8 July 2021

Middle East

• On 7 July, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights issued the press release “Israel Fully Responsible for His Life, Abu ‘Atwan Hunger Strike Continues Protesting Administrative Detention” in which it expressed its deep concern over the life of Palestinian administrative detainee, Ghadanfar Abu Atwan, who has been on a hunger strike in Israeli jails for 63 consecutive days.

• On 6 July, Al-Haq submitted an urgent appeal to the United Nations Special Procedures on the arbitrary detention of Farid al-Atrash, a human rights defender and the director of southern office of the Independent Commission for Human Rights, by the Israeli security forces on 4 July 2021. Addressing six UN Special Rapporteurs, including the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, Al-Haq highlighted Israel’s policy of silencing those who oppose Israel’s unlawful policies and practices, and seek justice and accountability for violations committed against the Palestinian people.

• On 5 July, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights issued the report “In focus: The effects of Israel’s tightened blockade on the economic and humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip” covering the period 10 May – 16 June 2021. The report outlines how the ongoing Israeli blockade of Gaza, its residents are denied the enjoyment of fundamental rights and freedoms and forced into profound levels of poverty, aid dependency, food insecurity, and unemployment.

• On 5 July, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association called upon individuals and organizations to send letters joining the NGO’s call against the Israeli Interior Ministry’s application of the recommendations to revoke the permanent residency status of Salah Hamouri, a Palestinian from East Jerusalem, and against broader policies of ethnic cleansing and suppression of human rights defenders.

Asia-Pacific

• The Malaysian Bar Association informed that on 31 May it had conducted a webinar on the situation in Palestine, with experts from the OPT and uploaded the proceedings onto its Facebook page.

Europe

• On 8 July, the French-Palestinian Solidarity Association is holding the online conference “#SaveJerusalem – We can’t stop now!” featuring Palestinian civil society activists from Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem.

• On 7 July, 130 Members of the European Parliament and members of national parliaments in the EU sent a letter to the EU Member States, members of the UN Human Rights Council, in support of the UN database listing companies complicit with illegal Israeli settlements. On July 9th the UN HRC will debate the situation of human rights in Palestine and the annual update of UN database.

• On 6 July, the European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine (ECCP) published the article “Colonisation of occupied territory is a war crime”, on the European citizens’ initiative for a ban on trade in goods from illegal settlements, and specifically the situation in Switzerland.

North America

• On 13 July, The Jerusalem Fund will hold the online event “Israel’s Collective Punishment of Palestinians” with Budour Hassan, a Palestinian writer and legal researcher at the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC), who will talk about Israeli measures of collective punishment including the policy of withholding Palestinian martyrs’ bodies, punitive home demolitions, mass detentions, closures against neighbourhoods and the spraying of entire residential areas with skunk water, and of course the blockade against the Gaza Strip.

• J Street has published the video “How the Israeli Government Seizes and Controls Palestinian Territory” in which Israeli legal expert and human rights lawyer Michael Sfard breaks down the Israeli government’s decades-long project to settle Palestinian land on the West Bank, entrench permanent Israeli control and prevent Palestinian self-determination and statehood.

United Nations

• On 1 July, the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, with support from the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), held the International Conference on the Question of Jerusalem “Forced demographic change in Jerusalem – grave breaches and a threat to peace”, on Webex and livestreamed on UN TV. In the opening, USG DiCarlo called on Israel to cease house demolitions and evictions, and illegal settlement activities, and reiterated the call to all sides to uphold and respect the status quo of Jerusalem holy sites. Panellists – Ms. Lara Friedman (US), Mr. Michael Lynk (UN Special Rapporteur), Ms. Suma Qawasmi (East Jerusalem), Ms. Nivine Sandouka (East Jerusalem) and Ms. Emily Schaeffer Omer-Man (Israel) – highlighted decades-long Israeli policies and actions to promote Jewish settlement into and Palestinian emigration from Jerusalem, enabled by a legal system ignoring international law and excluding the political context of a power imbalance between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians. The young Palestinian representatives outlined their daily struggles and peaceful resistance, highlighting the power of social media and international support. Pointing out that the longstanding impunity for Israeli actions had enabled the current situation, speakers and Member States called on the international community to replace words of support with actions to hold Israel accountable.

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.