NGO Action News – 27 June 2024

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. Translations of the NGO Action News in other languages will be available in due course.

You may find previous issues of the NGO Action News in Spanish here.

You may find issues of the NGO Action News in French here.

You may find issues of the NGO Action News in Arabic here.

United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People

NGO Action News

27 June 2024

Middle East

• On 26 June, Addameer published an article to mark the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. The NGO stated that Palestinian detainees from Gaza endure in Israel extremely harsh and difficult conditions. They are held by the Israeli authorities in camps under military control that are ill-equipped to accommodate this unprecedented number of detainees. Diakonia also published an article on this issue.
• On 23 June, the Institute for Palestine Studies published the article “Palestine and The Western Street”. The authors argued that support for Palestine is now widespread in parts of Western public opinion, to an extent that feels unprecedented, adding that a new openness to Palestinian perspectives in the West began slowly in the late 1990s to mid-2000s. The authors highlighted that the trend has accelerated since then, reportedly due to solidarity among social justice movements, changes in scholarly discourse, and, most recently, social media discussion of the war in Gaza.
• On 18 June, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies issued a briefing report on the conditions of Palestinians in Gaza since the beginning of the current war. The document concluded that there was extensive direct and circumstantial evidence that Israel’s attacks may constitute key elements of the crime of genocide.

Asia and Europe

• On 24 June, Save the Children stated that up to 21,000 Palestinian children were estimated to be missing in Gaza, many trapped beneath rubble, detained, buried in unmarked graves, or lost from their families. The agency’s child protection teams reported that the latest displacements caused by the Israeli offensive in Rafah had separated more children and further increased the strain on families and communities caring for them.
• On 20 June, Law for Palestine, the Independent Commission for Human Rights-Palestine, and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) hosted a side event at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, to coincide with the submission of the report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel (CoI). This event aimed to spotlight the CoI’s findings, address concerns over genocide, alleviate civilian suffering, and discuss the global community and third States’ role in implementing international legal resolutions and orders.
• On 20 June, the European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine published a report prepared by a group of 19 civil society organisations and trade unions exposing the largest European financial institutions over investing billions of Euros in international arms producers that sell weapons to Israel. The report, titled “The companies arming Israel and their financiers”, argues that by selling weapons to Israel, arms producers run a high risk of facilitating severe violations of international humanitarian law, crimes against humanity or genocide in Gaza. The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies also published this report.

North America

• On 25 June, the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) published the webinar “Israel is Annexing the West Bank.” FMEP Fellow Peter Beinart and Professor Yael Berda discussed media reports on Israel’s de facto annexation of large parts of the West Bank, the ways in which Israeli settlers want to control the Israeli military, and the potential that international opposition may stop the process.
• On 25 June, J Street issued a statement calling on U.S. President Biden to publicly make it clear that the recently announced plans for the annexation of the West Bank by members of the Israeli Government were unacceptable. The NGO added that such moves constituted a direct violation of international law and risks further destabilization and violence in the West Bank and beyond. Americans for Peace Now also issued a statement on this issue, warning that an annexation of the West Bank was occurring while the world’s attention was focused on the war in Gaza.
• On 19 June, Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a statement read during the Interactive Dialogue with the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Including East Jerusalem and Israel (CoI). The NGO stated that the ongoing catastrophe for civilians in Israel and Palestine showed the cost of the international community’s failure to address the root causes of suffering in the region. HRW further encouraged States to speak out in support of the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, act to ensure compliance with their orders, and stand against attempts to obstruct the course of justice.

United Nations

• On 1 July, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will convene the 2024 Symposium on the Question of Jerusalem “Jerusalem and the Gaza War: Palestinian Identity and Existence Under Threat of Erasure,” from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at OIC Headquarters, Jeddah. The joint event will highlight Israel’s policies of forced displacement and dispossession of the Palestinian people in the City, in the context of similar efforts elsewhere in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and particularly in light of Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza and onslaught and massive forced displacement of the Palestinian civilian population. The proceedings will be webcast live via the OIC YouTube Channel.
• On 26 June, the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People convened a Committee Meeting in the Trusteeship Chamber at UNHQ in New York. At this meeting, the Committee elected the Permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations as a Vice-Chair of the Committee and Mr. Paul S. Reichler, a globally recognized figure in public international law, briefed the Committee. Mr. Reichler represented the State of Palestine in recent proceedings at the International Court of Justice, following the General Assembly’s request for an advisory opinion on the legality of Israel’s prolonged occupation of Palestinian territory and its legal consequences for other Member States.
• On 25 June, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, briefed the Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question. Mr. Wennesland called for an immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. He added that effective mechanisms for humanitarian notification, safe conditions for humanitarian operations, and sufficient access to humanitarian needs remained sorely lacking and must be put in place without delay.