Days of Palestine Foundation, in partnership with the 16th October team and the We Are Not Numbers team, organized the first international forum of its kind in the besieged Gaza Strip, under the title: Gaza Siege: An Ongoing Crime, in order to shed light on the continuation of the suffocating Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip since 2007.
This forum came with wide international participation through political, human rights, and parliamentary figures, most notably the former United Nations rapporteur Richard Falk and the Member of the Finnish parliament Anna Kontula, to shed light on the crime of the Israeli siege and its effects on the sectors of life in the Gaza Strip and the role of countries and international governments in the continuation of the siege, and the mechanisms for breaking it based on the legal and humanitarian dimensions recognized in international covenants.
The international forum included many sessions, most notably the role of the international community in breaking the siege, the legal and humanitarian dimensions of the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip, and the impact of the Israeli blockade on the Strip.
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Collective Punishment
In his speech, representing the Preparatory Committee, Mr. Ahmed Abu Ritema said that the Israeli blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip since 2007 is a flagrant violation of all international laws and humanitarian norms, and it is a collective punishment that has caused suffering to civilians in all sectors of life.
Anna Kontula, a Finnish MP and politician, said that Israel continues to build its wall around the illegally besieged Gaza Strip, where two million people lie behind, living their lives as prisoners of their dream and hoping to live in freedom.
She added that the Palestinians suffer from the longest occupation in the modern era, and the policies of human rights violations committed against them, which violate Israeli international law.
She stressed that the Israeli siege imposed on the Gaza Strip contradicts international law and the principles of work of international human rights institutions, is a collective punishment of civilians there, and has led to a social, economic, and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
Richard Falk, former United Nations Commissioner on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, paid an inspiring tribute to the way the people of Gaza lived, as they resisted and persevered creatively, maintained making a meaningful life for themselves, and held on to their dream as part of their resistance, adding that they are an example very important for people who live in conditions that require endurance.
He stressed that the basic essence of international humanitarian law, especially with regard to occupation, is stipulated in Article Three, which clearly prohibits such an aggressive approach. The law calls on the occupying Israeli power to treat civilians in all circumstances with kindness.
International Community Role in Breaking the Siege
Jennifer Bing, the Director of the Palestine Program at AFSC and an activist for Palestine for forty years, spoke in her speech about the role of American civil society in confronting the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.
“Since my first visit to Palestine in 1982, I have been motivated by the courage of mothers, the creativity of children, the commitment of farmers to reform the land, and the strength of the Palestinian community to bear unbearable challenges,” said Bing.
For the first time in decades, an arms sales deal to Israel was blocked in Congress, hundreds of civil society groups mobilized, including allies and supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement and the Climate Justice movement as well as congregations in many religious communities, she added.
The Irish journalist and activist, David Cronin, spoke about the European role in encouraging the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip.
He added that one of the most important ways in which the European Union contributed to imposing the complete blockade on the Gaza Strip was that it was assigned the necessary funding to develop monitoring equipment for the Kerem Shalom crossing, which is the goods crossing between Gaza and Israel.
He stressed that the European Union was involved and contributed to the perpetuation of this crime and the imposition of collective punishment on the Gaza Strip, which he claims to be opposed by contributing to the preparation of this barrier and its equipment.
Peter Larson, the Canadian human rights researcher and Chairman of Ottawa Community Foundation, which specializes in Palestinian-Israeli affairs, spoke in his speech about the reasons for the weakness of international solidarity from the issue of the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip.
Legal and Humanitarian Dimensions of the Israeli Siege on the Gaza Strip
Dan Kovalik, lecturer and human rights activist, and professor of human rights and peace at the University of Pittsburgh spoke about the legal, international and humanitarian dimension of the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip.
He added that Israel deliberately deprives Gaza of equipment, and basic necessities of life such as water, food, and medicine needed for civilians to survive and that these violations are nothing but war crimes according to the position of the Geneva Conventions and other covenants of international law.
He stressed that the whole world must intervene immediately to stop these crimes, and the United Nations must work to stop the siege of Israel by bringing charges against it to the International Criminal Court, and it must work to lift the stifling siege on the Gaza Strip and demolish the surrounding wall that makes it an open prison.
Julie Pullman, a New Zealand investigative journalist and political and community activist for the Palestinian cause, in her speech on the blockade of Gaza from the point of view of international law.
She said that we are entering the sixteenth year of the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip, a siege that has no moral or legal justification, and resulted in what the United Nations described as the destruction of the Gaza Strip area, a process in which development is not only halted but destroyed, by stopping the entry of goods And preventing movement to and from the Gaza Strip and outside it.
She added that the blockade of Gaza amounts to a war crime according to international law, as the collective punishment imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip is strictly prohibited according to Article 33 of the Geneva Convention, and stressed that Israel is also violating the law of occupation.
Impact of the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip
The lawyer, Dr. Salah Abdel-Aty, head of the International Commission for Supporting the Rights of the Palestinian People, said in his speech that the Israeli military occupation authorities continue to impose a comprehensive siege on the Gaza Strip, from January 2006 until today.
He added that the Gaza siege indicates the keenness of the Israeli government to implement a policy of collective punishment of the Palestinians. The residents of the Gaza Strip, where the successive and multiple Israeli measures included more restrictions on the freedom of movement of people and goods to and from the Gaza Strip, which creates a very complex human tragedy, as about 2 million Gazans live in isolation and a collective prison that does not exceed an area of 365 2 km.
Prof. Dr. Muhammad Miqdad, Professor of Economics at the Islamic University, said that the Gaza Strip suffers from a major collapse in the indicators of the economy with the continuation of the occupation practices from 1967 AD to the year 2021 AD.
“The blockade is the most prominent feature of the “Israeli” practices at the present time. The blockade has led to the collapse of most of the economic indicators in the Gaza Strip. In addition, the Israeli veto to end the Palestinian division perpetuated the suffering of the Palestinians and increased the collapse of economic indicators,” He added.
Dr. Ahmed Hisham Helles, the Head of the National Institute for Environment and Development, under the title of the environmental reality in the Gaza Strip in light of the practices of the occupation towards the Gaza Strip.
“The amount of water that reaches citizens in the Gaza Strip is 60-70 liters/person/day, and it may be much less than that for many families, especially in rural and marginalized areas,” He stated.
He stressed that environmental pollution is closely linked to the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip, as the Strip witnessed during the last aggression and throughout all wars severe pollution of the environment, as its sources were numerous as a result of intensive military attacks using all kinds of weapons, bombs, and missiles, and noise pollution have become a constant source of inconvenience.
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