Human Rights

01 August 2022; MEMO: UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, thanked Turkiye on Monday for its efforts and leadership as a nascent deal to resume grain exports from Ukraine saw its first ship depart from the port of Odessa, Anadolu News Agency reports.

The departure of the Sierra Leone-flagged dry cargo ship, "Razoni", marked an "important starting point" for the agreement, Guterres said. "It must be the first of many commercial ships bringing relief and stability to global food markets," he added.

01 August 2022; MEMO: The Big Ride for Palestine took to the roads and cycle tracks of England's midlands and north-west over the weekend to raise awareness of the Palestinian issue and funds for children and para-cyclists in the besieged Gaza Strip. More than 250 riders left Derby city centre on Friday morning and headed for Manchester via Stoke on Trent.

01 August 2022; MEMO: Israel's security cabinet agreed on Sunday to deduct NIS600 million ($176m) from the customs duties it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, Maariv has reported. According to the Hebrew-language newspaper, this is the same amount as the stipends that the PA paid to Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and their families last year.

30 July 2022; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid announced on Thursday that the comments of Miloon Kothari, a member of the United Nations (UN) Commission of Inquiry into the Israeli offensive on Gaza in 2021, "echo the darkest days of antisemitism".

The Times of Israel reported Lapid's spokesperson calling for the UN committee to be disbanded.

30 July 2022; MEMO: The Tunisian Ennahda Movement has announced that the boycott of 75 per cent of those registered on the electoral roll for the referendum on the new Constitution: "Is evidence that the constitution is popularly rejected and completely null."

29 July 2022; MEMO: Israeli forces killed a Palestinian boy in a village near Ramallah, central occupied West Bank, on Friday, Anadolu News Agency reports.

In a statement, the Palestinian Health Ministry said the 16-year-old teen succumbed to wounds he sustained from Israeli forces in the village of Al-Mughayir.

Eyewitnesses told Anadolu Agency that Israeli settlers living in a settlement built on the village's land assaulted Palestinians staging an anti-settlement rally.

29 July 2022; MEMO: Saudi Arabia has reiterated that it will not change its firm position on the Palestinian issue, despite its decision to open its airspace to all international aircraft, including those from Israel, Anadolu News Agency reports.

This was stated by Mohamed Al-Atiq, the acting charge d'affaires of the Saudi Arabia's permanent delegation to the UN, during a Security Council session on Palestine, the official Saudi Press Agency reported on Thursday evening.

29 July 2022; MEMO: Palestine's Prime Minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, met Germany's Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office Tobias Lindner in Ramallah on Thursday, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Shtayyeh urged Germany to recognise the State of Palestine in line with Berlin's "belief in the option of the two-state solution and the importance of preserving it," according to a statement by the Premier's office.

27 July 2022; MEMO: The Christian population in Palestine is dwindling because of the catastrophes Palestinians have had to endure and the West's policies in the Middle East, Archbishop Atallah Hanna, head of the Greek Orthodox Church, has said.

Speaking at a symposium on the antiquity of the Christian presence in the East, specifically in Palestine, the Holy Land, Hanna highlighted that Christianity was born in Palestine and apostles set out from there to the West to preach and spread its teachings.

27 July 2022; MEMO: South Africa has expressed its concerns over the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and a "significant portions of the West Bank", calling on the UN to class Israel as an Apartheid State.