30 July 2020

Middle East

• On 29 July, Al-Haq issued the report “Al-Haq Highlights Israel’s Illegal Use of Collective Punishment at the 44th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council”, which highlighted inter alia the organization of a webinar on the closure of Gaza as illegal collective punishment.

• On 27 July, the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO) and Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) issued the joint statement “There is no time to waste, the International Community Must Defend Civil Space and Provide Preventative Diplomatic Protection to Palestinian CSOs in Occupied East Jerusalem” following the Israeli police raid of both the Yabous Cultural Centre and Edward Said National Conservatory of Music. The NGOs called upon the international community to recognize Palestinian CSOs working in East Jerusalem as human rights defenders within the meaning of the UN Declaration, and to  pressure Israel to repeal all such arbitrary laws, policies and practices   as recommended, for instance, by the EU Guidelines on the Freedom of Expression.

• On 28 July, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights organized the workshop “Naval Blockade and its Repercussions on Fishermen’s Rights” for representatives of the fishermen’s union in Gaza, NGOs and the media. Participants called upon the international community to pressure Israeli authorities to expand the permitted fishing area to 20 nautical miles off the Gaza shore, to stop all forms of intimidation against fishermen and to allow the entry of equipment and necessary supplies for them to sail and fish freely.

• On 26 July, Adalah – The Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel issued the press release “Israel Created Legal ‘Blackhole’ in Gaza; International Community Must Intervene to Ensure Accountability and Justice for Palestinian Victims” to summarize its virtual participation in the 44th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, where it delivered interventions on the specific case of Gaza, on the Israeli practices and policies of collective punishment targeting the Palestinian people, and on the extrajudicial killing and holding of the body of Ahmed Erakat.

• On 26 July, Gisha – Legal Centre for Freedom of Movement issued an update of the Erez and Rafah crossings and the situation in the Gaza Strip.

• On 26 July, HaMoked – Centre for the Defence of the Individual issued a press release calling for Palestinians to be allowed access to their lands in the occupied West Bank beyond the Separation Barrier during the upcoming olive harvest season.

• On 23 July, Peace Now reported the demolition of a large structure serving as a warehouse in Silwan, East Jerusalem, by Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority and police forces, who described the structure as an “open area with debris.” Peace Now argues that the demolition of the structure was because it “lies in a strategic spot in the geo-political battle the government and Jerusalem settler groups are waging against the local Palestinian residents of Silwan,” and noted that in the same area, the Elad Settlers Association operates many buildings that were erected without a permit, but have been standing for years.

North America

• On 10 August, Americans for Peace Now will hold the webinar “The Occupation as Apartheid with Michael Sfard, Israeli Human Rights Attorney” to discuss Sfard’s recent legal opinion, commissioned by the Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din, which concluded that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank is a form of apartheid, constituting a crime under international law.

United Nations

• On 28 July, the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, in collaboration with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, held the first part of the International Conference on the Question of Jerusalem on “Annexation in Practice – Palestinian Lives in Jerusalem”. The event, which was livestreamed on UN TV and social media channels, featured three speakers – Maha Abdallah (Cairo Institute for Human Right Studies), Hagit Ofran (Peace Now) and Osamah Khalil (University of Syracuse) – who highlighted Israel’s decades-long illegal annexation of East Jerusalem and the lived reality of Palestinian Jerusalemites under this regime.

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.