De Palestinawerkgroep wil binnen de FNV de Palestina-solidariteit goed op de kaart zetten en houden.
MENA staat voor het Midden-Oosten en Noord-Afrika, de regio waar Palestina binnen valt.
Alle MENA-landen zijn oud-koloniën, nu alleen Palestina nog. Voor wat betreft de Verenigde Naties ontstond de 'kwestie Palestina' in 1947, tot nu toe, als enige, nog steeds!
Contactadres: palestinawerkgroepfnv@gmail.com
France has honored Al-Haq and B’Tselem with the prestigious Human Rights
Prize of the French Republic.
This came despite heavy pressure from Israel on the French government to
pull the award from the two groups which document Israeli war crimes and
abuses against Palestinians.
French justice minister Nicole Belloubet did however give in to the pressure
and refused to attend the award ceremony in Paris last Monday.
The French Israel lobby group CRIF wrote to Belloubet alleging that the
two winners “call for the boycott of Israel,” and claimed that for the French
justice ministry to give them the award “even in the absence of the minister,
is insulting justice.”
In his acceptance speech, B’Tselem executive director Hagai El-Ad
characterized the Israeli government’s response as “hysterical.”
El-Ad said that Israel’s attempt to pressure French officials “illustrates the
reality within which we work: propaganda, lies, and threats by a government
which believes that silencing and coverup will enable further human rights
violations.”
Al-Haq director Shawan Jabarin told The Electronic Intifada that the award
is a recognition his group’s work at a time when the organization is being
targeted by Israeli smear campaigns.
The 10 December award ceremony coincided with the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 20th anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.
A Palestinian woman observes the damage from Israeli bombardment three days earlier, Gaza City, 15 November.
Mohammed ZaanounActiveStills
Twenty-two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip were killed by Israeli fire during the month of November.
Around 290 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli occupation forces since the beginning of the year. Twelve Israelis were slain by Palestinians during the same period, as well as a Palestinian from the West Bank killed by a rocket fired from Gaza.
Some 180 Palestinians have been shot dead and nearly 6,000 others injured by live fire during Great March of Return protests in Gaza.
Fourteen of those Palestinians killed by occupation forces during November were slain over more than 48 hours of intense hostilities across the Gaza-Israel boundary. The fighting was triggered by a gun battle that erupted when Hamas forces discovered an Israeli commando unit operating clandestinely in Gaza on 11 November. Seven Hamas fighters and an Israeli lieutenant colonel were killed during the initial confrontation.
Before an informal ceasefire was reached on 13 November, Palestinian groups in Gaza launched more than 400 rockets towards Israel, killing Mahmoud Abu Asba, a Palestinian man from the West Bank in a home in Ashkelon, and severely injuring an Israeli woman.
An Israeli soldier was seriously injured when fighters in Gaza hit an army bus with an anti-tank missile soon after the soldiers it was carrying had disembarked.
The Israeli military struck sites throughout Gaza, killing seven Palestinians, at least two of them civilians, and destroying 33 housing units, including apartment towers, as well as a multi-story building housing a television channel.
Gaza boundary killings
Several other Palestinians in Gaza were killed along the boundary with Israel during the month, or died of injuries sustained during protests held in the northern and eastern perimeter of the territory in previous months.
Imad Shahin, 17, died in an Israeli hospital on 4 November from wounds sustained when he allegedly crossed the boundary fence the previous day.
Israel is holding the body of Shahin as well as those of 10 others from Gaza killed since 30 March, when mass protests held under the banner of the Great March of Return were launched.
On 5 November, Ghanim Shurrab, a 44-year-old man with a disability, died in a Gaza hospital from injuries sustained after he was shot in the left foot during Great March of Return protests on 19 October.
Two days later, Ahmad al-Najjar, 21, died in a West Bank hospital from injuries sustained when he was shot in the stomach with a bullet that exited his back during a Great March of Return protest on 26 October.
On 8 November, Muhammad Abu Sharabin, 21, was fatally shot when a group of youths reportedly approached the boundary fence east of al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza.
The next day, Rami Wael Ishaq Qahman, 28, was killed when he was shot in the neck by Israeli forces during Great March of Return protests east of Rafah in southern Gaza.
Nawaf Ahmad al-Attar, 20, was killed by Israeli fire while fishing in the waters of northern Gaza on 14 November, less than 24 hours after a ceasefire agreement was reached between Israel and armed groups in the territory.
Another fisher, Mustafa Khalil Abu Odeh, 30, was shot and killed by Egyptian navy fire while in waters off of Gaza’s southern coast on 8 November – the second Gaza fisher slain by Egyptian forces this year.
On 3 November, Muhammad Nasir Ziad al-Rifi, 13, succumbed to his injuriesfrom a 21 August 2014 drone strike that killed his father, twin brother and five other members of his family – most of them children. The child’s spine was hit by shrapnel, causing paraplegia.
Soldiers kill Palestinians in West Bank
In the West Bank, Muhammad Ibrahim Shreitah, 26, died on 11 November from his injuries after he was shot during confrontations between Palestinians and occupation forces in al-Mazraa al-Gharbiya village on 26 October. Another Palestinian was shot and killed during the same protest over confiscation of village land and settler violence.
Later that week Israeli police shot Abd al-Rahman Abu Jamal, 17, while he allegedly carried out a stabbing attack at an occupied East Jerusalem police station on 14 November. The teen died six days later. Seven Israeli police officers were reported injured during the incident in which the teen was fatally wounded.
On 26 November, Ramzi Abu Yabes, 32, was shot and killed by soldiers after he allegedly attacked and injured three of them with his car near the Gush Etzion junction in the southern West Bank. Soldiers detained a Palestinian ambulance in order to remove Abu Yabes’ body and transfer it to a military vehicle.
Also during the month of November, dozens of Palestinian children and several adults were injured by Israeli soldiers during multiple raids on schools. One of the raids “involved some 50 Israeli settlers, reportedly from Yitzhar settlement, who stormed the school accompanied by Israeli forces,” according to the United Nations monitoring group OCHA.
“Since the beginning of 2018 there has been a significant increase in incidents involving the entry of Israeli forces and settlers into Palestinian schools,” OCHA stated.
Palestinians in Gaza had electricity supply of 12 to 16 hours per day, up from 4 to 5 hours in previous months, after Qatari-funded fuel was imported to the territory in October.
“Despite this, basic health, water and hygiene facilities continue to rely on UN-assisted emergency fuel to operate backup generators and vehicles during power cuts,” according to OCHA.
The rights group Gisha warned that the Qatari-funded fuel will only be enough to run Gaza’s power plant turbines “for six months at best,” and that “increased demand once winter sets in will present a challenge of managing demand on the grid.”
STATEMENT / november 13, 2018 Nederland moet aan de slag met bindend VN-verdrag mensenrechten en bedrijfsleven Op 14 november 2018 vergadert de Commissie Buitenlandse Handel en Ontwikkelingssamenwerking (BuHaOS) in de Tweede Kamer over het bindend VN-verdrag mensenrechten en bedrijfsleven, tijdens het AO IMVO (Internationaal Maatschappelijk Verantwoord Ondernemen).
ActionAid, Milieudefensie, TNI, Friends of the Earth Europe, Schone Kleren Campagne en SOMO stuurden de Commissie voorafgaand aan dit overleg een brief, waarin zij Nederland oproepen om aan de slag te gaan met de inhoud van het VN-verdrag.
Zorg over continuïteit SOMO-onderzoek naar bezettingseconomie in door Israël bezette gebieden Deze zomer werd twee van onze onderzoekers de toegang tot Israël geweigerd, op grond van vermeende steun aan de Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) beweging. Naar aanleiding hiervan heeft SP-kamerlid Sadet Karabulut Kamervragen gesteld. Op 3 september j.l. heeft Minister Blok deze vragen beantwoord. De antwoorden geven SOMO aanleiding om het kabinet op te roepen op te komen voor haar onderzoek naar de bezettingseconomie.
Vandaag is het 100 jaar geleden dat de Eerste Wereldoorlog werd beëindigd met een ceremonie in Parijs (en elders).
Ook voor Palestina was het een merkpunt, maar niet ten goede.
De zionistische kolonisatie kwam op gang (eerst de Britten, toen vanaf 1948 Israel) en ging tot op de dag van vandaag door.....
Palestinians march against Israel’s siege on Gaza during a demonstration near Erez checkpoint, northern Gaza Strip, 4 September.
Mohammed ZaanounActiveStills
Twenty-three Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces and armed civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip during the month of September.
All but three of those fatalities occurred in Gaza, where Israeli forces shot and killed seven Palestinians during mass protests on 28 September alone.
Four additional children were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza during the month.
One of those children, Naji Jamil Abu Assi, 16, was killed in an airstrike along with Alaa Ziyad Abu Assi on 17 September. Israel claimed that the pair were among a group attempting to cross the boundary fence. The human rights group Al Mezan said that Israeli forces fired on a group of protesters and that the youths were found dead the next day.
A fifth child, Suhaib Abu Kashif, 16, died on 15 September from his injuries after being shot in the neck during protests the month before. “The bullet severed his spinal cord paralyzing him so he could not breathe on his own,” Defense for Children International Palestine stated.
Twelve patients have been paralyzed due to spinal cord injuries sustained during the Great March of Return protests and two of them have died, a UN spokesperson stated at the end of September.
More than 10,000 Palestinians have been injured and required hospitalization during the protests, around half of them wounded by live fire. There have been 77 cases of injuries requiring amputation, among them 14 children and one woman, according to the UN spokesperson.
More than 150 Palestinians have been killed during the six months of mass protests along Gaza’s eastern and northern perimeters. The slain include more than 30 children, three persons with disabilities, three paramedics and two journalists.
West Bank violence
In the West Bank, Muhammad al-Rimawi, 24, died after he was detained during a raid on his home by Israeli forces. An autopsy suggested that he died as a result of severe beating during his arrest, as alleged by his family, but this was rejected by Israel.
Wael Abd al-Fattah al-Jaabari, 36, was shot and killed during what Israel claimed was an attempted stabbing attack near the Kiryat Arba settlement on 3 September. No Israelis were injured.
Another Palestinian man, Muhammad Yusif Alayan, was killed during an alleged stabbing in East Jerusalem on 18 September. No Israelis were injured during that incident.
Israel is withholding the body of both men killed during the alleged stabbing attempts along with the bodies of 15 others killed in previous alleged attacks.
Seven Israelis and seven Palestinian assailants and alleged assailants have been killed in the context of alleged attacks since the beginning of the year.
An Israeli man of American origin died after he was stabbed by a 16-year-old Palestinian at a shopping center in a Hebron-area settlement on 16 September. The Palestinian assailant was shot multiple times during the incident but survived and was arrested by Israel.
Nine Israelis have been killed by Palestinians so far this year; around 235 Palestinians were killed by Israeli occupation forces and armed civilians during the same period.
Humanitarian funding crisis
UNRWA, the UN agency which provides services to 5.4 million Palestine refugees, announced at the end of September that it had raised $122 million to overcome a budget shortfall of $186 million.
The agency was plunged into unprecedented crisis after the US, formerly its largest donor, announced that it would cut $300 million in aid. A funding gap of $64 million remains.
During the month of September the Trump administration in Washington slashed more than $25 million in approved aid for six hospitals in East Jerusalem providing care to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
The cuts are in addition to the $200 million more in bilateral aid to the West Bank and Gaza frozen by the US in August.
Gaza’s two million residents endured power outages of up to 20 hours per day amid a longstanding electricity crisis resulting from more than a decade of Israeli siege, subsequent military assaults, and a bitter impasse between the Hamas authorities in the Strip and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
“Gaza’s water and sanitation facilities have a near zero stock of emergency fuel, while public hospitals currently have only enough fuel to maintain essential services for a few more weeks, on average, with some facilities facing even greater risks,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs statedin mid-September.
War crime imminent
On 23 September the Israeli occupation authorities gave official warning to the residents of Khan al-Ahmar village in the West Bank that they must demolish their own homes by 1 October or else state forces would do so.
Amnesty International stated that the forced demolition of the West Bank village would be a “war crime.”
Meanwhile settler violence in the West Bank “has been on the rise since the beginning of 2018,” according to UN OCHA, “with a weekly average of five attacks resulting in injuries or property damage, compared with an average of three in 2017 and two in 2016.”
The Action Group for Palestinians of Syria meanwhile stated that 18 Palestinians died in September in the context of the ongoing war in the country. The majority were fighters in pro-government groups killed in battle against Islamic State in the southern province of Sweida.
Verzonden: donderdag 11 oktober 2018 11:52 Aan: ITUC Online Onderwerp: Governments Should Back Binding UN Treaty on Business and
Human Rights - ITUC Online
INTERNATIONAL
TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION
ITUC
OnLine
Governments
Should Back Binding UN Treaty on Business and Human Rights
Brussels,
11 October 2018 (ITUC OnLine): The ITUC is calling on governments to support a
United Nations Binding Treaty on Business and Human Rights in negotiations
underway at the UN Human Rights Council. A “Zero Draft” of the Treaty will be
the basis for a further round of talks starting on 15 October in Geneva.
Sharan
Burrow, ITUC General Secretary, said: “The world is crying out for
multinational corporations to be held responsible for their international
operations, to end the abuse and violations of workers’ and other human rights
in global supply chains. Today, companies can flout international law at
will outside their home bases, and workers are paying a heavy price with
poverty wages, oppressive working conditions, unacceptably long working hours and
death, injury and sickness caused by work. This treaty should close a
massive loophole which allows corporations to flout international labour and
human rights standards.”
The zero
draft includes crucial provisions which would represent a big step forward in
ensuring corporate accountability throughout global supply chains:
a
requirement for businesses to adopt and apply human rights due diligence
policies and procedures;
a strong
focus on access to effective judicial recourse for victims of human rights
violations;
a basis for
“parent-based extraterritorial jurisdiction”, which will allow workers to have
access to justice in the home countries of multinational companies; and
mutual
legal assistance and international cooperation between states in transnational
cases.
The ITUC is
calling for improvements to the draft, including:
a
re-statement of the duty of businesses to respect human rights throughout their
operations;
explicit
recognition that human rights standards have primacy over trade and investment
agreements;
alignment
of due diligence provisions with the existing UN Guiding Principles on Business
and Human Rights; and
creation of
a strong international enforcement mechanism beyond the frameworks which have
been proposed so far for the Treaty.
The ITUC is
also seeking to remove ambiguous language from the draft, and for the treaty to
limit the use of “forum non conveniens”, a legal doctrine which corporations
use to have cases against them heard by courts in countries where the law is
weak.
“Governments
at the G20 and other fora have been making pledges to stop the undermining of
ILO standards as a way to get a competitive edge in global markets. It’s
time these words are put into action through a binding UN Treaty,” said Burrow.
For over seventeen years, the International Solidarity Movement
has supported grassroots Palestinian communities engaging in nonviolent
resistance to the Israeli Occupation.
