"In this light, it is wrong to place the onus of blame on Palestinians for a situation in which Gaza has been under Israeli occupation since 1967 and under an Israeli siege, or blockade, since 2007. Yet in the third paragraph of this article, you introduce the story of recent violence with reference to “two weeks of violent protests” by Palestinians!"
September 29, 20203
To:
Angus Scott, Editor in Chief, The Niagara Falls Review
Josef Federman, News Director, The Associated Press
Issam Adwan, Reporter, Associated Press
Dear Angus Scott, Josef Federman, and Issam Adwan,I am writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME, cjpme.org) to request correction of your September 28 article, “Israel reopens the main Gaza crossing for Palestinian laborers after days of rising tensions.”
To place the onus for the violence on Gaza in the way that you do is a tragic error.
Your article concedes that Gaza remains occupied, as the International Committee of the Red Cross and world legal experts maintain. Your tenth paragraph notes that Gaza is still subject to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a principal arm of Israeli control of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).
So your description of COGAT as a “defense body that deals with Palestinian civil affairs” should be corrected to read: “the Israeli government agency that governs the lives of the millions of Palestinians who have lived under Israeli occupation since 1967.”
But as your own coverage shows, the fact that Gaza is still under Israeli control is plain.
In this light, it is wrong to place the onus of blame on Palestinians for a situation in which Gaza has been under Israeli occupation since 1967 and under an Israeli siege, or blockade, since 2007. Yet in the third paragraph of this article, you introduce the story of recent violence with reference to “two weeks of violent protests” by Palestinians!
Not until the fourth paragraph do you refer to Israeli violence of any kind, despite the fact that Israeli forces, in the words of a September 28 report from Reuters, have targeted demonstrators “with live fire, killing at least one man and wounding dozens more.”
Please read on for alternative language, as a matter of professional integrity.
Instead of burying reference to Israeli violence in your fourth paragraph, which notes that Hamas did not organize the demonstrations and yet still describes Israeli airstrikes as a response to them, please insert a second paragraph with the following details:
Israel occupied the Gaza Strip in 1967. Israeli settlers and ground troops left Gaza in 2005, but Israel has maintained a blockade on this densely populated territory since 2007 while conducting a series of large-scale attacks on Gaza, most recently in the spring of 2021. Palestinians in Gaza are protesting the continued control of their lives by COGAT and the other Israeli agencies with which Israel governs the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
To include in your coverage these elemental, incontestable details about the situation that you are covering is the only professionally credible choice.
Thank you for your time and attention. Feel free to contact me at 438-380-5410 if you would like to discuss this further.
Sincerely,
Dan Freeman-Maloy
PhD, University of Exeter
Director of Strategic Operations
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East/
Canadiens pour la Justice et la Paix au Moyen-Orient