NGO Actions News
February-March 2008
No. 4,5,6, (161)
North America
American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP), Americans for Peace Now, Brit Tzevek v’Shalom, Churches for Middle East Peace, Israel Policy Forum, The Arab American Institute and Foundation for Middle East Peace held a presentation on 12 February 2008 entitled “Re-Calculating Annapolis: Understanding the Crisis in Gaza and Southern Israel and Its Impact on the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process” by Ghait al-Omari, ATFP Director, lead Palestinian drafter of the Geneva Initiative; Helena Cobban, author on Israeli-Arab issues and currently an advisor to the Friends Committee on National Legacy of the “Just World News web log; Daniel Levy, Senior Fellow and Director of the Middle East Policy Initiative of the American Strategy Program at the New American Foundation; and Robert Malley, Middle East and North Africa Program Director for the International Crisis Group, former Assistant to President Clinton. For further information, contact visit the web site: http://www.atfp.org
Brit Tzevek v’Shalom – Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace launched in March 2008 a 10-city speaking tour in the US with Gershon Baskin and Hanna Siniora, co-director of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Development (IPCRI). For further information, contact E-Mail: info@btvshalom.org or visit the web site: http://www.btvshalom.org
Foundation for Middle East Peace, Middle East Institute & Americans for Peace Now held a presentation on 27 February 2008 entitled “Jerusalem’s Future: Chronic Conflict or a Shared Peace in a City of Three Faiths?” by Danny Seidemann of Ir Amin; Nazmi Jubeh, Co-Director of Riwaq Center for Architectural Conservation and a lecturer at Birzeit and Al-Quds Universities; and Gregory Khalil, an expert on the peace process and the Palestinian Christian community. For further information, contact E-Mail: info@fmep.org or visit the web site: info@fmep.org
New Israel Fund will hold a presentation on 10 March 2008 by Dotan Greenvald of Breaking the Silence, Veterans of the IDF speak out. For further information, visit the web site: http://www.nif.org
The Palestine Center will hold the 2008 Evening Lecture Series from 6 to 27 March entitled “Palestine, the Middle East, and the United States. Speakers include: Michael Fishbach, Professor of History, Randolph Macon College on “Legacy of the 1948 Nakba”; Marwan Kraidy, Associate Professor, Annenberg School of Communication, University of Pennsylvania, on “US Public Diplomacy in the Middle East”; Frederic Hof, President and CEO AALC, former US State Department officer and member of the Sharm El-Sheikh fact-finding Mitchell Committee, on “US Foreign Policy toward the Middle East”; and Daoud Khairallah, Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University& School of Advanced International Studies, John Hopkins University, on “Palestine, Middle East, the US and International Law”. For further information, contact E-Mail; info@palestinecenter.org or visit the web site: http://www.thejerusalemfund.org
The US Palestine Conference Network announced that The Popular Conference for Palestinians entitled “Nakba: 60 Years of Catastrophe - 60 Years of Resilience” will take place from 8 to 10 August 2008, in Illinois, Chicago. For further information, contact E-Mail: palestineconference@yahoo.com or visit the web site: http://www.palestineconference.org
Europe
Amnesty International issued an urgent press release requesting that nine Palestinian cancer patients leave the Gaza Strip for urgent medical treatment pointing out that “under international law, Israel, as the occupying Power, must ensure that the residents of the Gaza Strip have access to medical care to the same extent as nationals of the State of Israel”. For further information, contact E-Mail: yterling@amnesty.org
Islamic Human Rights Commission will hold a conference on 4 May 2008, entitled “Human Rights and Israel at 60”, in London. Speakers include: Jennifer Lowenstein, Professor at the University of Wisconsin, on Gaza; Meir Margalit, The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, on house demolitions; Yehudit Keshet, Machsom Watch, on the operations of checkpoints; Daud Abdullah, The Palestinian Return Centre, on refugee rights; Michael Warschawski, The Alternative Information Center, on the right of self-determination and others. For further information, contact E-Mail: samira@ihrc.org or visit the web site: http://www.ihrc.org
The European Campaign to End the Blockade of Gaza in collaboration with the Palestinian Return Centre, London held a vigil on 4 March 2008 in front of the European Parliament in Brussels. For further information, contact E-Mail: prc@prc.org.uk
Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) with the support of UNISON, Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), University and College Union (UCU), Amos Trust, Zaytoun, Palestinian Return Centre, War on Want, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Architects, Planners for Justice in Palestine, Friends of Al Aqsa, Arab Media Watch, and Friends of Sabeel UK will host the screening of the film “Jerusalem: East Side Story” by Mohamed Alatar.
For further information, visit the web site: http://www.eastsidestory.ps
Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) held the “End the Siege of Gaza” protest on 23 February 2008, in London. The Peace Cycle also joined the protest with their bikes. For further information, contact E-Mail: info@palestinecampaign.org or visit the web site: http://www.palestinecampaign.org
PSC organized a conference in February 2008 entitled ‘Emergency in Gaza” with the presence of Manuel Hassassian, Palestinian General Delegate to the UK, and several MP’s; and a talk entitled “Israel: A State for all its Citizens” by Awad Abdel Fattah, General Secretary of the National Democratic Assembly Party in Israel, and a journalist.
Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem
B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories issued two press releases in February 2008: one entitled “Israel isolates Nu’man village from both Jerusalem and the West Bank”, where its residents live in almost total isolation; and the other entitled “Woman, 68, suffers heart attack and dies after army prevents her passage to hospital”. For further information, visit the web site: http://www.btselem.org
The Civic Coalition for Defending the Palestinians’ Rights in Jerusalem (CCDPRJ) in partnership with League of Vocational Education & Training Institutes in Palestine, Association of Private Schools in Jerusalem, Association of Teachers in Palestinian Schools, Association of Social Workers in Jerusalem, Parents’ Committees, Union of Charitable Societies, and Youth Development Department held a conference in February 2008 entitled “Education in Jerusalem – Realities and Challenges”. For further information, contact E-Mail: arouria@jwelfare.org
Ir Amin, Peace and Democracy Forum, and Green MPs Margret Auken, David Hammerstein, Joost Lagendijk, Angelika Beer, David Hammerstein, Caroline Lucas and Cem Ozdemir held a conference in February 2008 at the European Parliament entitled “Feasible and Liveable Solutions for Palestinians and Israelis in Jerusalem”; a photo exhibit entitled “East Jerusalem –The Backyard of the Holy City” by Yoav Galai; and the screening of the film “I am, You Are”, a project of identity through film-making for Israeli and Palestinian youth in Jerusalem. Ir Amin also made a presentation about the situation in Jerusalem to the EU Council with the presence of more than forty Middle East advisors to EU Foreign Affairs Ministers. For further information, visit the web site: http://www.ir-amin.org
The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) held a presentation on 27 February 2008 in Jerusalem entitled “Gaza: An Israeli Human Rights Perspective” by Lana Tatour of Gisha. The presentation focused on the Israeli definition of “minimal humanitarian standards” and what is it trying to accomplish with the strangulation of Gaza. For further information, contact E-Mail: angela@icahd.org or visit the web site: http://www.icahd.org
ICAHD and Cooperazione Internazionale Sud Sud (CISS) organized in February 2008 in Italy a conference and a photo exhibit entitled “House Demolitions – The sky in my house”.
ICAHD issued a press release in February informing about the situation of Palestinians living in Silwan, East Jerusalem. According to the organization, for months the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA), with funding from the settler organization ELAD, has been digging under the private property of Silwan residents. For further information, visit the web site: http://www.icahd.org
Gush Shalom announced that the Israeli Coalition Against the Siege and the Gaza-based Campaign to End the Siege have started an emergency initiative of collecting signatures on a joint petition calling for a cease fire and an end to the blockade. The petition is only for Palestinians and Israelis. For further information, contact E-Mail: info@gush-shalom.org or visit the web site: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ceasefirenow
Campaign to End the Siege organized a human chain in protest at Israel’s blockade of Gaza. About 5,000 people, many of them women, schoolchildren and university students, joined the chain outside the town of Beit Hanoun, about four miles from the border. For further information, visit the web site: http://www.endthesiege.org
The Siraj Center, the Center for Holy Land Studies in partnership with Bethlehem University and the US based Society for Biblical Studies will hold from 15 June to 17 August 2008 the summer celebration, a programme that gives people from all over the world the chance to encounter the life and culture in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in addition to donating some of their time to a local community organization through voluntary work and internships. For further information, contact E-Mail: george@sirajcenter.org or visit the web site: http://www.sirajcenter.org
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.