October 2008

No. 21

North America

Alwan for the Arts

, sponsored by

ArteEast,

the

Kervokian Center at New York University

and

Adalah-NY

will screen on 8 October 2008 the documentary “Chronicles of a Refugee”, a six-part documentary series looking at the global Palestinian refugee experience over the last 60 years. It has been filmed in over 15 countries, with more than 250 interviews of Palestinian refugees who have lived in over 25 countries. The documentary is directed by Perla Issa, Adam Shapiro and Aseel Mansour. For further information, visit the web site:

http://www.arteeast.org

Institute for Palestine Studies

issued a press release on 7 October 2008 announcing the publication of the book “Mountain Against the Sea: Essays on Palestinian Society and Culture” by Salim Tamari, Professor of Sociology at Birzeit University. The book brings to light the memoirs, diaries, letters and other writings of six Jerusalem intellectuals whose lives spanned the period 1918 to 1948. For further information, contact E-Mail:

palestinestudies@mail.democracyinaction.org

The Palestine Center

issued the transcript of the presentation held on 3 October 2008 entitled “Palestinians and Israelis: Two States or One State” by Avi Shlaim, Professor of International Relations at Oxford University; Abu Abunimah, Palestine Center Fellow; Mounzer Sleiman, journalist and political analyst; and Subhi Ali, Chairman of The Jerusalem Fund and the Palestine Center. For further information, visit the web site:

http://www.thejerusalemfund.org

US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation

and

Friends of Sabeel –North

America

held on 3 October 2008 a presentation by Rev. Naim Ateek, Director of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem. Also, the Campaign is announcing the following events: the US Tour of Diana Buttu and Eddie Makue from 10 to 23 November; a conference at the Rachel Corrie Foundation on 17 and 19 October entitled “Dual Occupations; Sovereignty and Freedom from Iraq to Palestine”; and the Boston Film Festival from 4 to 12 October. For further information, visit the web site:

http://www.endtheoccupation.org

Europe

Internal Displacement Monitoring Center,

established by the Norwegian Refugee Council, issued in September 2008 a report entitled “Palestinian Occupied Territories: Forced Displacement Continues”. “Since 1967, internal displacement has been a direct and indirect result of the Israeli policies of occupation, including house demolitions, evictions and land expropriation, construction of the wall and the limitations on freedom of movement which have accompanied it, revocation of residency rights, and military incursions and clearing operations. More than 110,000 Palestinians are reported to have been internally displaced during the last four decades. At present, an additional 30,000 to 90,000 are reportedly at risk of displacement.” For further information, visit the web site:

http://www.internaldisplacement.org

Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign

will hold several presentations in October 2008 by Holocaust survivor and Gaza siege-breaker Hedy Epstein, and presentation/screening of the documentary “Jerusalem: East Side Story by Mohammad Alatar; and George S. Rishmawi, Director of the Siraz Center for Holy Land Studies in Bethlehem. The Campaign is also organizing an event in October to celebrate the life and poetry of Mahmoud Darwish. For further information, contact E-Mail:

supportpalestine@ireland.com

or visit the web site:

http://www.supportpalestine.org

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC)

in association with the

A.M.Qattan

Foundation

will hold an art exhibit from 21 October to 15 November 2008 entitled “Occupied Space 2009 – Art for Palestine”. All proceeds from sales will go to artists in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and to support PSC’s campaigns in the UK. For further information, contact E-Mail:

art@palestinecampaign.org

info@qattanfoundation.org

or visit the web site:

http://www.occupiedspace.org.uk

www.palestinecampaign.org

Asia

Australians for Palestine

and

Women for Palestine

held a presentation on 8 October 2008 entitled “Beyond Occupation: Examining the New Reality in Israel/Palestine” by Sarah Roy, Political Economist and Senior Research Scholar at Harvard University, who present her new book “Gaza and the Palestinian/Israeli Conflict”. The event will take place at the University of Melbourne. For further information, contact E-Mail:

sonjakarkar@womenforpalestine.org

or visit the web site:

http://www.womenforpalestine.org

Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem

Addameer

issued a press release on 8 October 2008 entitled “Salwa Salah and Sara Siureh receive their Second Administrative Detention Order”, extending their arrest. The press release informs that it is the first time that girls under the age of 18 have been put on administrative detention although the military prosecutor has provided no information since the girls were arrested. For further information, contact E-Mail:

addameer@p-ol.com

Applied Research Institute (ARIJ) endorsed by Agricultural Development Association (PARC), PREMIERE URGENCE, G.V.C.-Gruppo di Volontariato Civile, LifeSource, Palestinian Hydrology Group, COHRE – Centre on Housing Rights and Eviction, Swedish Cooperative Centre (SCC), Palestine Farmer Union (PFU), Oxfam International, Asamblea de la Cooperación Por La Paz (ACPP)

issued a report in September 2008 entitled “Severe Water Shortage in the West Bank – Humanitarian and human rights organizations are gravely concerned by the unfolding humanitarian crisis”. For further information, visit the web site:

http://www.poica.org

B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories

inaugurated

on 24 September 2008 its news Washington, D.C. office. The organization issued two press releases entitled “Settlers raid Asira al-Qibliya and attack residents”, and “Women delivers stillborn baby while delayed at checkpoint”. For further information, visit the web site:

http://www.btselem.org

The Civic Coalition for Defending the Palestinians’Rights in Jerusalem

issued in October 2008 its human rights monthly report for the month of August. This month, the municipality of Jerusalem demolished a total of five houses, displacing many people, and sent notification for the demolition of a sixth house. For further information, contact E-Mail:

info@ccdrj.ps

or visit the web site:

http://www.ccdrj.ps

Gush Shalom, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Alternative Information Center, Yesh Gvul, Yesh Din, Combatants for Peace, Machsomwatch, The Olive Tree Movement, The Villages Group, Kibbutz/Youth Movements, Coalition of Women for Peace, Rabbis for Human Rights, Taayush – Arab Jewish Partnership, New Profile, On the Left Side

issued a press release in September 2008 calling for volunteers to participate in the Autumn 2008 Olive Harvest and Farming Tasks in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Most of the activities will take place in villages situated close to Israeli settlements. For further information, contact E-Mail:

ofra1979@gmail.com

International Solidarity Movement

(ISM

) announced in October 2008 the reestablishment of a presence in the Gaza Strip where international activists will be based in Rafah. Members of the organization accompany fishermen at sea where they are not allowed to fish past six miles and in some cases three miles; support farmers’ direct action to reclaim their land within the buffer zone along the green line, where they are prohibited from farming their land; and report from the Strip. ISM and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) have symbolically planted trees in the buffer zone, about 300 metres wide agricultural land along the entire eastern side of the Gaza Strip. For further information, visit the web site:

http://www.palsolidarity.org

Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI),

Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Israeli-Palestinian Business Forum (IPBF) and CIPE published in October 2008 the Guide to Investment, Trade and Cross-Border Commerce Seminars, an overview of all aspects of starting and operating business in Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as well as information unavailable elsewhere on the movement of goods through internal and international borders. The organizations will hold two seminars on cross-border commerce on 23 and 29 October. For further information, contact E-Mail:

gershon@ipcri.org

or visit the web site:

http://www.ipcri.org

LifeSource,

an organization working on water justice, is launching a campaign of popular research and action. Susan Koppelman, a co-founder, will tour the US in October 2007 under the theme “Drought, Settlements, and We, the Women of Jayyous”. “Palestinians are experiencing a crisis of water scarcity affecting 90% of Palestinians living in the West Bank, while Israeli settlers have not even asked to take any water conservation measures. This scenario is entrenched by the unequal power dynamic that supports a discriminatory system of water/sanitation infrastructure development and water supply. More than 70% of the land and all its six water wells belonging to the village of Jayyous have been confiscated”. Original LifeSource maps, depicting Palestinian and Israeli water resources and the wall will be available. For further information, contact E-Mail: susan@life source.ps or visit the web site:

http://www.LifeSource.ps

Twenty-one international aid agencies and human rights organizations - including

Oxfam International, Care International UK, Save the Children UK, Christian Aid

and

World Vision Jerusalem

- issued on 25 September 2008 “The Middle East Quartet: A Progress Report”. The report warns that key areas the Quartet committed to improving remain unchanged or have deteriorated since the Annapolis Conference last November, and it concludes that the Quartet is failing on its mission and “has lost its grip” on the Middle East Peace Process which is meant to foster. For further information, visit the web site:

http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/en/41_6688.htm

Yesh Din

in September 2008 filed a civil suit in the Magistrate Court in Jerusalem against the State of Israel on the grounds that it did not evacuate an outpost in the West Bank and did not act to remove trespassers from the Palestinian-owned plots. Five Palestinian landowners, on whose land the Migron outpost was established, with the assistance of Yesh Din, submitted a suit demanding compensation for loss of potential income and for Israel’s violation of its duty under international law. According to the suit, nine years ago, Israeli settlers first trespassed onto Palestinian owned land under the pretext of erecting an antenna. Two years later, the setters illegally placed caravans on the land, establishing the outpost of Migron. As a result, the topography of the land has been changed beyond recognition and access to the land was made impossible to Palestinian owners of the land. For further information, visit the web site:

http://www.yesh-din.org

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United Nations

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People

will convene the United Nations Latin American and Caribbean Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace on 11 and 12 December, to be followed on 13 December 2008 by the United Nations Public Forum in Support of the Israeli-Palestinian Peace. The Meetings will he held at the Headquarters of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, in Santiago, Chile. The objective of the Meeting, at this time of reinvigorated efforts at advancing the Israeli-Palestinian political process, is to encourage broad international action, including by Latin America and Caribbean States, in support of the Israel-Palestinian peace and achieving a solution to the conflict based on a shared vision of two States, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security. For further information, visit the web site:

http://www.un.org/depts/dpa/qpal/calendar.htm

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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:

United Nations Headquarters Phone: (212) 963-1550

Room S-3350 Fax: (212) 963-4199

New York, NY 10017 E-mail:

dprngo@un.org

Please be advised that the final decision with regard to selecting material for inclusion in the newsletter rests with the Division for Palestinian Rights. The Division cannot take responsibility for the accuracy of the information provided to it by contributing organizations.