, Occupied Palestinian Territories

Palestinians face “physical, social and psychological destruction”

New York. At a press briefing on November 12, Jean Ziegler, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, will discuss the findings of a new report condemning Israel for creating a hidden humanitarian crisis through denying the right to food and water to 3.8 million Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.

After reviewing reports by independent groups including the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR), Habitat International, BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, LAW and the Association of 40, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights declared that it was "deeply concerned by accounts that Israel’s recent actions in the occupied territories had resulted in the widespread and gross violations of Palestinians’ economic, social and cultural rights."

On Monday September 18, from 12:30-1:30pm, protesters will gather outside the Council on Foreign Relations where Shlomo Ben-Ami, Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, will be speaking. Ben-Ami’s talk, entitled “Israel’s Continuing Efforts to Achieve a Final Status Agreement with the Palestinians,” angered local activists who see the Israeli government’s policies and practices under the Oslo Peace Agreements as violating basic Palestinian human rights and therefore precluding any possibility of a just peace in the region.

On Friday, April 14th, an unprecedented conference critiquing United States policy on the Middle East will take place on Capitol Hill. Entitled “Great Expectations, Bitter Realities: Human Rights Abuse and Economic Decline under the Oslo Process,” the event will mark the first public presentation of a comprehensive three-year research program in the West Bank and Gaza Strip undertaken by the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR), a New York-based human rights organization.