"This blockade on both goods and people has strangled Gaza’s economy and collectively punished Palestinians living in Gaza. For this reason, many human rights NGO’s have referred to Gaza as an 'open-air prison.'"
June 14, 2024
To:
Sandra E. Martin, Standards Editor, The Globe and Mail
David Walmsley, Editor-in-Chief, The Globe and Mail
Angela Pacienza, Executive Editor, The Globe and Mail
Julie Pace, Executive Editor, The Associated Press
John Daniszewski, Standards Editor, The Associated Press
Tia Goldenburg, Journalist, Associated Press
Wafaa Shurafa, Journalist, The Associated Press
I am writing to you on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East to express concerns regarding your article: “Israelis and Palestinians hopeful but cautious over latest ceasefire proposal,” published by The Globe on Mail on June 13, 2024.
I’d like to take issue with this sentence in particular: “The fighting, sparked by Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people in Israel, has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians.
Israel’s “fighting,” as you write, did not start on October 7th. For decades, Palestinians have been under violent occupation, dispossession, and ethnic cleansing by Zionist militias, starting with the Nakba where more than 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their lands.
I have serious concerns with The Globe and disregarding the Palestinian narrative and only beginning the timeline from October 7th. Prior to October 7th and for nearly 20 years, Israel and Egypt have regulated all air, land, and sea borders of the Gaza strip, restricting the number and types of goods permitted to enter and exit. This blockade on both goods and people has strangled Gaza’s economy and collectively punished Palestinians living in Gaza. For this reason, many human rights NGO’s have referred to Gaza as an “open-air prison.” To be in prison means that you have to have committed a crime. Yet, as Anisha Reddy explains, the only crime Palestinians in Gaza have committed is being Palestinian.
To say that the fighting was sparked on Oct. 7 and not the decades of occupation preceding it, is in accurate and misleading. I, therefore, recommend that you begin this problematic sentence, instead, with “Israel’s most recent escalation of its military invasion and occupation of Gaza was in response to Oct. 7, when Hamas…”
I am expecting the Globe and Mail to take my edits into consideration now and in future reporting on the genocide in Gaza in the name of reporting accurately and fairly.
Sincerely,
Lynn Naji
Junior Analyst, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East