NGO Campaigns Marking 50 Years since 1967 – A Compilation
The week of June 4-10, 2017 marks 50 years since the Six Day War. Israeli, Palestinian, and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been organizing events and campaigns, issuing statements, and intensifying their lobbying efforts to correspond with the anniversary.
Unsurprisingly, these groups utilize “50 years” rhetoric to support their international campaigns of demonization and delegitimization.
The events and campaigns compiled here are sampling of such NGO activity.
- Breaking the Silence
- Published a book titled Kingdom of Olives and Ash with Harper-Collins “to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, this anthology explores the human cost of the conflict as witnessed by…notable writers…in collaboration with Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence.”
- Breaking the Silence led tours for several delegations of authors, including the volume’s editors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman.
- Work on this project began in November 2014, and the book received significant media attention, including articles in the Washington Post, and the New York Times, the Guardian, and the Forward.
- The book was published on May 30, 2017. Following publication, BtS led a six-city book tour, organized by HarperCollins and the New Israel Fund.
- The book is part of Breaking the Silence’s campaign to create international pressure on Israel. As documented by NGO Monitor, instead of attempting to open the eyes of “Israeli society [which] continues to turn a blind eye” to the situation created by the occupation (as Breaking the Silence states), this NGO spends most of its resources on speaking tours abroad, or on foreign visitors to Israel.
- Published a book titled Kingdom of Olives and Ash with Harper-Collins “to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, this anthology explores the human cost of the conflict as witnessed by…notable writers…in collaboration with Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence.”
- Al-Haq, Palestinian Center for Human Rights, FIDH, and Birzeit University Institute of Law
- Issued a call for papers for an international conference titled “The Threshold from Occupation to Annexation: Assessing the Legality of Israel’s 50-year Occupation of Palestinian territory occupied since 1967.” The call for papers explains that “Since the 1967 occupation of Palestinian territory, Israel’s practices and policies have been twofold: annexation (both de jure and de facto), of as much Palestinian territory as possible, and the demographic change in Palestinian territory so that the Palestinian population is either limited or non-existent – in a similar fashion to that of 1948.”
- The conference will take place on September 27, 2017 marking “50 years since the establishment of the first Israeli settlement of Gush Etzion and the revelation of Israel’s true intentions regarding the territory it occupied after the Six-Day War of 1967.”
- Selected papers will be published in a follow-up book to Al-Haq’s International Law and the Administration of Occupied Territories.
- Defense for Children International- Palestine (DCI-P) and American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
- As part of their “No Way to Treat a Child” campaign, DCI-P and AFSC will hold a hearing in Congress, sponsored by Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), on June 8, 2017 on “50 years under Israeli military occupation: A look at Palestinian children’s rights.” Speakers include Omar Shakir of Human Rights Watch and Nadia Ben-Youssef of Adalah.
- Human Rights Watch (HRW)
- On June 4, HRW released a statement on “50 Years of Occupation Abuses.” In it, HRW accuses Israel of “major violations of international human rights law and humanitarian law” and “war crimes.” The statement further calls upon the International Criminal Court to “open a formal investigation into serious crimes committed in Israel and Palestine.” (Omar Shakir also posted the report in video form on Twitter.)
- Amnesty International
- Amnesty International introduced a campaign marking “calling upon its supporters to demand that their governments ban products made in the Israeli settlements.
- FIDH
- On June 5, “the 50th anniversary of Israel’s occupation,” FIDH released a statement accusing Israel of committing “systemic violations of human rights, many of which amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.” The statement also calls upon the international community to “end Israel’s occupation and hold Israelis who allegedly committed serious international crimes accountable.”
- New Israel Fund (NIF)
- The NIF launched a campaign titled “50 Years of Occupation: Time to Take a Stand.” The campaign’s website provides resources, videos, promotes events (including the Breaking the Silence book tour), and collects donations.
- On July 10, 2017, NIF will hold a tour to provide an “intensive look at Israel as it marks 50 years of occupation.”
- NewGen, “NIF’s open and vibrant community of young professionals,” organized an event in San Francisco commemorating Israel’s Independence Day entitled “An Alternative Independence Day Event: Occupation is Turning 50.”
- B’Tselem
- B’Tselem director Hagai El-Ad addressed European diplomats in a “series of events being held in Europe to mark 50 years since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.” On June 1, El-Ad met with Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Anders Samuelsen, and on June 2 with ambassadors of “the 28 EU member states, in a meeting of the Political and Security Committee.”
- Al-Haq and B’Tselem
- On June 1, 2017, Shawan Jabarin, director of Al-Haq, spoke in Copenhagen on a panel with Hagai El-Ad marking “50 years of occupation.” The event was organized by Politiken and DanChurchAid.
- BADIL and Al Mezan
- In October 2016, hosted a panel at the European Parliament on “ensuring accountability for violations of international law in the occupied Palestinian Territories and on the UN database of businesses operating in Israeli settlements.” According to Al Mezan, the “panel was held in the context of nearly 50 years of Israeli occupation of Palestine, a situation of international armed conflict, where violations of the applicable international humanitarian law and international human rights law are met with impunity by Israel, the Occupying Power.”
- Sabeel
- On June 5, 2017, Sabeel released a statement titled “Half a Century of Occupation- Now What?” In it, Sabeel claims that “these 50 years were only the second stage of the Nakba,” which began in 1948. Israel is compared to “a bulldozer plowing through Palestine” and “a famished tiger.” Sabeel also calls for BDS campaigns against Israel by declaring that “Nonviolence can take many forms such as political and economic pressure, because Israel will not end the occupation until it becomes costly. Today it is profitable.”
- In an address entitled “The Challenge of Jubilee,” Naim Ateek, Chair of the Board of Sabeel, claimed that “The last fifty years have brought untold suffering upon our Palestinian people.” The message goes on to call for the removal “of all checkpoints and the tearing down of the apartheid wall.”
- US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
- Organized a “Week of Action June 5-10” in which it calls upon followers to “Join 50 actions nationwide June 5-June 10, 2017 on this 50th anniversary to demand an end to Israel’s brutal military occupation.”
- Suggested activities include organizing a demonstration, protest, “Mock wall,” “Mock checkpoint,” and “Die-in” outside of Consulates, Congressional offices, and stores that sell “boycotted products.”
- Al-Haq
- “As Palestinians enter the 50th year of the occupation, the international community must move beyond empty condemnations and begin to take real, concrete action that will have an immediate impact on Israel’s unlawful policies. A ban on settlement products, along with other measures which target Israel’s settlement enterprise, must be implemented.”
- United Nations
- On June 29-30, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will hold a conference at the UN Headquarters in New York titled “United Nations Forum to Mark Fifty Years of Occupation.” Hagai El-Ad, director of B’Tselem, will participate in the event.
- UNOCHA-OPT has published “50 Stories of Palestinian Life Under Occupation” to commemorate “50 Years of Occupation.”In its description of the event, OCHA claims that “The prolonged occupation, with no end in sight, cultivates a sense of hopelessness and frustration that drives continued violence and impacts both Palestinians and Israelis.”
- Physicians for Human Rights- Israel (PHR-I)
- Published “Chronicles of Occupation | 50 to 67,” which provides a “historiography of the Israeli occupation” and describes”the occupation’s destructive force on the lives of so many.”
- “November Stories”
- A crowdfunded book of “50 testimonials…that appeared in the media or in the publications of human rights organizations – 50 Palestinian representations…. and 50 writers analyzing key terms.”
- The project is headed by NGO activist Ishai Menuchin.
- Authors include Yuli Novak of Breaking the Silence, Michael Sfard of Yesh Din (and others), Rami Elchanan and Bassem Aramein from Parents Circle Families Forum, Sari Bashi from Human Rights Watch (and formerly from Gisha), Efrat Cohen-Bar from Bimkom, and Dani Filc from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel.
- Pax Christi
- Pax Christi International member Arab Educational Institute (AEI) issued a “call to artists worldwide”: “To commemorate this symbolic year and to give momentum to the public challenge of occupation and the demand for the implementation of the legal rights of the Palestinian people, AEI and Palestine Link wish to make an appeal to artists worldwide to prepare a performance or artistic product about the theme of “occupation.”
- Churches for Middle East Peace
- Hosted an “advocacy summit,” “50 Years Too Long” on June 4-6, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Speakers include representatives from the United States Institute of Peace, World Vision, Defense for Children International- Palestine (DCI-P), and B’Tselem USA.
- Machsom Watch
- Organizing two marches in raise awareness of the fact that “Palestinians have been living under Israeli military rule for half a century.” The marches, on June 8 and 10, will take place in Giva’t Haviv and Neve Shalom.
- Holy Land Trust, Combatants for Peace, Popular Committees of the South Hebron Hills, All That’s Left: Anti-Occupation Collective, and the Center for Jewish Nonviolence
- Along with other organizations, on May 19, 2017, joined with families of Darura to build the “Sumud; Freedom Camp.” The “Coalition” calls “for the return of Sarura Village to the homes from which they were forced out, an end to the systematic displacement of Palestinians, and a future of freedom, dignity, and equality for all.”
- Center for Constitutional Rights
- Published an article entitled “The Genocide of the Palestinian People: An International Law and Human Rights Perspective” in which it claimed that “Israel’s prolonged belligerent occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza for 50 years far exceeds the kind of occupation that animated the creation of legal rules of occupation contained in international law. Given the seemingly permanent nature of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, some human rights experts, including Israeli historian Ilan Pappé, have warned of an ‘incremental genocide’ of Palestinians and the ultimate destruction of Palestinians as a national group.”
- If Not Now
- Organized a protest against Jerusalem Day and the March of the Flags outside of Damascus Gate, in which several protesters were arrested by Israeli police. Yonah Lieberman, an If Not Now organizer, said that “This is a significant moment for us. Our generation is rejecting the occupation. In [its] 50th year, it felt deeply significant for us to come together and put our bodies on the line.”
- Organized a “Week of Action to Confront 50 Years of Occupation” during the week of June 5, 2017, with events taking place in cities throughout the US.
- United Church of Canada
- Marking “50 years of occupation,” calls upon its followers to petition Canadian decision makers to pressure “the Israeli government to cease all settlement activity.”
- Palestine Advocacy Project
- Hosted a rally outside of Cambridge City Hall in Cambridge, MA on June 5, 2017, protesting US aid to Israel arguing that it has “systematically colonized Palestinian lands with Jews-only settlements.”