NGO ACTION NEWS 19-25 December http://unispal.un.org/ngoactionnews.nsf/1c0b3ab87dc4f2f8852568f8007759fd/315d6861dae57538852576960058eeb7?OpenDocument North America Al-Awda is urgently trying to identify members of the Arab community in Tucson, Arizona, who can help a young Palestinian family with children, that was recently relocated to Tucson from Al-Waleed refugee camp in Iraq. For additional information, contact: office@al-awda.org Democracy in Action reports that a candlelight memorial and interfaith service will be held on 27 December in San Francisco, to remember the victims of Operation Cast Lead. It is also supporting a march on 31 December across San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge to support the Gaza Freedom March. For additional information, visit: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/424/p/salsa/event/common/public/index.sjs?event_KEY=56232 and http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/424/p/salsa/event/common/public/index.sjs?event_KEY=56231 The Jerusalem Fund will hold an event called US Foreign Policy and the Inter-Palestinian Divide at the Palestine Center in Washington, DC, on 14 January. Dr. Nathan Brown, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University, will speak. For additional information, visit: http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/display/EventDetails/i/8324/pid/373 Europe The Palestine Solidarity Campaign will hold a public rally for Gaza in London on 19 January. For additional information, visit: http://www.palestinecampaign.org/Index9b.asp?m_id=1&l1_id=3&l2_id=62&Content_ID=1035 Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem The International Coalition to End the Illegal Siege of Gaza is mobilizing an international contingent for the nonviolent Gaza Freedom March, to be held on 31 December. The march on Gaza will mark the anniversary of Operation Cast Lead. The Coalition has called on its supporters to contact Egyptian embassies and missions all around the world to ask them to allow the Gaza Freedom March to proceed. Several groups in the Bethlehem area will also remember the victims of Operation Cast Lead on 31 December. Children in Bethlehem will read the names of the more than 300 children who died in Gaza. For additional information, visit: www.gazafreedommarch.org The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) released on 23 December a report called “23 Days of War, 928 Days of Closure: Life One Year after Israel’s Latest Offensive on the Gaza Strip, 27 December 2008 – 18 January 2009.” For additional information, visit: http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/PressR/English/2009/news/73-2009.html Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights and the Palestinian Bar Association concluded a training course on 17 December on international humanitarian law, litigation and war crimes. Twenty-eight lawyers participated in the course. For additional information, visit: http://www.mezan.org/en/details.php?id=9340&ddname=&id2=6&id_dept=14&p=center The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) reports that, on 16 December, a medical team completed a two-week PCRF mission in East Jerusalem, providing life-saving open-heart surgery to nearly two-dozen children from the West Bank and Gaza. For additional information, visit: http://www.pcrf.net/?p=4074 International Amnesty International, The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), Christian Aid, Medical Aid for Palestinians, Mercy Corps and Oxfam International were among the 16 leading humanitarian and human rights groups that released a report on 22 December. That report said the international community had betrayed the people of Gaza by failing to back their words with effective action to secure the ending of the Israeli blockade. The report was released ahead of the anniversary of the start of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead. For additional information, visit: http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressrelease/2009-12-22/gaza-civilians-rebuild-one-year-operation-cast-lead The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) released an operational update on 22 December. It noted that, in partnership with the Palestine Red Crescent Society, it provided some 32,000 people whose houses were fully or partially destroyed during Operation Cast Lead with basic household and hygiene items, as well as plastic sheeting to repair shattered windows. Also, in 2009, the ICRC helped more than 2,300 unemployed people with 15,000 dependents by enrolling them in cash-for-work activities and in various programmes involving land reclamation, greenhouse refurbishment and road upgrades. For additional information, visit: http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/palestine-gaza-update-211209?opendocument The UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Richard Falk, issued a statement on 23 December, in which he said that civil society initiatives such as the Gaza Freedom March and the Global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign were “the only meaningful current challenge to Israel’s violations of its obligations as the Occupying Power of the Gaza Strip under the Geneva Conventions and the United Nations Charter.” For additional information, visit: http://www.unog.ch/unog/website/news_media.nsf/(httpNewsByYear_en)/325D65A6F258CC19C1257695005392F5?OpenDocument