Is Gaza still occupied?

 
Photo by: ABED OMAR QUSINI / REUTERS

By EUGENE KONTOROVICH AND PAULA KWESKIN 
06/01/2011 23:41

The proposition that the Strip remains ‘occupied’ by Israel has recently been refuted by an unexpected source – a UN Security Council resolution on Libya.

This month, another flotilla is set to breach Israel’s lawful maritime blockade on Gaza. Organizers claim it will sail to the “occupied” Gaza Strip to deliver “much-needed supplies,” yet both premises are false. Earlier this year, the International Committee of the Red Cross declared there was no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Moreover, the proposition that Gaza remains occupied by Israel has recently been refuted by an unexpected source – a UN Security Council resolution.

A staple claim of Palestinian supporters is that Israel’s occupation of Gaza did not end with the military withdrawal and the accompanying uprooting of nearly 10,000 Jewish residents. The Goldstone Report relied on this argument, and it is widely echoed by international lawyers and the press.

This view has never had much to recommend it. Article 42 of the 1907 Hague Regulations provides that a “territory is considered occupied when it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army.” 

 Read the rest of this article on: The Jerusalem Post