CAMERA Letter in Boston Globe: Israel Ended Gaza Occupation in 2005

Aug. 4, 2019

Commentator Is Wrong on Israel and Gaza

Stephen Kinzer (“Our vacuous presidential debates,” Ideas, July 28) repeatedly refers to Israel’s alleged occupation of the Gaza Strip, apparently unaware that Israel ended that occupation in 2005, when it withdrew every last Israeli civilian and soldier from the territory.

Currently, just two Israelis are known to occupy the Gaza Strip — both of them mentally challenged civilians held hostage by Hamas, the ruling terror organization that has denied them Red Cross visits, in violation of international law.

If Kinzer does not trust Israel, experts in international law, or then-secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, who said in 2006, that “the Israelis do not any longer occupy Gaza,” there’s also the view of Hamas’s Mahmoud Zahar, who said in 2012: “Against whom could we demonstrate in the Gaza Strip? When Gaza was occupied, that model was applicable.”

Substantive presidential debates are built first and foremost on factually correct information.

Tamar Sternthal

Director, Israel office

Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis

Jerusalem

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