"Israel fails to remotely approach such a threshold, making its strikes on Aleppo’s airport nothing other than acts of aggression. The article’s failure to properly contextualize Israel’s actions normalizes its brazen contravention of international law, tacitly accepting its belligerency and undermining of peace."
August 29, 2023
To:
Andrea Bailie, Editor-in-Chief, The Canadian Press
John Daniszewski, Editor at Large for Standards, The Associated Press
Dear Andrea Bailie and John Daniszewski,
I am writing to you on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME, https://www.cjpme.org) to express concern with Albert Aji’s August 28 article, “Reported Israeli strike damages Aleppo airport and puts it out of service.”
The article’s principal shortcoming is its failure to mention the crucial fact that a country cannot bombard or otherwise attack another country unless it is in self-defence.
The UN Charter limits a state’s right to self-defence only to circumstances where “an armed attack occurs.” As Israel was not first attacked by any Syrian forces in this case, its actions could at best be construed as pre-emptory self-defence. However, the legal test applied to determine whether a state may defend itself through pre-emptive force requires that the state have a necessity of self-defence that is “instant, overwhelming, leaving no choice of means, and no moment for deliberation.”
Israel fails to remotely approach such a threshold, making its strikes on Aleppo’s airport nothing other than acts of aggression. The article’s failure to properly contextualize Israel’s actions normalizes its brazen contravention of international law, tacitly accepting its belligerency and undermining of peace.
I therefore urge you to take a more skeptical and rigorous view of the IDF’s actions in your future reporting, as placing “defensive” in a military’s official name does not preclude it from acting as an aggressor.
Should you wish, please feel free to contact me at 438-380-5410 to discuss this matter further.
Sincerely,
Bāssel Abdel-Qader
Media Analyst, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East