"The Court is viewing that Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip has not entirely released it of its obligations under the law of occupation. Therefore, Israel is still responsible for what happens in Gaza due to its effective control over the Strip."
August 6, 2024
To:
Mark McKinnon, Globe and Mail
Sandra E. Martin, Globe and Mail
Dear Mark McKinnon and Sandra E. Martin,
I'm writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East to express my disappointment concerning the article "No peace to keep, no place to go,” published on July 30, 2024.
I’m concerned about the following paragraph:
Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, meanwhile, showed its contempt for another Hague-based institution, the International Court of Justice, when it passed a resolution rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state one day before the ICJ ruled that Israel’s 57-year-old occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem was illegal and should end “as rapidly as possible.”
You omit the inclusion of the fact that the ICJ ruled that Israel’s 57-year-old occupation contains the Gaza Strip. This is surprising given that I wrote to the Globe and Mail on July 22 to complain about the paper’s coverage (via Reuters) of the ICJ Advisory Opinion. In that letter of complaint, I made it clear that the ICJ declared the Gaza Strip also remains effectively occupied by Israel:
Based on the information before it, the Court considers that Israel remained capable of exercising, and continued to exercise, certain critical elements of authority over the Gaza Strip, including control of the land, sea and air borders, restrictions on movement of people and goods, collection of import and export taxes, and military control over the buffer zone, despite the withdrawal of its military presence in 2005. This is even more so since 7 October 2023.
In light of the above, the Court is viewing that Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip has not entirely released it of its obligations under the law of occupation. Therefore, Israel is still responsible for what happens in Gaza due to its effective control over the Strip.
This view is shared by United Nations fact-finding missions, Human Rights Watch, and the International Committee of the Red Cross, to name a few. This essay by CJPME provides even more factual information about Israel’s effective occupation of Gaza, which did not end even though Israel withdrew troops in 2005.
In October 2023, Mark McKinnon repeated the incorrect claim that “Israel occupied Gaza from 1967 until 2005.” Given that the ICJ has clarified that this is not the case, you would expect McKinnon to correct the record in his July 30 article. Unfortunately, he instead wholly omits to mention Gaza, much less its ongoing occupation, in the article in question. Such a grave and longstanding error demands a clear and decisive correction by the Globe and Mail. This is not a matter of opinion but a fact reflected in the legal opinions of the world’s highest courts for international law.
Sincerely,
Jason Toney
Director of Media Advocacy, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East