August - September 2008
No. 19
North America
Americans for Peace Now and Ameinu held on 9 September 2008 a round-table discussion entitled “Israel and the West Bank: Keeping the Two-State Solution Alive” featuring Danny Rubinstein, journalist and author. For further information, contact E-Mail: onir@peacenow.org or visit the web site: http://www.peacenow.org
The Rebuilding Alliance is organizing from 12 September to 20 October 2008 the “Save the Kindergarten” US speaking tour of Mayor Hay Sami Sadik Shaih from the village of Al Aqabah, in the Jordan Valley, slated for demolition. Architect Shmuel Groag, co-founder of BIMKOM: Planners for Planning Rights, will join the tour, and will visit Congress and the UN. After the organization built the village’s kindergarten, some 17 embassies, consulates and UN agencies also invested in the village. The Rebuilding Alliance hopes this work will set a precedent to save other Palestinian villages in area C. For further information, contact E-Mail: contact@RebuildingAlliance.org or visit the web site: http://www.RebuildingAlliance.org
The Palestinian Youth Conference will be held from 7 to 9 November 2008 in Madrid. For further information, contact E-Mail: loubie03@aol.com
The Washington Interfaith Alliance will hold the Nakba photo exhibit from 21 September to the end of October 2008, at the Potter’s House, Washington. Afaf Ayesh, a refugee, will relate her experience on the opening day. The exhibit, produced by Friends of Sabeel – Canada, consists of 60 photographs. For further information, contact E-Mail: aidaatallah@comcast.net
Europe
Amnesty International issued a press release on 25 August entitled “Critically Ill Patients trapped in Gaza without Treatment”. The press release stated that “the Israeli High Court has consistently failed to intervene in the Israeli Government’s decision to deny permits to critically ill Palestinian patients, preferring to accept the Israeli General Security Service’s promises to allow patients out in a shuttle service to Jordan or Egypt on a bus. However, the shuttle service has operated only four times in the past eight months for a handful of patients each time and fails to meet Israel’s obligations towards Palestinian patients under international law.” For further information, contact E-Mail: Eastmed@amnesty.org or visit the web site: http://www.amnesty.org
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) issued a press release on 11 August entitled “Let the Freedom Boats Reach Gaza!” About 40 civilians from 16 countries came together to break the siege of Gaza. For further information, visit the web site: http://www.fidh.org
Toledo International Centre for Peace held a seminar on 7 and 8 September 2008 entitled “Water in the Middle East – Conflict or cooperation”. The seminar advanced the notion that the EU can play a positive role in contributing to reduce the scarcity through a variety of means including desalinization of sea water, efficient water use, water sanitation and encouraging collaboration between regional actors in the Middle East. For further information, visit the web site: http://www.toledopax.org
Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem
Al-Haq issued a press release on 25 August 2008 entitled “The Strength of Civil Society: Al-Haq Commends the Achievement of the Free Gaza Movement”. The crews made the voyage from Cyprus to Gaza in a symbolic gesture to highlight the blockade of the Gaza Strip. For further information, visit the web site: http://www.alhaq.org
Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem (ARIJ) issued a press release on 8 September 2008 entitled “Re-Routing the Israeli Segregation Wall – The Israeli Occupation continues to manipulate the life of Palestinians”. ARIJ also issued a press release on 3 September 2008 entitled “Israeli Occupation Forces Embark on the Expansion of Burkan Industrial Compound”, on land belonging to Palestinians from the villages of Haris, Broqen and Sarta. The initiative is designed to attract and to encourage Jewish and foreign investors to invest inside the West Bank offering reduced individual and corporate taxes, and taking advantage of the relatively cheap Palestinian work-force under the jurisdiction of Jordanian law. For further information, visit the web site: http://www.poica.org
Badil Resource Center issued in September 2008 its quarterly publication “Al Majdal” entitled “Overcoming the Nakba: BDS and the Global Anti-Apartheid Movement”, with a country-by-country assessment of where BDS stands currently. For further information, visit the web site: http://www.badil.org
B’Tselem –The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories and Hamoked – Center for the Defense of the Individual issued a position paper on 10 September 2008 entitled “Israel Implements New Permit Regime and Policy of Forcible Transfer of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza”. “As of November 2007, Israel requires Palestinians whose registered address is in Gaza to apply for a temporary permit to remain in the West Bank, even if they have lived in the West Bank for many years, established their homes there, and, in some cases even if they were born in the West Bank. Moreover, in the past year, the military has taken active measures to locate and expel Palestinians from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip under the pretext they are illegal aliens”. B’Tselem and Hamoked caution “Israel’s unilateral measures whose purpose to institutionalize and perpetuate a reality of separating and cutting off the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank from each other.” B’Tselem also issued in September a press release addressed to the Attorney General entitled “Stop reckless use of rubber-coated bullets”. For further information, visit the web site: http://www.btselem.org
The Center for Democracy and Community Development’s Bringing Peace Together Program and Al Quds University will hold on 26 and 27 November 2008 in Jerusalem a conference entitled “Toward a Lasting Solution: Evaluation of the Peace Process, One Year After Annapolis”. The conference will bring together political decision-makers, international academics, and civil society leaders. Participants will discuss existing policy proposals and draft a collective policy paper, to be presented to the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, the news US administration, and the Quartet Representatives. For further information, contact E-Mail: walid@cd-cd.org or Jacobson@post.tau.ac.il
Gaza Community Mental Health Programme announced in September 2008 that the International Palestinian Campaign to Break the Siege has launched one million signatures campaign from Gaza citizens and submit them in a document to the UN General Assembly. The signatures will be collected throughout the Gaza Strip in various locations and sectors. New activities are being organized in September: an Egyptian popular convoy from Cairo to Gaza, comprising MPs and leaders of parties, carrying medicine and foodstuff to Gaza; several Egyptian national figures called on Egyptians to head to the Rafah crossing; and a new sea trip coming from Cyprus will start in the last week of Ramadan carrying 150 personalities including Europeans lawmakers and international figures, in addition to journalist and doctors. The Popular Committee against the Siege reported that the direct losses of the industrial sector is estimated at more than US$ 70 million per month as a result of the Israeli ban of the entry of raw materials for more than a year, which led to the closure of 3,900 factories and workshops, and the unemployment of 70,000 workers despite the truce agreement. For further information, visit the web site: http://www.freegaza.org or http://www.1000000.ps
The International Crisis Group issued a briefing on 11 September 2008 entitled “Round Two in Gaza”. For further information, visit the web site: http://www.crisisgroup.org
Ir Amin will hold on 10 September 2008 the screening of “Jerusalem Moments”, produced by ten Israeli and Palestinian directors on the Palestinian conflict in Jerusalem and asking questions about the city’s future. For further information, visit the web site: http://www.ir-amin.org.il
Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI) issued in September 2008 a policy paper entitled “A Day after Annapolis”, which examines possible policy options for the Palestinian Authority if the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations come to an end without producing an agreement. The paper examines a set of options and explores the possible outcomes of those options. For further information, visit the web site:
http://www.ipcri.org/files/after-annap.pdf
Peace Now issued a report on 26 August 2008 entitled “Israel is Eliminating the Green Line and Continuing to Build in Isolated Settlements”. Settlement construction nearly doubled during the first half of 2008. Peace Now also produced a video entitled “Political Tourism in Jerusalem”, about the 45,000 Palestinians who live in Silwan amid archaeological digs. For further information, visit the web site: http://www.peacenow.org.il
The Palestine Strategy Group, 45 Palestinians from the whole political spectrum, secular and religious, academics, civil society and business representatives from the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and the diaspora issued in September 2008 a plan entitled “Strategic options to end the Israeli Occupation”. After several workshops in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and abroad and a continuous online debate the group has produced the first itineration of “Beginning the Initiative: Palestinian Strategic Options to End the Israeli Occupation”. The document is posted at: http://www.palestinestrategygroup.ps For further information, contact E-Mail: sbahour@palnet.com
The Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign and its popular committees have launched the Sixth Week against the Wall to be held from 9 to 16 November 2008. The wall has isolated 78 Palestinian communities, separating communities and wrecking livelihoods. 14 of these villages face imminent destruction. For further information, visit the web site: http://www.stopthewall.org
PARC – Agricultural Development Association, Premiere Urgence, G.V.C. – Gruppo di Volontariato Civile, LifeSource, Palestinian Hydrology Group, Centre on Housing Rights and Eviction, The Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem, The Swedish Cooperative Centre, Palestinian Farmer Union, Oxfam International, and Asamblea de Cooperación por la Paz issued a statement in September 2008 calling the water shortage across the West Bank a “humanitarian crisis”. The coalition said that there was a reduction of water supplies from rainfall averaging 45% across the West Bank, which has left 200 communities without water for domestic use and agricultural irrigation. For further information, visit the web site: http://www.poica.org
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The NGO Action News is a bi-weekly newsletter issued by the Division for Palestinian Rights of the United Nations Secretariat and intended to provide information on worldwide NGO activities relevant to the question of Palestine. Organizations interested in sharing information about their activities through this newsletter may contact the Division for Palestinian Rights at:
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