NGO Action News – 27 February 2025

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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.

Middle East 

 On 2 March, BADIL will hold the webinar “States Obligations to Protect UNRWA – What is Required and by Whom?” The event will examine the consequences of the ongoing Israeli-US-led campaign to dismantle and replace UNRWA, including the recent Israeli legislation and what it means for Palestine refugees. 

 On 27 February, Al-Haq issued a new legal briefing paper on the 2025 Conference of the High Contracting Parties (HCP) to the Fourth Geneva Convention. The NGO recommends that the HCPs fully align their public positions with the ICJ’s findings, including on the illegality of Israel’s continued presence in the OPT and of its policies and practices implemented in the OPT; condemn the legislation on UNRWA adopted by Israel in October 2024; determine how HCPs are going to compel Israel to abide by its obligations as the Occupying Power to ensure adequate supplies for the population of the OPT; and to specify the nature of the obligation upon HCPs to provide, or facilitate the provision of, the urgent and increasing requirements of the Palestinian population, among other recommendations. 

 On 26 February, Al-Haq participated in “RightsCon 2025” as part of the panel discussion “Attacks Against Healthcare”. The panel showcased Al-Haq’s visual library prototype, an extensive digital archive documenting Israeli human rights violations in the OPT. The database contains hundreds of videos captured since 2016 by Al-Haq field researchers via the Eyewitness application. 

 On 25 February, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) published “Israel’s Tool for Palestinian Land Appropriation: A Field Report on Accelerating Pastoral Settlement Expansion in Sebastia, Nablus”. The report documents Israel’s pastoral settlement expansion in that area and highlights settlers’ violations committed with direct support from the Israeli occupation authorities. It also reviews the impact of these violations on the Palestinian residents, including the restrictions on farmers, denial of access to land, forced displacement, destruction of natural resources and attempts to “Judaize” the historical archaeological site. 

 On 24 February, B’Tselem denounced two Israeli laws that reportedly are aimed at human rights groups and government critics. According to the NGO, the “ICC Law” criminalizes the work of human rights organizations by making human rights defence a punishable offense, while the “NGO Taxation Law” is designed to drain their financial resources. The two bills, which recently passed a preliminary reading in the Knesset, can now be brought to hearings in the relevant parliamentary committees, in preparation for final approval. 

 On 24 February, Peace Now denounced the Israeli Higher Planning Council’s plan to approve 1,170 housing units across four settlements in the occupied West Bank. The shift to approving plans on a weekly basis not only normalizes construction in these areas but also accelerates it, the NGO warned. It added, “These approvals of settlement housing units will not bring security to Israelis or Palestinians – on the contrary, they will deepen the conflict, fuel violence and push a political solution further away.” 

 On 18 February, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemned Israel’s continued killing of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip despite the ceasefire. The NGO condemned the killing of civilians, including police officers, and called upon the international community to scale up efforts to ensure a lasting ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, including protecting civilians and alleviate the devastating impact of the war. The Centre further called for the immediate of the lifting of the siege, ensuring the uninterrupted entry of humanitarian aid, essential devices, equipment and goods to meet the needs of over 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza. 

 On 17 February, Gisha- Legal Centre for Freedom of Movement issued the publication “Gaza Now: Current Facts and Figures”. The NGO informed that tens of thousands of Palestinians had made their way back south from northern Gaza due to the food and other shortages and the massive destruction of homes and communities in the north. The NGO cites various reports indicating cases of Israeli fire and airstrikes in various areas of the Strip since the ceasefire had gone into effect, with children and women among the casualties. 

 On 3 February, Diakonia International Humanitarian Law Centre Jerusalem organized a training for the diplomatic community on International Humanitarian Law, to equip participants with a foundational understanding of the international legal framework application in situations of occupation (dispossession, displacement, use of force, deprivation of liberty and measures for enforcement and accountability). The next edition of the IHL training will take place in Spring 2025. 

Africa, Asia and Europe 

 On 27 February, Amnesty International reported that the Palestinian community of Shi’b Al-Butum in the occupied West Bank is at imminent risk of forcible transfer due to increasing state-backed settler attacks, as well as home demolitions, restrictions on access to land and illegal settlement expansion by the Israeli authorities. International inaction had also allowed Israeli settlement policies and settler violence to thrive amid entrenched impunity. Even after the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion of July 2024 had declared Israel’s presence in the OPT unlawful, states had failed to act. 

 On 24 February, Human Rights Watch called on the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kallas and EU foreign ministers to unequivocally condemn Israel’s crimes and other various violations of international law during the EU-Israel Association Council meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Sa’ar held on the same day. 

 On 20 February, Save the Children informed that tens of thousands of children in Gaza have missed routine immunizations, and many newborns received none at all after 16 months of bombardment by Israeli forces and restrictions on entry of medical supplies brought Gaza’s healthcare system to the brink and saw polio re-emerge for the first time in 25 years. 

 North America 

 On 27 February, the Foundation for Middle East Peace hosted the podcast episode “Harvard Professors on Censorship, Repression, and Opportunities for Speaking Up on Palestine” to discuss censorship on college/university campuses and how scholars could respond. 

 On 26 February, Human Rights Watch issued the article “Israel Imports Gaza Abuses Into the West Bank”. The NGO warned that since 7 October 2023, Israeli forces had already killed more than 800 people in the occupied West Bank, an unprecedented rate, and held record numbers in administrative detention without trial or charge. These actions coincided with increased settlement construction, Palestinian home demolitions, movement restrictions, settler violence and reports of ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian detainees. 

 On 26 February, the Institute for Palestine Studies issued the briefing “Canada Sued for Genocide Convention, Charter Rights Violations. Here is What to Know”. The document explains the lawsuit, among others, filed by NGOs against the Canadian foreign minister over arms exports to Israel after Canada had authorized at least 19.7. million US dollars in arms sales to Israel since 7 October 2023. In September 2024, the Canadian foreign minister had announced the suspension of 30 arms export permits to Israel but at least another 200 permits remain valid. 

 On 20 February, Palestine Legal and Unlock the Bar informed that they had joined the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Climate Defence Project, the National Lawyers Guild, and the Palestinian American Bar Association in sending a letter to the 56 attorney license-granting jurisdictions in the United States, warning that penalizing aspiring attorneys for their advocacy in support of Palestinian rights violates anti-discrimination laws and First Amendment guarantees. 

 United Nations 

 On 26 February, UNRWA issued the press statement “The West Bank is Undergoing an Alarming Spill Over of the Gaza War”. More than 50 people, including children, have been reported killed since the Israeli security operation started 5 weeks ago. More than 5,000 children who normally go to UNRWA schools have been deprived of education, some for over 10 weeks now. 

 On 24 February, the UN Secretary-General delivered remarks to the Human Rights Council, expressing concern over the rising violence in the occupied West Bank by Israeli settlers and other violations, as well as calls for annexation. He added, “We are witnessing a precarious ceasefire. We must avoid at all costs a resumption of hostilities. The people in Gaza have already suffered too much.” 

On 21 February, the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People through its secretariat, published its compilation of UN resolutions and decisions on the Question of Palestine adopted in 2024.