NGO Action News – 23 September 2013

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
23 September 2013

AFRICA

• The Tri Continental Film Festival invited the celebrated New-York based Palestinian poet, spoken-word artist, activist and author, Remi Kanazi, to a South African tour from 17 to 25 September.

EUROPE

• Agence VU and Mediapart organized on 18 September 2013,in partnership with Action Contre la Faim, a screening of the documentary Broken Hopes, Oslo’s Legacy directed by Cedric Gerbehaye (Agence VU’) and Eve Sabbagh (journalist).A debate chaired by Edwy Plenel (Mediapart) and featuring Elias Sanbar (Palestinian Ambassador to UNESCO), Julien Sallingue (Université Paris 8), Pierre Puchot (Mediapart) and Cédric Gerbehaye, followed the screening.

• The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign is organizing a Sponsored Hill Walk on 29 September 2013 on the Sugar Loaf Mountain in Kilmacanogue. As well, the campaign will host the 6th annual Pub Quiz in Dublin at the Break for the Border on 10 October 2013 to raise money for Palestinian students.

• The Palestine Solidarity Association of Sweden (PGS) organized an event on 22 September 2013 concerning the health situation in Palestine. PGS is also hosting a BDS event on30 September 2013. For more information please contact: stockholm@palestinagrupperna.se.

• The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) calls on its supporters to participate in a Sodastream National Day of Action on 28 September 2013 in Cardiff.

• Six MPs from three political parties in the UK urged the Egyptian Ambassador on 12 September 2013 to halt the Gaza tunnels destruction until access via official crossings is secured and meets the needs of the population.

NORTH AMERICA

• Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign, Canada Palestine Association and Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network hosted on 22 September 2013 in Vancouver a community discussion and gathering entitled 20 Years of the Oslo Accords: Palestine and the Palestinian Struggle Today. For more information please contact: boycottapartheid@gmail.com.

• Breaking the Silence is on a US tour with Avner Gvaryahu about the collective testimony book, Our Harsh Logic: Israeli Soldiers’ Testimonies from the Occupied Territories, 2000-2010. Mr. Gvaryahu will be in Washington on 1 October 2013 and in New York on 7 October 2013.

• New Yorkers Against the Cornell-Technion Partnership (NYACT) organized on 16 September 2013 a leafleting protest at the Alexandria Center.

• The Middle East Children Alliance is hosting a screening of the award winning documentary Welcome to Hebron at the Berkeley City College Auditorium on 25 September 2013.Tickets are available here.

• The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation organized its 12th Annual National Organizers’ Conference from 20 to 22 September 2013 in Arlington. See the full programme here.

• The Voice of Palestine presented on 16 September 2013 its new programme featuring a discussion with Dr. Abdelhamid Siyam (Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, Rutgers University) and Prof. Siyam (former UN official) on the failure of the Oslo Accords. The music closing the programme, entitled I Chose you, My Homeland, is performed by the Lebanese singer Marcel Khalife.

• Josh Ruebner (US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation) is on a US fall book tour – Shattered Hopes: Obama’s Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian Peace– from September to December 2013.

ISRAEL AND PALESTINE

• Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel organized from 19 to 21 September 2013 a camp for Arab students to learn about discriminatory laws in Israel (content in Arabic).

• The Alternative Information Center (AIC) is calling on its supporters to demand the release of Ahmad Qatamesh, a Palestinian political writer and university lecturer, who has been in Israeli administrative detention since 21 April 2011. The AIC also announced that its 21st international political camp will take place from 22 to 27 December 2013.

• Defence for Children International Palestine published a new film on 16 September 2013 about Zeina, a 12 years old Palestinian girl living in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al-Amoud.

• The Mossawa Center, in cooperation with the Northern district of the Bar Association, will host its annual legal conference, entitled The Legal Status of the Arab Citizens in Israel,on 27 September 2013 in Nazareth.

• The Palestinian BDS National Committee issued a statement on 11 September 2013 calling on the EU not to bow to US pressure to drop the recently announced guidelines concerning the eligibility of Israeli entities for EU grants, prizes and financial instruments.

• The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) released on 19 September 2013 its weekly Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory covering the period from 12 to 18 September 2013.

UNITED NATIONS

• OCHA oPt released its latest Protection of Civilians report covering the period from 10 to 16 September 2013 on 19 September 2013. OCHA also issued a new case study about the Bedouin community in Bir Nabala near Jerusalem.

• The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert Serry, briefed the UN Security Council on 17 September 2013 and stressed that the renewed peace efforts between Israel and Palestine “should not be neglected, even against the background of turmoil elsewhere in the neighborhood”.