18 March 2021

Middle East

• On 17 March, Physicians for Human Rights Israel issued the press release “Israel’s Vaccine Discrimination Against Palestinians Must End” to call on Israel to ensure swift delivery, transfer and equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines for all Palestinians living in the OPT at the same levels available to Israeli citizens, and to call on the international community to take immediate action to ensure that international human rights law is respected and these duties are fulfilled.

• On 16 March, Addameer – Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association informed that the Palestinian Human Rights Organization Council (PHROC), the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, the Community Action Centre and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies sent a joint urgent appeal on forced evictions in East Jerusalem to the UN Special Procedures. Addressing six UN Special Rapporteurs, the NGOs highlighted forced evictions as part of Israel’s coercive environment in East Jerusalem, through which it maintains its institutionalized oppression.

• On 15 March, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) sent five written submissions on vital human rights issues affecting the Palestinian people to the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council. The interventions dealt with Israeli reprisals against human rights defenders, Palestinian prisoners and detainees and reviewed the ongoing developments of Israeli violations in the Gaza Strip.

• On 15 March, Gisha – Legal Centre for Freedom of Movement issued its position on the International Criminal Court’s recent decision. Gisha stated that it had repeatedly cautioned Israeli authorities and government officials against the violation of human rights inherent to the occupation, the ongoing closure on Gaza and the “separation policy” enforced by Israel and that it was “unsurprising that the ICC Prosecutor found sufficient basis for conducting an investigation into the situation in the region.”

• On 14 March, HaMoked – Centre for the Defence of the Individual informed about the submission of a petition to Israel’s High Court of Justice calling attention to the procedure allowing residents of Israel under the age of 18 to visit their parents in the Gaza Strip. HaMoked asked that the “divided families” procedure, which enables visits for spouses and minor children of such families, be extended to apply also to the adult children, allowing them to receive six-month-long renewable permits for visiting Gaza.

• On 14 March, Al-Haq informed that it had sent letters to the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and EU Member States, following concerning statements made by various EU members, rejecting the landmark decision of the Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which affirmed that the Court has territorial jurisdiction over the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and the announcement by the Office of the Prosecutor on the opening of a full criminal investigation into the Situation in Palestine. Al-Haq argued that Palestine can no longer be treated as an exception to the application of the rule of law and urged the EU to provide cohesive and public support to the independence and impartiality of the Court.

• On 13 March, Al-Haq published its Q&A “After the Pre-Trial Chamber Decision: Palestine and Territorial Jurisdiction at the International Criminal Court” to provide a digestible and rigorous understanding of the working of the Court in the Palestine context.

• On 4 March, Peace Now issued the press release “The District Court Rejects the Appeal of 31 People Ordering Them to Evict Their Homes in Sheikh Jarrah in Favour of Settlers” to denounce the Israeli court’s ruling as part of an organized move designed to dispossess a Palestinian community of its home and establish an Israeli settlement in its place. Peace Now warned that hundreds of Palestinians in this community were in a similar situation in court proceedings, and hundreds more in Batan Al-Hawa in the East Jerusalem community neighbourhood of Silwan. It was reported that the issue of evictions in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan was one of the items of the complaint filed by the Palestinians to the ICC.

Europe

• On 14 March, the European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine published the report “EU Mechanism of Ethical Screening: Why It Does Not Work” on the EU’s funding of business or academic entities alleged to be complicit with Israeli illegal settlements through its successive research programmes, showing loopholes in the implementation of the 2013 Guidelines on the Eligibility of Israeli Entities for Grants, Prizes and Financial Instruments.

North America

• On 31 March, The Jerusalem Fund for Education and Community Development will host Professor of Journalism and Political Science Peter Beinart for the webinar “A Jewish Case for Equality in Israel-Palestine” to explore the idea of Jews and Palestinians’ vision of equality between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River that offers dignity, safety and freedom for both peoples.

• On 25 March, Americans for Peace Now will hold a webinar with political analyst and pollster Dahlia Scheindlin on analysing Israel’s election results.

• On 15 March, the Institute for Palestine Studies held the webinar “Implications of the ICC’s Jurisdiction Over the West Bank and Gaza” with Columbia University Professor Rashid Khalidi, former UN Rapporteur Richard Falk and Centre for Constitutional Rights Attorney Katherine Gallagher, among others. The webinar served to examine the legal and political implications for the ICC Prosecutor’s decision to open her investigation into the Situation in Palestine, and what it may entails, and addressed whether it constitutes a recognition of Palestinian sovereignty over the territories occupied in 1967.

United Nations

• On 15 March, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) published the report “Integrated Simulation Framework – II Model for Palestinian Economic Policy”, which provides a new analytical framework based on the previous version of the model of the Palestinian economy and attempts to simulate the economy of the OPT based on the current realities and recent structural changes. The report also assesses the medium and long-term economic impact of various policy options and assumptions about exogenous variables.

 

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.