Civil Society and the Question of Palestine
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12 August 2021
Middle East
- On 12 August 2021, Addameer informed that the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) and the Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO) had submitted an urgent appeal to the United Nations Special Procedures on the arbitrary detention on 7 July of
Shatha Odeh, a human rights defender, the Director of the Health Work Committees (HWC, a leading Palestinian non-governmental organization that promotes health services for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians) and the chairwoman of PNGO, a coalition of 142 Palestinian civil society organizations. - On 9 August, Badil informed that it had concluded its second annual International Mobilization Course for the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. The course was held virtually over 7 days, with 31 international advocates, activists, mobilizers, and policy officers, 19 of whom were women. The course’s aim was to strengthen the participants’ international mobilization and advocacy skills while giving them the opportunity to gain an in-depth understanding of the reality in Palestine and to increase their insight into Palestinian perspectives on international involvement and solidarity.
- On 9 August, Peace Now published the article “JNF- KKL furthers massive takeover of land in the Occupied Territories and East Jerusalem” in which the NGO reports that the Jewish National Fund plans to allocate NIS 100 million (USD 31 million) over the next five years for registering lands in Israel the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. This move is potentially shifting to substantial expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the OPT, and in East Jerusalem there is a danger of dispossessing hundreds and possibly thousands of Palestinians from their homes, similarly to the procedures taking place these days in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan.
- On 5 August, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights issued the press release “Nitrous Gas Shortage Threatens Death or Health Deterioration for Gaza Patients” in which it highlights that Israel’s ban, in early 2021, on the import of nitrous gas into the Gaza Strip will have serious repercussions on the lives of thousands of patients who need urgent and emergency surgeries to save their lives, and stresses that the primary responsibility for providing medical supplies to the Gaza Strip population lies with Israel in accordance with Articles 55 and 56 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949. PCHR calls upon the international community and the WHO to pressure Israel and compel it to comply with its obligations, and to allow the entry of medical supplies into the Gaza Strip.
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.
