"This story fails to mention the principal feature of the Gaza crisis: Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and its neglect of its Fourth Geneva Convention obligations. This is a settled matter of law. In 2023, we have had it restated on the highest authority. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) writes: 'The ICRC considers Gaza to remain occupied territory'."
To:
Steve Bartlett, Managing Editor, Saltwire
Nidal al-Mughrabi, Reporter, Reuters
Dear Steve Bartlett and Nidal al-Mughrabi,
I am writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME, cjpme.org) to ask for correction of your September 4 article, “Gaza landfill fire rages for days, officials appeal for help.”
This story fails to mention the principal feature of the Gaza crisis: Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and its neglect of its Fourth Geneva Convention obligations.
This is a settled matter of law. In 2023, we have had it restated on the highest authority. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) writes: “The ICRC considers Gaza to remain occupied territory.” Canada’s Michael Lynk, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories occupied by Israel since 1967, writes to the same effect: “Under international law, th[e] degree of control exercised by Israel since 2005 is sufficient to conclude that Israel remains the occupying power over Gaza.”
Therefore, when you report that “the Islamist Hamas movement seized control of the densely-populated coastal enclave in 2007,” this is untrue. Notwithstanding the so-called “disengagement” of 2005 – this term is an Israeli diplomatic invention with no foundation in international law – the fact of continued Israeli occupation is beyond serious dispute, as you can read above. The UN Security Council, too, has agreed as much.
A paragraph to the following effect therefore needs to be added to your article:
Around 2 million Palestinians live in the narrow Gaza Strip, the vast majority of them descendants of refugees who fled or were driven from what is now Israel at its founding in 1948.[*] Israel occupied the Gaza Strip in 1967. Israel claims that its 2005 “disengagement” from Gaza ended the occupation. Legal experts and the United Nations counter that Israel’s control of Gaza’s borders and airspace confirm its continued status as occupying power, with Fourth Geneva Convention obligations to the population under its effective control.
The inclusion of this context is necessary for any article on this subject to be accurate.
If you wish to discuss this matter, you can reach me at 438-380-5410.
Sincerely,
Dan Freeman-Maloy
PhD, University of Exeter
For Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East
[*] You will recognize this first sentence from your own reporting elsewhere.