NGO Action News – 29 May 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 27 May, Al-Shabaka published the article “Focus On: Global Solidarity with Palestine”. The paper analyzed how solidarity with Palestine was expanding and reimagined globally, highlighting the significant challenges facing the movement. This collection includes contributions from analysts working across advocacy, academia, and policy to examine the shifting landscape of global solidarity.
• On 26 May, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights published an article arguing that Israeli forces were intensifying the bombardment and killings of displaced civilians, while continuing to erase entire neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip. The NGO stated that Israeli forces continued a widescale military aggression against the Gaza Strip, including bombing shelters, houses, and tents sheltering displaced people, committing, according to the article, mass killings alongside the systematic destruction of the remaining buildings and infrastructure to turn Gaza into an unlivable zone.
• On 25 May, Addameer published an article describing the conditions inside Israeli prisons as catastrophic and further compounding the suffering of Palestinian prisoners. According to the NGO, Palestinian prisoners were subjected to a systematic campaign of abuse, starvation, and deliberate medical neglect, coinciding with widespread arrest campaigns across cities, villages, and refugee camps, which have led to a massive increase in the number of prisoners and detainees.
• On 22 May, 7amleh concluded the ninth edition of the Palestine Digital Activism Forum 2025. Held virtually under the theme “Disconnected: The Impact of War on Internet Access and Palestinian Digital Rights”, the forum was attended by over 900 participants from around the world, hosted more than 60 speakers and trainers, and was organized in partnership with over 50 local and international organizations. The forum brought together digital rights advocates, legal experts, civil society representatives, journalists, engineers, and technologists to discuss the consequences of the forced digital blackout in Gaza.
• On 21 May, B’Tselem published an article on the village of Sinjil, in the Ramallah Governorate, where Israeli settlers built an outpost on city land on 21 April and attacked residents and burned homes and vehicles. One resident died of a heart attack after inhaling smoke, the article read. The NGO published testimonies of the incident from some of the Palestinian residents. On a similar issue, Peace Now published an article on 23 May on the Palestinian community of Maghayer Al-Deir, east of Ramallah, who were forcibly displaced due to escalating settler violence.

Africa, Asia and Europe

• On 29 May, Law for Palestine will organize the webinar “Starvation as a Weapon: International Legal Responsibilities and the Diplomatic Convoy to Confront Deliberate Famine in Gaza”. During this event, organized in partnership with Human Rights Watch and Al-Haq, panelists will discuss the imminent famine in Gaza and how to mobilize support around available tools to the international community including a proposed diplomatic humanitarian convoy to end the starvation of civilians and the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
• On 27 May, the Palestinian Return Center published the report “Algorithms of Death – How Artificial Intelligence Fuels Mass Killings in Gaza”, examining the use of advanced AI technologies by Israeli forces in the ongoing war on the Gaza Strip since October 2023. The report investigates how AI-powered systems have been deployed to automatically generate and prioritize human targets based on behavioral data, satellite imagery, and digital surveillance. The report also exposed the role of major tech companies in supporting this infrastructure.

North America

• On 30 May, The Jerusalem Fund will organize an event for a book launch discussion and poetry reading of “Heaven Looks Like Us: Palestinian Poetry” featuring the co-editor, George Abraham, as well as poetry readings by contributors: Zeina Azzam, Sharif Elmusa, Leena Aboutaleb, Fargo Tbakhi, and others. The NGO informed that the poems in this anthology address the issues of power, bridging borders, languages, and generations to forge new conversations around Palestinian resistance and liberation.

United Nations

• On 28 May, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Ad Interim, Sigrid Kaag, briefed the Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question. Ms. Kaag stated that there cannot be sustainable peace in the Middle East without a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, adding that durable security cannot be achieved solely through force. It must be built on mutual recognition, justice, and rights for all. She further stated that the upcoming High-level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, to be held from 17 to 20 June in New York, and co-chaired by France and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, presented a critical opportunity that must launch a path towards ending the occupation and realizing the two-State solution based on international law, UN resolutions and previous agreements.
• On 23 May, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, issued a statement on the prolonged armed conflict in Gaza and the blocking of aid entering Gaza, and all interferences to the direct distribution of resources to those in need, which have created a catastrophic humanitarian situation for the people of Gaza, and in particular its children and infants. Ms. Gamba also called on Israel to facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief to civilians in need, and for all parties not to obstruct or commandeer resources needed to sustain the life of the most vulnerable, so that the United Nations and its partners can resume aid at scale across Gaza.