A Good Year for Settlements; A Bad Year for Israel,” which provides a summary of Israeli settlement activity in 2023.
• On 6 February, in response to a call for input issued by the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Al-Haq, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC) and other organizations sent a joint submission highlighting Israel’s continued oppression of Palestinians beyond their killing. Specifically, they highlighted the mutilation and withholding of Palestinian bodies, the use of mass graves, and the bombing and bulldozing of Palestinian graves and cemeteries.

Asia and Europe

• On 24 February, the Association France Palestine Solidarité is organizing a vigil (in French) in Paris to show solidarity with the victims of the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
• On 23 February, Australians for Palestine and the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network will hold a ceremony in Melbourne to award the Jerusalem (Al Quds) Peace Prize to Dr. Helen McCue, Co-founder of Union Aid Abroad. This award recognizes outstanding contributions and efforts of Australians seeking to aid Palestinians in their call for justice.
• On 21 February, Agence Média Palestine published an article (in French) naming some of the journalists killed in Gaza in the last four months, and highlighting images, reports, and videos they produced before being killed.
• On 19 February, the Palestinian Return Centre hosted a panel discussion titled “Anti-apartheid Solidarity: South Africa and Palestine,” featuring speakers from civil society and academia.
• On 18 February, the Chief Executives from several humanitarian agencies and human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, issued a joint urgent statement condemning developments in Rafah, and warning of catastrophic consequences if Israel did not stop its proposed ground offensive in the area.
• On 17 February, Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) issued a joint statement welcoming the Dutch appellate court’s ruling to ban further exports of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel in light of the risk that they contribute to serious violations of international humanitarian law.

North America

• On 2 March, the People’s Forum will hold a hybrid event titled “A People’s Night of Poetry and Music for Palestine,” which will bring together Palestinian writers, allies and musicians from New York City, West Philadelphia and New Orleans.
• On 23 February, The Jerusalem Fund will hold a webinar titled “Gaza at the Hinge of History: The Global and Regional Dynamics of the Gaza War,” which will feature a discussion of the major shifts in global and regional dynamics since 7 October, and the evolving international landscape in light of the Gaza war.
• On 22 February, Americans for Peace Now will hold a webinar to discuss a recently announced executive order from President Biden to address the escalating crisis caused by settler violence in the West Bank. The executive order imposed financial sanctions and visa bans on four individuals but could have broader implications on the settlement enterprise.
• On 15 February, J Street issued a statement expressing concern over a possible Israeli military operation in Rafah and calling on President Biden to publicly outline “the clear and dire consequences for Israel’s own interests that such a move may trigger.”

Latin America

• On 18 February, the Instituto Brasil-Palestina issued a press release (in Portuguese) to express full solidarity with President Lula after he was criticized by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for comments he made comparing Israel’s genocide in Gaza to the horrors committed by the Nazis.
• On 17 February, the Comunidad Árabe de Bolivia issued a statement (in Spanish) condemning the ongoing Israeli aggression in Gaza and expressing concern over threats of an incursion into Rafah, the most densely populated area of the planet. They called for international law to be applied and an urgent ceasefire to be implemented.
• On 16 February, the Comité Argentino de Solidaridad con el Pueblo Palestino organized a demonstration (in Spanish) in Buenos Aires calling for an end to genocide in Gaza and rejecting the move to relocate Argentina’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Footage from the “Caravana por Palestina” can be found here.
• On 12 February, the Asociación Palestina Honduras issued a statement (in Spanish) condemning the ongoing genocide in Palestine and calling on President Xiomara Castro to join the lawsuit filed by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice, as Nicaragua, Colombia, Brazil, and other countries have done.

United Nations

• On 3 and 4 April in Geneva, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) will hold a conference of civil society organizations working on the question of Palestine titled “Building bridges with international civil society to address the ongoing Nakba.” Further details of the conference as well as information on how to register are available here.
• On 22 February, Tor Wennesland, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, gave a briefing to the Security Council on the Situation in the Middle East, warning that the situation in Gaza “could quickly spiral out of control in the region.”
• On 21 February, OCHA published a statement by the Principals of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee listing ten requirements to avoid a worse humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and provide civilians with the bare essentials of medicine, drinking water, food and shelter.
• On 20 February, WFP issued a press release announcing that it was pausing deliveries of food aid to northern Gaza until conditions were in place to allow for safe distributions.
• On 20 February, the Security Council met to discuss the situation in Gaza. The US vetoed a resolution put forward on behalf of Arab States by Algeria which demanded “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire that must be respected by all parties.”
• On 20 February, WHO published a press release detailing two missions it undertook in southern Gaza on 18 and 19 February to transfer 32 critical patients from Nasser Medical Complex to other hospitals in Gaza. The Nasser Medical Complex sustained significant damage from an Israeli raid.
• On 16 February, OHCHR issued a press release highlighting an appeal by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) for an immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza. CEDAW deplored the high civilian death toll, noting that mothers have had to bury at least 7,700 children in the Gaza Strip.
• On 16 February, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a press release announcing its decision on South Africa’s request of 12 February for additional provisional measures. The ICJ noted that the provisional measures indicated by the Court in its order of 26 January were applicable throughout the Gaza Strip, including Rafah, and therefore there was no need for additional provisional measures.
• On 15 February, OHCHR issued a statement expressing concern over reports that Israeli forces had raided the Nasser Medical Complex in the south of the Gaza Strip, noting that it appeared to be part of a pattern of attacks by Israeli forces against essential life-saving civilian infrastructure in Gaza, especially hospitals.