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Guyana must now demand that Israel complies with international and humanitarian laws

Oct 19, 2023 Letters

Dear Editor,

International law, including the UN Charter, prohibits a State from acquiring territory by force. In 1967, following the ‘Six Day’ war, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 242 which emphasised the “inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war”.

The goal of international law is peace. UNSC 242 said that a joint and lasting peace required  “Withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict.”

There will be no peace until Israel respects international law and ceases its illegal occupation of Palestinian territory.

In 2004 in its Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) stated that

(i) “The construction of the wall being built by Israel, the occupying Power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, and its associated régime, are contrary to international law.”

(ii) “Israel is under an obligation to terminate its breaches of international law; it is under an obligation to cease forthwith the works of construction of the wall being built in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, to dismantle forthwith the structure therein situated, and to repeal or render ineffective forthwith all legislative and regulatory acts relating thereto…”

(iii) Israel is under an obligation to make reparation for all damage caused by the construction of the wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

The ICJ also said that Israel has an obligation to return the land, orchards, olive groves and other immovable property seized for the wall and to pay compensation if restitution of the property was not possible.

There will be no peace until Israel respects international law, takes down the wall and provides restitution and compensation to affected Palestinians.

Hamas and Israel should be condemned for breaching international humanitarian law and bombing civilians. Israel should also be condemned for using white phosphorous an incendiary material which burns humans and animals to the bone. The Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Incendiary Weapons prohibits its use against civilian populations.

About half of Gaza’s population are children. Yes, CHILDREN! Israel is killing children. Defence for Children International – Palestine says that Israel has killed one Palestinian child every fifteen minutes since  the bombing began. Nowhere is safe. The World Health Organisation reports that Israel has carried out attacks on 41 health facilities, another breach of international humanitarian law. On Tuesday an Israeli strike at Al-Alhi Hospital in Gaza City killed more than 500 Palestinians, the sick and the injured, as well as children and the elderly.

Meanwhile the Israeli Times reports that Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, says that  “Human animals must be treated as such. There will be no electricity and no water [in Gaza], there will only be destruction. You wanted hell, you will get hell.”

We cannot and must not be silent when the government of one State seeks to dehumanise and exterminate a different people.

Guyana must now demand that Israel complies with international law and international humanitarian law. And Guyana must break off  diplomatic relations with Israel until Israel does so.

Yours sincerely,

Melinda Janki

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