NGO Action News – 27 March 2014

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
27 March 2014

ASIA

• Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) Thailand is organizing a meeting on 27 March 2014 on the 8th floor of the Grand President Executive Serviced Apartments in Bangkok. For more information please contact: palestinesolidaritythailand@gmail.com.

EUROPE

• Café Palestine is hosting the event I wish I never Took a Photo of You with the photographer, writer, producer, and intellectual Yazan Khalili on 3 April 2014 in Brussels.

• The European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine (ECCP) published an open letter to Hewlett-Packard on 19 March 2014, calling on the company “…to stop all its contracts with Israel which take part to its policy of colonisation and oppression of the Palestinian people…”

• The Eye on Palestine Festival is taking place from 24 March to 6 April 2014 to promote quality and stimulating Palestine-related film and arts in Belgium (Brussels and Gent).

• Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) published a Gaza situation update on 13 March 2014. MAP is also organizing the event Cycle for MAP on 7 September 2014.

• The Palestinian Return Centre, the General Secretariat of the Palestinians in Europe Conference and the Palestinian Forum will organize the 12th Palestinians in Europe Conference – A United Palestine for the Promise of Returnon 3 May 2014 in Paris.

• The Spanish Committee of UNRWA, in collaboration with the Government of the Principality of Asturias and the Asturian Agency for International Development, is displaying in different cities in Asturias an itinerant exhibition on the situation of women in the Gaza Strip entitled Portraits of Empowerment until 31 March 2014. The Committee also held the seminar Portraits from Gaza: The Representation of Women in Armed Conflict on 25 March 2014 at the University of Oveido. Soraida Hussein (Women’s Affairs Technical Committee) was one of the speakers.

• Women’s Federation for World Peace and the Universal Peace Federation organized a benefit concert entitled Turkish Flamenco, held on 15 March 2014 to raise awareness on the situation of Palestinian refugee children in the Middle East.

ISRAEL AND PALESTINE

• The Lajee Center will tour Ireland from 12 to 17 April 2014 with dabka (traditional Palestinian dance) artists.

• The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) released its latest weekly Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory covering the period 13 March to 19 March 2014. PCHR also announced on 25 March 2014 the publication of its 2013 Annual Report (Arabic version).

• Right to Movement and the High Council of Youth and Sports are organizing the second annual Palestine Marathon, to be held 11 April 2014.

NORTH AMERICA

• Alwan for the Arts, ArtPalestine International, Center for Palestine Studies and WhiteBox Art Center present How Green Was My Valley – An Artists’ Talk with Palestinian artists Joseph Audeh, Samira Badran and Mary Tuma in conversation in New York on 4 April 2014. Click here for more information.

• American Friends Service Committee and Just World Books are organizing a national speaking tour for up to four of the contributors to the book Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza between 1 and 24 April 2014. The tour will feature editor’s Refaat Alareer and book contributors Yousef Aljamal, Rawan Yaghi, and Sarah Ali. They will share from their experiences growing up in Gaza and from the book.

• Americans for Peace Now, Churches for Middle East Peace and Foundation for Middle East Peace are organizing the event John Kerry’s Framework More of the Same, or a Fresh Approach to Israel-Palestine Peace? with Ziad Abu Zayyad, Co-Editor and Publisher (Palestine-Israel Journal), and Hillel Schenker, Co-Editor (Palestine-Israel Journal), on11 April 2014 in Washington DC. For more information and to RSVP please email info@fmep.org or call +1-202-835-3650.

• The Center for Palestine Studies is hosting the event Palestinian Strengths with Amira Haas, Haaretz correspondent, on 9 April 2014. The event takes place at 7.00pm, Hamilton Hall, Room 702, Columbia University. It’s free and open to the public.

• Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) organized A Post-Trip Report from Jerusalem on 19 March 2014 with Warren Clark, CMEP Director, following the conclusion of his private meetings with Palestinians and Israelis as well as the Armenian Patriarchate, Greek Patriarchate, Latin Patriarchate, Custos of the Holy Land and US Consulate officials.

• KinderUSA is hosting in Pasadena (CA) its annual fundraiser Food Four Thought, Food for the Soul and Food for Gaza on 19 April 2014 with guest speakers Laila El-Haddad(Gaza Mom, The Gaza Kitchen) and Ali Abunimah (Electronic Intifada). Registration is available here.

• Palestinian Youth Movement (USA Branch) held a fundraiser on 22 March 2014 for the Al Nakab Center for Youth Activities in the Palestine refugee camp of Burj el Barajneh in Lebanon. The fundraiser featured performances by poet Dina Omar, and hip hop artists Omar Offendum and Power Struggle.

• Philly FOSNA is organizing a two-day conference in Philadelphia on 28-29 March 2014 entitled The Role of the US in Israel-Palestine: Current Realities & Creative Responses.Ali Abunimah(The Electronic Intifada), Phyllis Bennis (Institute for Policy Studies), Riham Barghouti (Adalah-NY) and Josh Ruebner (US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation) will speak at the event along with other experts. Please register online here.

• Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel (VTJP) is seeking solidarity volunteers for the second-annual Free Cone Day Leafleting Action at participating Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shops taking place on 8 April 2014. This year’s event is part of VTJP’s campaign to end Ben & Jerry’s complicity in Israel’s occupation of Palestine and the sale of its ice cream in illegal Israeli settlements.

• The Voice of Palestine presented on 19 March 2014 a new interview with Iymen Chehade, an instructor at Columbia College in Chicago, on the cancelation of his course on the history of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict at Columbia College and the resolution passed by the American Studies Association in support of the BDS movement.

• Ali Abunimah (Electronic Intifada) is on a US tour for his book The Battle for Justice in Palestine until 23 April 2014. He will be joined by Refaat Alareer and Rawan Yahgi, editor and contributor to the new collection Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza, on 22 April 2014 for the presentation of his book in Berkeley.

• Judith Butler (UC Berkeley), Rashid Khalidi (Columbia University) and over 150 other scholars wrote an open letter on 5 March 2014, condemning the censorship and intimidation of Israel critics.

• Norman Finkelstein (author, researcher), will be speaking in Colorado Springs on 22 April 2014 on the topic Resolving the Israel-Palestine Conflict: What’s Possible, What’s Not.

• Josh Ruebner (US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation) will be touring Pennsylvania to promote his book Shattered Hopes: Obama’s failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian Peace from 27 March to 1 April 2014. A full calendar of events is available via the author’s website.

GLOBAL

• One Voice Movement announced the launch of its new digital grassroots platform on 19 March 2014. The newly redesigned websites include versions in, Arabic, English and Hebrew.

• Return Unifies Us held a global day of action on 22 March 2014 support of the implementation of the right of all Palestine refugees to return.

• The Stop Mekorot campaign is organizing an International Week of actions between 22 March (World Water Day) and 30 March 2014 (Palestinian Land Day). Mekorot is Israel’s National Water Company; see the December 2013 Who Profits flash report.

UNITED NATIONS

• The International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People has a Twitter account and an official hashtag #2014forPalestine. Share the word and let us know about your International Year plans at 2014forPalestine@un.org!

• The UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) published on 18 March 2014 a new infographic entitled The Israeli Occupation of Palestine, Security Council Resolutions and Fourth Geneva Convention.

• The UN Human Rights Council held on 24 March 2014 an interactive dialogue with Richard Falk, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. During the dialogue Mr. Falk introduced his final report to the Human Rights Council. On the same day, Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay told the Council that “Israeli settlement-related activities and settler violence are at the core of many of the violations of human rights in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem,” she also expressed concern at a recent surge in violence in and around the Gaza Strip by both local groups and Israeli forces.

• The UN International Meeting on the Question of Palestine Engaging for peace – the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People opened in Quito on 25 March 2014 under the auspices of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.