NGO Action News – 27 July 2018

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.

United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the
Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People 

NGO Action News
27 July 2018

Middle East

• On 23 July, the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) issued a statement condemning Israel’s refusal to allow two human rights defenders to enter the country. The people in question are senior legal researchers working on business and human rights for the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations in the Netherlands. Israel alleges that they violated the anti-boycott, divestment, and sanctions provision that bars foreign nationals from entering Israel if they “knowingly publish a public call to engage in a boycott against the State of Israel.”

• On 26 July, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) condemned the death sentences issued by the Gaza Court of First Instance against two Palestinians convicted of murder. The PCHR reiterated calls for Palestinian President Abbas to issue a decree halting the death penalty until necessary amendments are made in the local laws, especially in light of absence of fair trial guarantees in the Gaza Strip.

United Nations

• On 26 July, UNRWA issued a statement condemning the demolition of a donor-funded structure that serves as a kindergarten for 28 children and a women’s centre in the Jabal al-Baba Bedouin Palestine refugee community in the occupied West Bank. This demolition comes against a backdrop of the intensified measures by Israeli security forces to forcefully relocate communities from Area C of the West Bank. UNRWA called for an immediate halt to such demolitions in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

• On 25 July, UNRWA condemned the killing of a Palestine refugee student at its Basic Boys School in Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem. The Agency also called for an independent and transparent investigation to establish the cause and circumstances of this death. On 23 July, Israeli security forces launched a large incursion into Dheisheh refugee camp and fatally shot the student. About 10 refugees have been killed and 129 (27 minors) others have been injured by live ammunition across all 19 refugee camps in the West Bank since 2017.

• On 24 July, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People delivered a statement at the open debate of the Security Council on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian Question. The Committee expressed concern over recent developments impeding a just, lasting and peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute and reiterated its appeal to the Security Council to ensure the implementation of its resolutions.

• On 23 July, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People held its 390th meeting at United Nations Headquarters in which Ambassador Cheikh Niang of Senegal was elected Chair of the Committee. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, also briefed on the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. He underscored that the situation in Gaza Strip had dramatically escalated, with the potential to generate threats to peace across a far broader region and urged parties and all those with influence to do their utmost to avoid another round of violence and misery.

• On 23 July, the UN Special Rapporteur for the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 urged Israel to stop its planned demolition of the Palestinian Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar, near Jerusalem. He stated that the destruction would exacerbate the already coercive environment of the village and could force residents to leave their homes, and said that Israel must be held to account for its actions if it proceeds as scheduled with its destruction.