8 October 2020

Middle East

• On 8 October, the Palestinian Disability Coalition, Al-Haq, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, and the Centre for Defence of Liberties and Civil Rights “Hurryyat” welcomed the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ “List of issues in relation to the initial report of Israel” published on 17 September, which highlights the Government of Israel’s policies and obligations under the Convention towards persons with disabilities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). The UN Committee called upon Israel to provide information on complaint and investigation mechanisms, remedies and reparations, including compensation for persons with disabilities, in cases of violation of their rights, including in the context of military operations conducted in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).

• On 8 October, Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, Al-Haq and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies issued a joint oral intervention under Item 7 “Human Rights Situation in Palestine and Other Occupied Arab Territories” at the 45th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council. The organisations called on the Council and its Member States to address the root causes of the escalating crisis in the Gaza Strip by calling on Israel to fully, immediately and unconditionally end its illegal closure of Gaza and end all forms of collective punishment imposed on Palestinians.

• On 7 October, the Palestinian Human Rights Organisations Council (PHROC) issued a press release demanding an urgent intervention to immediately release hunger striking administrative detainee Maher Al-Akhras amid imminent threat to life. PHROC stated that the systematic and arbitrary use and practice of administrative detention by the Israeli authorities have attracted widespread condemnation from local and international organisations as a violation of fundamental human rights, and demanded the immediate release of Al-Akhras and the immediate intervention of the relevant UN Special Procedure mandates, including Rapporteur Lynk, and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

• On 5 October, Adalah – The Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel informed that it had sent an urgent letter to the Israeli Prime Minister, Attorney-General, and Commander of the Israeli military “Home Front Command” demanding that they block the military’s recruitment of current and former agents from the Shin Bet security agency in order to gather intelligence on Palestinian citizens of Israel as part of efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19. Adalah criticized the deployment of former Shin Bet agents as hostile and unequal treatment of Palestinian Arab citizens in Israel’s response to the pandemic.

• On 5 October, Peace Now issued a press release to denounce Israel’s recent decision to advance at least 4,430 settlement units in the West Bank – which would make 2020 the highest year on record in planned settlement units since Peace Now records began in 2012. The NGO stated that instead of taking advantage of the agreements with the Gulf states and promoting peace with the Palestinians, Prime Minister Netanyahu is distorting Israel’s priorities and catering to a fringe minority that will continue to harm future prospects for peace.

• On 30 September, 13 Palestinian and regional human rights organisations submitted a joint urgent appeal to the Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council on the imminent threat of forcible deportation of Salah Hammouri, a French-Palestinian human rights defender, and a lawyer working with Addameer Prisoner Support, for “breach of allegiance” to the State of Israel. Addressing six UN Special Rapporteurs, including the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, the organisations highlighted Israel’s policy of silencing those who seek justice and accountability for violations committed against the Palestinian people.

• On 27 September, HaMoked – Centre for the Defence of the Individual informed that it had sent an urgent letter demanding the Israeli military allow travel from the West Bank to Jordan to Palestinians registered in the Palestinian population registry, even when their details are not updated on the Israeli copy of the registry. HaMoked criticized the military regulations requiring that those departing through Allenby Bridge have their details accurately reflected in the Israeli registry, something the organisation deems impossible now for thousands of Palestinians due to the freeze of official coordination between both sides.

Europe

• On 2 October, Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR) and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association informed they had submitted a complaint to the UN Working Group for Arbitrary Detention concerning the Israeli military authorities ongoing arbitrary detention of three female Palestinian students from the West Bank for their affiliation with a “democratic student political group.” The two NGOs underlined that these arrests fall in the context of intensifying targeting of Palestinian university students by Israel’s military, including an apparent emerging pattern of targeting female students.

• On 2 October, the Association Belgo-Palestinienne (ABP) welcomed the decision of the new Belgian government in undertaking new steps for bilateral and multilateral differentiation with regards to Israel and illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory. ABP deemed the decision as an essential step for a potential interdiction of products from the settlements.

• On 29 September, the Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) called on urgent action to end the electricity crisis in Gaza. Addressing the UN Human Rights Council, PRC warned of Gaza’s suffering from poor electricity supply since 2006, as result of Israel targeting the only electric power station in the Strip and urged the international community, UN agencies and Human Rights Council to provide all possible assistance to end the crisis and the consequent deterioration of the humanitarian and living situation in Gaza.

North America

• On 24 September, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) issued a press release denouncing Zoom, Facebook and YouTube for censoring Palestinians by shutting down an open-classroom academic event dedicated to the voices of Palestinians and other political prisoners from Palestine, South Africa and the United States. JVP stated that this was an “extreme example of a well-documented and deeply troubling pattern of repression against and silencing of Palestinian scholarship an advocacy, both in academia and on social media platforms.”

United Nations

• On 1 December, the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will observe the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on Tuesday 1 December 2020, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 32/40B of 2 December 1977, as well as other relevant resolutions. A special commemorative meeting of the Committee will be held from 10.00 a.m. to 1.00. p.m. New York time in virtual format and observances will also take place at the UN offices in Geneva, Nairobi and Vienna.

 

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.