[Chapter-delegates] Internet Shutdown in Gaza : Request for ISOC's Position

[Vittorio Bertola]

Il 2023-11-19 20:02 Mike Godwin via Chapter-delegates ha scritto:

> I agree with Jessica, who provided helpful links--in particular the 
> link to Access Now's report--to documentation of the targeting of 
> internet services in Gaza. I agree with ISOC-SF's board on the need for 
> ISOC to issue a statement, grounded in ISOC's longstanding positions, 
> that condemns the targeting of internet services in Gaza.

Speaking on an entirely personal basis, I think that ISOC and all the I* 
organizations should be very careful not to take sides in a war, nor to 
do anything that could be construed as that. This was the principle 
followed in the conflict in Ukraine and it should not be different for 
Gaza.

I have seen the previous ISOC statements that were posted elsewhere in 
the thread, but they all refer to shutdowns during internal civil 
unrest, not to situations of full scale war. One thing is shutting down 
Internet infrastructure in times of peace, to prevent the population 
from protesting, and another is shutting down Internet infrastructure in 
times of war, when such infrastructure is also used to coordinate 
military operations. Civilians should always be given the possibility to 
communicate, but when hiding soldiers among ordinary people and military 
centres under basic public facilities is the strategy of choice, it 
becomes extremely difficult to separate the two; and there can be no 
guarantee that any resources that are supplied to restore connectivity 
are not instead used to fuel the continuation of the hostilities, and 
ultimately to kill more people.

Moreover, in the thread multiple sources were posted with very different 
recollections of the status of Internet connectivity in Gaza, so we are 
not even sure to which extent a shutdown is actually happening, and 
whether it really is a shutdown or just the result of the overall 
situation. So, as a minimum, I would not take any position without 
having heard both sides and having reached absolute certainty on the 
assessment of the situation. But in such a bitter moment, when even the 
most reputable global organizations cannot reach a position without 
being widely accused of opposite biases by the two sides, I think that 
it might just be unwise to do or say anything at all, except maybe some 
generic auspices of long due peace.

-- 
vb.                   Vittorio Bertola - vb [a] bertola.eu   <--------
-------->       now blogging & more at https://bertola.eu/   <--------
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/private/chapter-delegates/attachments/20231120/5e56d090/attachment.htm>