Calls mount for Guyana, CARICOM to cut diplomatic, economic ties with Israel over war

Oct 20, 2023 News

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Kaieteur News – International lawyer Melinda Janki and social activist Sherlina Nageer have joined former President Donald Ramotar in calling on the Government of Guyana and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to take a stand on the Israel-Hamas War and cut diplomatic and economic ties with the State of Israel.

In a letter carried in Thursday’s edition of the Kaieteur News titled ‘Guyana must now demand that Israel complies with international and humanitarian laws’, Janki said, “We cannot and must not be silent when the government of one state seeks to dehumanize and exterminate a different people. Guyana must now demand that Israel complies with international and humanitarian laws, and Guyana must break off diplomatic relations with Israel until Israel does so.”

Janki noted that after the ‘Six Day’ War [Arab-Israeli] in 1967, the United Nations (UN) Security Council passed Resolution 242 which emphasised the “inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war”.  She said the goal of international law is peace adding that UNSC 242 said that a joint and lasting peace required the “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,” Janki stated.

The 2004 Advisory of 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.”

Janki stated that, “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.”

The international lawyer revealed that half of Gaza’s population are children, and Palestine noted that Israel has killed one Palestinian child every 15 minutes since the bombing began. Further, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that Israel has carried out attacks on 41 health facilities. This represents 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. Janki noted the Israeli Times report that quoted Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, saying 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,” said Janki.

Meanwhile, Nageer in a letter published in the Kaieteur News today titled ‘Call for the Govt. of Guyana to immediately suspend all diplomatic and economic ties with Israel’ called on the Government of Guyana to “immediately suspend all diplomatic and economic ties with Israel in light of its current and ongoing violence against the people of Palestine.”

Nageer said that Israel’s reaction to the recent Hamas attack “displays an overwhelming lust for blood, a willingness to collectively punish a civilian population, and blatant violations of numerous international human rights laws and conventions.”

“In addition to indiscriminately slaughtering hundreds of innocent Palestinians, bombing homes, schools, and hospitals, the Zionist Israeli government has also cut off all food, water, fuel, and medicine to the over two million long-suffering residents of Gaza. Additionally, there are reports that Israeli forces have used chemical weapons such as white phosphorus- considered an incendiary weapon under Protocol III of the Convention on the Prohibition of Use of Certain Conventional Weapons,” said the activist.

Nageer said that the Guyanese government can and should do more to show “true solidarity with the people of Palestine.”

“First would be to suspend diplomatic ties with the state of Israel. This would send a clear signal to Israel that its horrific violations of international human rights law are unacceptable and will not be condoned. In this David vs Goliath struggle in the Middle East, Israel enjoys overwhelming support from numerous Western/European nations, many of whom have long histories of domination, land grabbing, exploitation, and genocide themselves, here in our Caribbean region. However, Guyana is becoming increasingly powerful and visible on the world stage; that power should be used in the service of justice, locally and globally, not for personal enrichment or aggrandizement.”

Further, Nageer called for economic ties with Israeli companies to be suspended. “Business cannot continue as usual while millions of innocent civilians are being massacred, displaced, and collectively punished. Some Guyanese may know that the Ministry of Agriculture signed a MOU with an Israeli company last year to develop a hydroponic project, and that the Chairman and some staff of Demerara Distillers Ltd. – one of Guyana’s leading private companies- visited Israel earlier this year to meet with senior officials from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and finalize a project for the establishment of a dairy farm in Guyana. Israel also has a stake in Guyana’s oil industry- Ratio Guyana Limited, a company whose parent company is Israel-based, is a joint-venture partner of ExxonMobil subsidiary Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) in Guyana’s offshore Kaieteur Block,” she said.

Nageer urged, “Come on, GOG – put your money where your mouth is. Suspend diplomatic and economic ties with Zionist Israel now, and call on other nations to do the same.”

“By tying bundle with the Israeli government and these Israeli companies, Guyana has entered into partnership with a nation guilty of massive human rights violations- violations that have been accruing for decades…But as justice-loving individuals, we must not hesitate to ask those who lead and represent our nation to do better, to demonstrate real moral leadership and true solidarity with the Palestinian people, not just pay lip service,” she stated.

Recently, Former President Donald Ramotar made a call on CARICOM to sever diplomatic ties with Israel. In his letter published in the Tuesday, October 17, 2023 Edition of this newspaper he said, “While I support CARICOM’s statement, I do not believe that it went far enough. After all, our region is one of the last areas where colonisation flourished.

How can we take the position of blaming both sides with a greater bias for the Israeli regime? I wish to urge CARICOM leaders to show some backbone and denounce this war. I urge that the region breaks diplomatic relations with Israel. We must stand with the Palestinian people now!”

Ramotar also lashed out on the country’s civil society saying he is “extremely disappointed to see the almost dead silence in our society as some of the worst human rights violation, ethnic cleansing and the horrific killings that is taking place in the Gaza Strip as Palestinians, men, women and children are dying like flies.”

The armed conflict between the two states earlier this month has seen hundreds if not thousands dead and a large number of other severely injured as several buildings on the Palestinian side were bombed.

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• CARICOM, International Lawyer, Melinda Janki, Sherlina Nageer, social activist

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