Recommended Reports

Recommended Reports

R1. OCHA, “Gaza Strip: Who Does What,” East Jerusalem, 26 August 2014

This five-page data sheet offers a detailed breakdown of all the NGOs, charities, and other humanitarian organizations that were active in relief efforts during the Israeli assault on Gaza. In a series of graphs and charts, it breaks down the groups by sector and shows how many people each organization served. The sheet is available atwww.ochaopt.org.

R2. OCHA, Gaza Initial Rapid Assessment, East Jerusalem, 27 August 2014

This thirty-seven page report collects the findings of a comprehensive survey of all of Gaza’s municipalities and governorates conducted by OCHA in mid-August, as Israel’s Operation Protective Edge proceeded. Designed to inform the humanitarian response to the resulting crisis, the report catalogues by sector the needs that arose during and in the wake of the assault. The report is available atwww.ochaopt.org.

R3. UNCTAD, Report on Assistance to the Palestinians and development in the Occupied Territories, Geneva, 15 September 2014

Presented at the sixty-first session of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, held in Geneva from 15 to 26 September, this report analyzes the economic conditions in the occupied Palestinian territories in 2013 and concludes that, as in previous years, high unemployment and the Israeli occupation stifled Palestinian economic development. It concludes with a series of recommendations for future interventions and a description of ongoing UNCTAD projects. The report is available atwww.unctad.org.

R4. Yesh Din, The LAwless Zone: The Transfer of Policing and Security Powers to the Civilian Coordinators in the Settlements and Outposts, 17 September 2014

This fifty-six page report analyzes the relationship between the IDF, Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and civilian security coordinators (CSC), specifically how the inherent bias of the three institutions and their interplay facilitate settler violence and accelerate settlement growth. Also recommended is the short animated video that Yesh Din produced alongside the report to illustrate their research. The report and the video are available atwww.yesh-din.org.

R5. Noura Erakat, Bianca Isaias, and Salmah Rizvi, Operation Protective Edge & Legal Remedies, Beirut, October 2014

Produced for the Working Paper Series of the American University of Beirut’s Issam Fares Institute, this twenty-eight page report presents a survey of possible legal avenues for the Palestinians in seeking redress for the Israeli assault on Gaza in the summer of 2014, including international and national courts, as well as human rights bodies and mechanisms. The three authors, all legal scholars, conclude that any legal efforts on the part of the Palestinians should be complemented by organized political programs such as that of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. The report is available atwww.aub.edu.lb/ifi.

R6. International Crisis Group (ICG), Bringing Back the Palestinian Refugee Question, Jerusalem/Gaza City/Brussels, 9 October 2014

This forty-eight page report—the 156th in the ICG’s Middle East series—analyzes the question of Palestinian refugees and the parallel issue of the right of return. It offers a historical overview, pre- and post-Oslo accords, and surveys a variety of different institutional perspectives on the issue. The report is available atwww.crisisgroup.org.

R7. International Crisis Group, “Toward a Lasting Ceasefire in Gaza,” Jerusalem/Gaza City/Brussels, 23 October 2014

In this short briefing paper, the ICG analyzes the politics surrounding the ongoing negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians over the open-ended cease-fire that ended Israel’s assault on Gaza. The twelve-page paper, including a series of concluding recommendations, is available atwww.crisisgroup.org.

R8. B’Tselem, The Invisible Walls of Occupation: Burqah, Ramallah, Jerusalem, 29 October 2014

In this sixty-eight page report, B’Tselem uses Burqah, a “rather unremarkable village,” to illustrate the numerous structural problems that affect every Palestinian in the West Bank on a day-to-day basis, including travel restrictions, expansion of nearby settlements, unemployment, water shortages, and more. The report is available atwww.btselem.org.

R9. Amnesty International, Families under the Rubble: Israeli Attacks on Inhabited Homes, London, 5 November 2014

This fifty-page report analyzes and documents Israeli attacks on inhabited homes during Operation Protective Edge and evaluates them using an international humanitarian law (IHL) framework. For each of the report’s eight case studies, a summary of the events is paired with long quotes from eyewitnesses, methodological explanations, the names of the deceased, and an examination of the various violations of IHL. The report is available atwww.amnesty.org.