Gaza Blockade

There is a widespread misconception that the United Nations report on the 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla concluded that Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip is legal. Even reputable organizations such as the New York Times have made this mistake.

The report did not say this. The report concluded that the imposition of a blockade on 3 January 2009 was legal and justified as a measure of self-defence, in direct response to rocket attacks from Gaza.

However, the terms of the United Nations charter, frequently linked in the report, only allows the use of force in self-defence until the United Nations Security Council "has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security". If a nation is not under immediate attack, acts of self-defence are not allowed. This includes the maintenance of a naval blockade.

While the Gaza Strip and Israel are currently at war, the naval blockade by Israel was illegal during the substantial periods of time in which no rockets were being fired towards Israel.

Israel considers the legal basis for its control of the territorial waters around the Gaza Strip, as well as the airspace of the Palestinian territories, to be the Oslo Accords, and specifically the Gaza-Jericho agreement.

Palestine can revoke the authority it has granted Israel to control its territorial waters and airspace, which would cause Israel to have no legal basis to infringe on the territory of Gaza unless Israel is under immediate and direct attack, with no other way to prevent these attacks from occurring.


Links:
UN Report on the Freedom Flotilla
http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/middle_east/Gaza_Flotilla_Panel_Report.pdf

U.N. Report Finds Israeli Blockade Legal but Raid Flawed
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/02/world/middleeast/02flotilla.html

Self-Defence clause of the United Nations charter
http://www.un.org/en/documents/charter/chapter7.shtml#article51