15 April 2021

Middle East

• On 13 April, Peace Now issued the report “From De Jure to De Facto Annexation – Construction in Settlements 2020” detailing the number of new settlements outposts and housing units built in 2020, as well as the advancement of plans and tenders and lists of main infrastructure projects such as the “Qalandiya Underpass” and “Al-Aroub Bypass Road”, among others. The report also summarizes the rulings of the Jerusalem District Court to evict Palestinian families in Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah. Furthermore, Peace Now annexed to the settlement report a comprehensive plan of the Israeli government to pave hundreds of kilometres of bypass roads in the West Bank in order to provide the infrastructure required for doubling the settler population in the coming decades.

• On 13 April, Gisha – Legal Centre for Freedom of Movement reported that Gaza’s unemployment rate stood at 43.1%, representing a 5.5% drop compared to the unemployment rate in the third quarter of 2020, based on the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics’ data. Gisha warmed that it cannot necessarily be taken as an indication of an improvement in Gaza’s economic situation, given the continued decrease of the workforce as a whole. Gisha stated that the double lockdown at Erez Crossing, and the steps taken by the authorities in Gaza to curb the spread of the pandemic, continue to hinder the economy in Gaza.

• On 12 April, Al-Haq issued a briefing paper, “The Legal Structure of Apartheid”, which serves to outline the key laws that established the Israeli regime in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and enabled discriminatory policies and practices to be applied to the Palestinian people as a whole. The paper covers the international legal framework governing apartheid as a crime against humanity, domestic citizenship and nationality laws, law providing for land appropriation.

• On 12 April, B’Tselem published the results of its new commissioned public opinion survey. The latter took a fresh approach by examining what “all” people living under Israeli control – Israeli and Palestinian citizens and Palestinian subjects in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip – think about the current situation, their lives and the future. B’Tselem reported that 45% of the overall population said that the definition of “apartheid” proposed in the survey question was fitting of the Israeli regime.

• On 11 April, the Palestinian Human Rights Organisations (PHROC) informed it submitted a petition in response to the inter-state complaint lodged with the UN Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by the State of Palestine. In the submission, PHROC emphasized that any meaningful analysis of Israel’s violations of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination directed towards Palestinians must be done within the context of Article 3, which prohibits and condemns “racial segregation and apartheid.”

• On 10 April, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) issued a press release to call upon the international community to intervene to guarantee the right of Palestinians in East Jerusalem to participate in the Palestinian elections, after the Israeli security forces banned a meeting organised by civil society organisations to discuss the elections in East Jerusalem. PCHR reiterated that East Jerusalem is an occupied territory and all measures taken by the Israeli authorities after 1967 do not change its legal status in international law and in light of the latter, it called upon the international community to hold its responsibility and take action to guarantee the rights of Palestinians in the City to vote or run for the elections.

• On 8 April, Defence for Children International – Palestine issued the report “Palestinian Children Displaced Again and Again” on how Israeli forces demolished and seized Palestinian-owned structures in the same community in the northern Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank several times within a short period and impacts on the Palestinian children’s lives.

Europe

• On 14 April, Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights, Christian Aid, Medical Aid for Palestinians, the Council for Arab-British Understanding and other UK-based charities issued a joint statement to condemn the British Prime Minister’s statement on the International Criminal Court’s investigation into alleged grave crimes committed in the OPT. The NGOs stated that the investigation was the first genuine hope that alleged perpetrators of the most serious crimes will be held to account for their actions. They called upon the international community to be consistent in its support for accountability and the rule of law, regardless of the context, and the UK government to respect the impartiality and independence of the ICC.

• On 7 April, the Palestinian Return Centre (PRC), in partnership with Al Jazeera Media Institute for Training and Development, launched a training course in mobile journalism. 15 participants from host countries of Palestine refugees took part in the course, which focused in a form of digital storytelling where the primary device used for creating and editing images, audio and video is a smartphone.

North America

• On 16 April, Americans for Peace Now (APN) will hold the webinar “Palestinian Elections: A Guide for the Perplexed” with Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab, to help decipher the latest developments on the way to Palestinian elections, with an emphasis on the upcoming May 22 Palestinian legislative elections.

• On 9 April, the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) released “Israel, Palestine and the Role of Congress: An Accelerated Learning Series”, which is a learning series taking a deep dive into eight key topics in the US relationship with Israel and the Palestinians. The series was originally presented exclusively for members of the House and Senate and Congressional Staff and is now being released as an educational tool for the public at large. The conferences cover the issues of settlements, annexation, two-State solution, Gaza, Palestine refugees and role of UNRWA, US aid to Israel and the Palestinians, among other topics.

• On 6 April, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) released a statement issued by 15 progressive Jewish groups from the world, denouncing the current fractured discourse on antisemitism and offer a path to move beyond it. The group condemned the Israeli government’s campaign to levy antisemitism accusations in order to evade accountability for its human rights abuses and warned against placing Israel-Palestine at the centre of discussions of antisemitism.

United Nations

• On 14 April, Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territory Occupied Since 1967 Michael Lynk, Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing Balakrishnan Rajagopal and Independent Expert on the Enjoyment of all Human Rights by Older Persons Claudia Mahler issued a press release to warn of rising levels of Israeli settle violence in a climate of impunity. The UN experts said that already, during the first three months of 2021, more than 210 settler violent incidents were recorded, with one Palestinian fatality and called upon the Israeli military and police to investigate and prosecute these violent acts with vigor and resolve, as they are deeply worried by the atmosphere of impunity in which these attacks are taking place. They called upon the international community to impose meaningful costs on Israel’s protracted occupation, and to demand that the occupying power halt its settlement enterprise immediately.

 

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.