NGO Action News – 07 October 2013

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.

NGO Action News
07 October 2013

ASIA

• The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) Thailand held a meeting on 3 October 2013 featuring Ghislain Poissonnier (writer, former ICRC delegate) for a discussion on the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (2004). PSC Thailand is also still campaigning for an honest US involvement in the current peace talks.

EUROPE

• The Amsterdam Student Association of International Law and Nederlands Palestina Komitee held on 4 October 2013 a lecture at the University of Amsterdam, Faculty of law, with Gavan Kelly (Addameer – Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association) on the status of political prisoners under international law and the current human right issues faced by Palestinian prisoners and the administrative detention procedure. Gavan Kelly was joined by Shawan Jabarin (Al Haq) for another lecture organized in The Hague on 3 October 2013.

• Le Comité pour une Paix Juste au Proche-Orient is organizing a conference on the blockade of the Gaza Strip on 11 October 2013 in Bonnevoie, Luxembourg. Marianne Blume (Gaza dans mes yeux) will take part in the event.

• The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign will host the 6th annual Pub Quiz in Dublin at the Break for the Border on 10 October 2013 to raise money for Palestinian students.

• Palestine Solidarité updated as of 26 September 2013 its calendar of events.

• The Swedish Right Livelihood Award Foundation, which offers an award known as “the Alternative Nobel Prize,” granted its 2013 annual Award to lawyer Raji Sourani, Director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights and three other outstanding individuals. The Award will be presented at a ceremony in the Swedish Parliament on 2 December 2013 to Raji Sourani and the three other Laureates.

NORTH AMERICA

• Al-Shabaka and the Council for British Research in the Levant are organizing a panel discussion on 13 October 2013 at the annual convention of the University of Arizona’s Middle East Studies Association, in New Orleans. The panellists will include Al-Shabaka Program Director Alaa Tartir, Al-Shabaka Advisor Osamah Khalil, and the author Mandy Turner.

• The American Friends Service Committee published on 25 September 2013 a new fact sheet entitled A closer look: U.S. aid to Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

• The American Task Force on Palestine will celebrate its 10th Anniversary at its annual Gala taking place in Washington on 29 October 2013.

• The Canada Palestine Association (CPA) organized a protest on 29 September 2013 against the Jewish National Fund which hosted Gilad Shalit (former Israeli soldier) in his first visit to Canada. As well, together with Samidoun – Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, CPA organized another protest against the Vancouver visit of Israeli politician Ehud Barak.

• The Center for Palestine Studies is presenting on 30 October 2013 the event Palestine and the Public Intellectual, Honoring Edward Said at the Columbia University Low Library Rotunda. Renowned scholars Judith Butler and Cornel West will take part in the event. RSVP required.

• Defence for Children International/Palestine (DCI) will make a presentation on Grave Violations Against Palestinian Children in the Occupied Territories at the UN Church Centre in New York on 11 October 2013. For more information and RSVP please contact: Mark.Koenig@pcusa.org. This event is sponsored by the Israel-Palestine NGO Working Group at the UN.

• The Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) is hosting on 10 October 2013 in Washington the event In Conflict’s Shadow: Humanitarian Crisis for Palestinians in Lebanon and Gaza. The latter will feature ANERA’s Country Directors from Lebanon and West Bank/Gaza, Paul Butler and Samar El Yassir. FMEP also released on 2 October 2013 its new report on Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.

• New Yorkers Against the Cornell-Technion Partnership (NYACT) is organizing a panel discussion entitled Militarization, Domestic Spying, and the Boycott of Israel on 23 October 2013 in New York. Scheduled speakers are David Swanson (RootsAction), Fahd Ahmen (Desis Rising Up and Moving – DRUM), Riham Barghouti (Adalah-NY) and Anna Calcutt (NYACT).

• OneVoice Movement is hosting the event Big Data, Social Media and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: What online activities can tell us about offline realities on 9 October 2013.Samer Makhlouf and Tal Harris, Executive Directors of OneVoice Palestine and OneVoice Israel, and Gilad Lotan (Betaworks) will take part in a panel discussion moderated by Micah Sifry (Personal Democracy Media). To RSVP or for more information please contact: jamie@onevoicemovement.org.

• The Park Slope United Methodist Church Social Action Committee is organizing a film night at the Park Slope United Methodist Church in Brooklyn, New York. Roadmap to Apartheid by filmmakers Eron Davidson (Israel) and Ana Nogueira (South Africa) will be screened on 19 October 2013. A discussion featuring Rebecca Arian (Jewish Voice for Peace); Father Khader El-Yateem (Salam Arabic Lutheran Church) and Wael Mousfar (Arab Muslim American Federation and Arab American Association of New York) will follow.

• Josh Ruebner (US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation) is on a US fall book tour introducing his book – Shattered Hopes: Obama’s Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian Peace– from September to December 2013.

ISRAEL AND PALESTINE

• Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel held its 8th Arab Law Students’ Camp from 19 to 21 September 2013. This year’s camp focused on Arab citizens and discriminatory laws.

• Al Dameer, Al Haq, Al Mezan, the Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR), the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), and the Palestinian Bar Association and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) jointly submitted a written statement on the occasion of the 24th session of the UN Human Rights Council, taking place in Geneva from 9 to 27 September 2013. Entitled Closure and accountability, the statement draws attention to the deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip as a result of the ongoing illegal closure imposed by Israel.

• The Alternative Information Center (AIC) will organize its 21st international political camp from 22 to 27 December 2013.

• Anarchists Against the Wall is currently organizing a US tour of the lecture The Soldier and the Refusenik featuring Maya Wind, former prisoner and activist who refused to serve in the Israeli army, and Eran Efrati, former combat soldier and company sergeant in the IDF. For more information please visit here

• Breaking the Silence is on a US tour with Avner Gvaryahu about the collective testimony book, Our Harsh Logic: Israeli Soldiers’ Testimonies from the Occupied Territories, 2000-2010. Mr. Gvaryahu will be at the Columbia University in New York on 7 October 2013. Invited by the Working Group of the Palestinian Rights Committee, he will also speak on 21 October at the United Nations.

• The Hebron University organized from 1 to 3 October 2013 an international conference on Global Legal Education Approaches: Experiences for Palestine. The event was sponsored by UNDP/PAPP.

• The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) released on 2 October 2013 its weekly Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory covering the period from 26 September to 2 October 2013.

• The Popular Struggle Coordination Committee (PSCC) organized the 8th Bilin International Conference on Nonviolent Popular Struggle on 2 and 3 October 2013. Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah spoke at the opening session.

• Who Profits? announced on 25 September 2013 that Veolia Transdev, a long-standing target of boycott, divestment and Palestine solidarity campaigns worldwide along with its partial owner Veolia Environment, sold off all bus services in Israel/Palestine.

UNITED NATIONS

• The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People held its 354th meeting on 4 October 2013 at the UN Headquarters. The Committee heard a briefing by Amb. Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine, on the situation on the ground and developments in the political process. The Committee elected the Ambassadors of Indonesia, Namibia and Nicaragua as additional members of its Bureau. Also, the Committee endorsed the accreditation of three civil society organizations.

• OCHA oPt released its latest Protection of Civilians report covering the period from 24 to 30 September 2013 on 4 October 2013 and a new monthly Humanitarian Bulletin on 27 September 2013. OCHA also updated as of 23 September 2013 its report focusing on the humanitarian impact of reduced access between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.