Former foreign minister of Guyana Rashleigh Jackson says this government’s formal recognition of Palestine’s sovereignty is “a welcomed development”, which he hopes will add momentum to the Israel/Palestine negotiation talks.
“I welcome it because the people of Palestine have been denied their rights for too long, and you cannot uphold the right of one while denying the right of another,” Jackson said, referring to Israel’s favourable standing in the international community.
The Guyana government issued a statement on Thursday saying that it has formally recognized Palestine as a free, independent, and sovereign state, based on its 1967 borders.
A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the decision is in keeping with Guyana’s longstanding and unwavering solidarity with and commitment to the just and legitimate aspirations of the people of Palestine for the exercise their right to self determination and to achieve a homeland of their own, independent, free, prosperous and at peace.
But Chairman of the Alliance for Change (AFC), Raphael Trotman believes that the matter should have been decided on after consultation, and debate in Parliament. Trotman labelled his views on the issue as, “personal” since the party has not addressed it.
“The inevitability of a Palestinian state is beyond doubt and from a basic human rights perspective we need to recognise that the people of the Palestine have a right to self determination… The UN and members of the Security Council have a duty to ensure that the formation of this new state does not by and in itself create regional instability and or threaten the state of Israel,” Trotman argued.
He said the acceptance and application of the doctrine of “mutual co-existence” must undergird every decision this country makes relative to that of another, and stressed that the government of Guyana needed to assess the macro environment to ensure that, “we are helping, and not exacerbating, an already volatile situation”.
Notwithstanding the doctrine of sovereignty and the right to make decisions in the nation’s best interest, the government needs to refrain from, “acting as the maverick within Caricom and instead to take the lead by having a group decision on this matter,” Trotman said.
“I am very keen on hearing the argumentation by the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the justification of this decision at this time. I suspect that it has something to do with money’s promised by certain Middle Eastern states,” he said.
According to Trotman, Guyana is slowly but surely moving along an interesting foreign policy pathway; away from traditional norms as an English-speaking Caribbean state and towards an un-known easterly destination.
Stabroek News also spoke with Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee, who previously held the Foreign Minister portfolio and he too hailed the government move as “a welcomed one”. Rohee said he supports the statement issued by the Foreign Ministry while noting that the formal recognition was long overdue.
“This is something that we have long supported and fought for, so I personally welcome it,” he said. Rohee further expressed hope that increasing international recognition of Palestine would add some dynamism to the talks between Israel and Palestine and also, “lead in the direction of a peaceful settlement”.
In its statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that its formal recognition of Palestine follows Guyana’s advocacy over the years a for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the people of Israel and Palestine living side by side in their free and independent countries in peace, prosperity and harmony and within secure and internationally recognised borders. “It is Guyana’s hope that the increasing recognition of the State of Palestine will contribute to a resoluti on of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the creation of lasting peace and stability in the region,” the statement added.
People’s National Con-gress Reform One Guyana MP Aubrey Norton observed that Guyana, “since the days of the PNC-led government” had believed that Palestine had a just cause, and that Palestinians have an inalienable right to sovereignty.
Norton told this newspaper on Thursday that Palestine has met three of the critical conditions for an independent state, namely that it has a population; a government and a territory. “What they are still fighting for today is land, but they have met the requirements to be sovereign,” he noted.
But Norton said while the international community seems to be focused on the Middle East and the Palestine/Israel conflict, there are other hot-button issues that demand attention, particularly in Africa. He said the Guyana Government would do well to pay attention to the African continent and recognize that the rights of many African citizens are being violated, and that countries are being crippled due to conflicts. “There are a host of problems in Africa [hurting] the development of the continent. And this government as well as others who seemed to be focused on the Middle East ought to start paying attention there and offer Africa the assistance it needs,” Norton asserted.
Prior to Guyana’s formal recognition of Palestine as an independent state, Suriname was identified as the most recent country to offer recognition to Palestine.
Late last year, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador recognized Palestine as an independent state which they said was “within the 1967 borders.” Those were the boundaries that existed before Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip in the June 1967 Six-Day War.
The Chilean government adopted a resolution “recognizing the existence of the state of Palestine as a free, independent and sovereign state”, on Friday last. Uruguay, another South American state, has since indicated that its recognition could come this year.
Palestine is hoping to apply for United Nations membership in 2011 so that it could raise its flag as the 193rd Member State. Palestinian leaders have called on governments that had not yet done so to recognize the State of Palestine while pressing the Security Council to give Palestine its “birth certificate”.
The borders of a final Palestinian state have been one of the thorny issues in peace negotiations with Israel, and direct talks between the two sides, the first for nearly two years, began in September last year but stalled shortly after.
