15 July 2021

Middle East

• On 14 July, Peace Now informed that the Israeli Jerusalem Higher Planning Council had sent a summoning for a hearing on 9 August to discuss the objections filed by Peace Now, Ir Amim and others to build 3,412 housing units in the E1 area east of the City in the occupied West Bank. Peace Now warned that the plan poses a real threat for the chance for peace and the two-State solution as it cuts across the West Bank and prevents the Palestinian development of the area between Ramallah, East Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

• On 13 July, Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights condemned Israel’s decision to withhold tax revenue owed to the Palestinian Authority and called for urgent international intervention. Israel’s decision to reduce, cut or harm Palestinian sources of income would have far-reaching impacts on the well-being of the entire occupied Palestinian population, especially the two million Palestinians living in the blockaded Gaza Strip, where the humanitarian suffering amounts to an unlawful collective punishment under international law.

• On 12 July, Gisha – Legal Centre for Freedom Movement issued the press release “Israel’s Restrictions on Crossings with Gaza Harm the Economy, Civilian Infrastructure and the Rights of Residents” after Israel continued to prevent the entry into the Gaza Strip of thousands of items that residents need, including raw materials, items and spare parts essential for production in many industries and water infrastructure.

• On 12 July, Ir Amim held the webinar “Al-Walaja: A Community in Danger – A Conversation on the Threat of Mass Demolition” with the NGO’s planning policy researchers and Ibrahim Alaaraj, a member of Walaja’s Resident Planning Committee. The panel discussed the imminent danger of demolition facing Walaja, a Palestinian village on the southern periphery of Jerusalem.

• On 12 July, Al-Haq called on the UN Special Procedures to immediately and urgently intervene to exercise the authority associated with their mandate, to secure the immediate and unconditional release of Palestinian activist Khalida Jarrar by the Israeli authorities on humanitarian grounds so she could attend the funeral of her daughter.

• On 10 July, Al-Haq informed it sent a written submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence pursuant to a call for input to inform his October 2021 report on transitional justice measure and the legacy of human rights violations in colonial contexts. Al-Haq’s submission urged the Special Rapporteur to recognize and address Israel’s settler-colonial regime, called on the UN and its Member States to enable and facilitate the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes and ensure restitution of property, and urged the UN Human Rights Council to establish a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the historical injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people.

• On 9 July, B’Tselem issued the press release “Court Sanctioned War Crime Committed in Broad Daylight” to denounce the attempted forcible transfer against residents of Khirbet Humsah in the northern Jordan Valley. B’Tselem said that the attempted expulsion was carried out with the approval of Israel’s High Court of Justice and underlined that the International Criminal Court (ICC) would have to assess the responsibility of justices as well as ministers and top military commanders as part of its investigation of Israel.

• On 7 July, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemned the arrest of the General-Director of the Union of Health Work Committees (UHWC) and raid of the headquarter of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) by the Israeli forces. PCHR emphasized that these practices were part of campaigns led by Israeli officials against Palestinian civil society organizations and activists to undermine their work, either by distorting their credibility, arresting them, or closing their organizations that provide services to the Palestinian people.

Europe

• On 8 July, the Belgian-Palestinian Association held the virtual event “#SaveJerusalem- Nous ne pouvons pas nous arrêter maintenant”, featuring community representatives of Al-Bustan, Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah as well as the coordinator of the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem.

• On 7 July, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) issued a press release to call on the Israeli authorities to immediately halt attempts to forcibly transfer around 70 Palestinians in the Humsa al-Bqai’a Bedouin community in the north of the Jordan Valley. NRC said that Israeli forces had declared it a closed military area and blocked access for international observers from the diplomatic and humanitarian communities. It called on the international community to condemn this dispossession and show that it will not tolerate these breached of international law and on the Israeli authorities to immediately grant humanitarian access to the community to meet their urgent needs.

North America

• On 12 July, Americans for Peace Now hosted the Israeli director of EcoPeace, Gidon Bromberg, for a webinar on climate security and the two-State solution. Bromberg presented EcoPeace’s new report focusing on the importance of water and water scarcity issues in the region to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace.

United Nations

• On 12 July, Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territory Occupied Since 1967, Michael Lynk condemned the demolition by Israel of the homes and property belonging to the Palestinian Bedouin community of Humsa al-Beqai’a in the northern Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank. The Special Rapporteur highlighted that these Palestinian communities were extremely vulnerable, both because they have limited access to water, sanitation, education and electrical power, and because the Israeli military has seized large swaths of their traditional lands for military firing zones. He called on Israel to immediately halt its property demolitions in the occupied territory, to ensure that its actions are strictly compliant with its international humanitarian and human rights obligations and to provide protection for, rather than displacement of, the protected population.

 

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.