25 February 2021

Middle East

• On 22 February, B’Tselem issued the report “Israel Again Demolishes and Confiscates Tents and Other Items Donated to Khirbet Humsah al-Foqa Residents” describing how the Israeli military destroyed Palestinian structures five times in the past few months.

• On 21 February, Yesh Din issued a position paper on the possible International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation of potential Israeli war crimes. The NGO stated that it was convinced that given Israel’s ongoing failure to investigated breaches of the laws of war and occupation, an international investigation is unavoidable, and, therefore, welcomed the decision of the ICC. Yesh Din underlined how the Israeli law enforcement system fails to protect Palestinians in the OPT and their human rights and how Israeli soldiers enjoy near complete immunity from prosecution when they harm Palestinians, based on figures received every year from the military and drawn from the legal assistance Yesh Din provided in hundreds of complaints filed by Palestinians.

• On 21 February, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) issued the press release “Gaza’s Abject Poor Most Affected by UNRWA Amendments to Its Food Basket Programme” following the Agency’s cancellation of the “yellow voucher – double portions food basket” for the abject poor, and replacing it with a unified food basket system for all beneficiary refugees in the Gaza Strip. PCHR called upon the international community to uphold its responsibilities towards Palestine refugees and to support UNRWA budget to ensure proper delivery of its programmes, particularly food assistance.

• On 18 February, Peace Now issued a press release denouncing the Israeli government’s ongoing de-facto annexation of the West Bank, following the Civil Administration’s approval of a plan to pave the Qalandiya underpass – a road designed to enable access to Israel for the settlers of the Ramallah area. Peace Now lamented that the road will help turn the settlements in the Ramallah area and the Jordan Valley into suburbs that will attract thousands of more settlers to live there.

Europe

• On 18 February, the European Coordination of Committers and Associations for Palestine (ECCP) published the report “UN Database: Six Complicit Companies Receiving EU Taxpayers Money” to denounce that six companies listed for their direct complicity with illegal Israeli settlements, including Alstom and JCB, received EU funds through two research programmes – the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) from 2007 to 2013, and the Horizon 2020 programme from 2014 to 2020.

• On 18 February, Amnesty International informed that it had submitted a new petition to overturn the Israeli travel ban on its staff member Laith Abu Zeyad’s. Amnesty stated that Israel has been barring Laith Abu Zeyad’s access to its office in occupied East Jerusalem and banning him from travelling internationally for work or for personal reasons for over a year now, and that “this [was] nothing short of a targeted attack and reveal[ed] the chilling extent of measures by Israel to silence human rights defenders and organizations critical of its treatment of Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank.”

North America

• On 25 February, the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) is holding the webinar “Israel-Palestine at the International Criminal Court: What Next?” featuring a panel of Israeli, Palestinian and international legal experts, examining the latest ICC ruling and its implications for the fight for accountability, justice and human rights in Israel and Palestine.

• On 25 February, Americans for Peace Now is holding a webinar with Israeli Member of Knesset Meirav Michaeli to discuss the upcoming Israeli elections, what they mean for Israel’s left, if Israeli-Palestinian peace can be on the electoral agenda when the elections are first and foremost a referendum on PM Netanyahu, as well as the prospects of a stronger alliance between Israel’s Zionist left and the Arab minority.

• On 24 February, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) informed that activists in 17 cities across the globe delivered petitions with over 54,000 signatures to Facebook corporate offices, calling on the social media giant to not include “Zionist” in its hate speech policy, as Facebook is currently considering. The petitions take place in the framework of the global campaign “Facebook, We Need to Talk”, co-sponsored by 55 organisations, which began in response to an inquiry by Facebook to assess if critical conversations that use the term “Zionist” fall within the rubric of hate speech as per Facebook’s Community Standards.

• On 22 February, Friends of Sabeel – North America (FOSNA) held the webinar “Facebook, We Need to Talk About Christian Zionism” with speakers Nour Odeh, Carmel Abuzaid, Rabbi Alissa Wise and moderator Jonathan Brenneman.

United Nations

• On 10 March, the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will organize the virtual event on the margins of the sixty-fifth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) on “Women, Peace and Security and Beijing+25: Progress and Challenges for Women and Girls in Palestine”. The event will be organized as a panel conversation, moderated by the Vice-Chair of the Committee and Permanent Representative of Afghanistan to the UN, with three Palestinian women officials and civil society representatives, from different regions of the occupied Palestinian territory and across generations – Ms. Hind Khoury, former Palestinian Minister for Jerusalem and Ambassador to France; H.E. Amal Jadou, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs; and Ms. Nour Swirki, activist and journalist in Gaza.

• On 26 February, the UN Security Council will hold its monthly Briefing on the Situation in the Middle East including the Palestinian Question.

• On 24 February, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the OPT Lynn Hastings issued a statement on the demolitions at Humsa Al Bqai’a community, in the OPT. She called on the Israeli authorities to immediately halt all further demolitions of Palestinian homes and possessions, allow the humanitarian community to provide shelter, food and water to this most vulnerable group and also allow them to remain in their homes. The statement follows the Israeli authorities’ demolitions and confiscations of homes and belongings of the families living in that area, repeated five times since the beginning of February 2021.

• On 23 February, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland delivered remarks to the meeting of the Ad-Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC). He said the Palestinian government and its health system have managed well in the Covid-19 pandemic despite all the challenges and that the Palestinian elections have been scheduled, representing positive signs on the political front too. He informed that the Middle East Quartet has started to work and is preparing to engage both parties. Nonetheless, he warned that the Palestinian government’s fiscal situation remains precarious and that without increased and fast donor support as well as a gradual restart of the economy, the government will have little capacity to cushion the negative effects of the current situation.

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.