NGO Action News – 03 November 2017

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
03 November 2017

Global

• Following an open letter to UN Secretary-General Guterres, calling for action to achieve an end to the unlawful blockade of Gaza, on 2 November, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) announced plans to sail to Gaza in 2018.

• On 1 November, a day before the 100^th Anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the Global Palestinian Refugee Network issued a statement calling on political parties and civil society in the United Kingdom to work towards ensuring British Government support for the realization of Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

• On 31 October, Amnesty International (AI) reported that the Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at AI USA had been denied entry to Israel. The organization will be seeking official clarification from the Israeli authorities.

• On 27 October, Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the Middle East Division at Human Rights Watch, criticized FIFA’s decision to maintain the status quo with regard to Israeli football clubs based in West Bank settlements as contrary to international law and FIFA’s professed commitment to human rights.

Middle East

• On 2 November, Adalah and Al Mezan filed a joint petition with the Israeli Supreme Court requesting that Palestinian search teams be allowed to rescue people trapped in a tunnel in the Gaza border area, which was destroyed by the Israeli military.

• On 1 November, MITVIM The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, in cooperation with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, held its first annual conference “Opportunities for Israel’s Foreign Relations towards 2018” and presented its 2017 Israeli Foreign Policy Index.

• On 25 October, Peace Now provided an analysis and the full text of a Knesset bill calling for the expansion of Jerusalem’s municipal jurisdiction to include illegal West Bank settlements.

• “Standing Against Collective Punishment” is the theme of the October 2017 newsletter released by Hamoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual. 

North America

• On 21 November, the Jerusalem Fund in Washington, D.C.. is hosting Ms. Rabab Abdulhadi, Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies/Race and Resistance Studies at San Francisco State University, for a talk on Palestine activism in the United States.

• Following the lawsuit filed in April against Fordham University over its refusal to grant club status to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Palestine Legal and the Center for Constitutional Rights are seeking a preliminary injunction from the Supreme Court of the State of New York directing the school to recognize SJP as an official club before a decision on the merits of the case is reached.

• On 2 November, a delegation representing Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) met with Palestinian President Abbas. CMEP is a coalition of 27 national church denominations advocating equality, human rights, security and justice for Israelis, Palestinians, and all people of the Middle East.

• On 1 November, the Middle East Institute (MEI) published a policy paper “The Palestinian Quest for Reconciliation: Can it be Achieved?” by MEI scholar Nathan Stock, former director of the Carter Center’s Israel-Palestine Field Office.

• On 31 October, Al Shabaka-The Palestinian Policy Network posted the contributions to a roundtable discussion on “After Balfour: 100 Years of History and the Roads not Taken”.

• On 28 October, the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (HCEF) held in Washington, D.C. its International Symposium “Jerusalem: The City of Peace for All”.

Asia-Pacific

• The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) Thailand will mark the centenary of the Balfour Declaration by making it the focus of its annual event to observe on 29 November the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

• On 19 November, the Australian Friends of Palestine Association (AFOPA) is organizing its 2017 “Run for Palestine –Adelaide”. The proceedings will go to support AFOPA’s humanitarian work and campaigns.

Europe

• On 9 November, Gate48, a platform for Israelis living in the Netherlands who oppose the occupation, is inviting to the panel discussion “Beyond the Balfour Declaration: Navigating every day life in contemporary Israel/Palestine” held in Amsterdam.

• On 2 November, the UK-based Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) published in The Guardian an Open Letter to British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Boris Johnson, requesting from the British Government an apology for the Balfour Declaration and measures to hold Israel accountable for violations of international law.

• On 27 October, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) launched a new animation to raise awareness about the challenges faced by women affected by breast cancer in Gaza. MAP is calling on concerned citizens to ask Members of the British Parliament to sign Early Motion 458 on breast cancer in Gaza.

• In relation to the administrative detention of French-Palestinian human rights defender and Addameer staff member Salah Hamouri, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued on 25 October a statement, calling for his rights to be fully respected.

United Nations

• On 2 November, Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, delivered a lecture on the Balfour Declaration and its impact on the Palestinian People at an event organized at UN Headquarters in New York by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.