Dear Editor,
Kit Nascimento’s letter on Saturday 12th October was bad on history and worse on international relations.
International law requires Israel right now to pull back to its pre-1967 borders, to get out of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem (the Occupied Palestinian Territories), to take down the wall running though Palestinian territory, and to restore Palestinian property. If Israel cannot restore the property and resources which it has stolen or destroyed, then legally it must pay reparations. That includes reparations for Israel’s wanton and hate-filled destruction of ancient (over 5,000 years old) Palestinian olive groves and more than 800,000 olive trees.
Today, Israel continues to defy international law and inflict carnage on Gaza. Al-Jazeera reports that in the last year alone, Israel has killed 902 Palestinian families in Gaza including Palestinian babies. Gone. Erased from the records. Remember at least one name – the al-Najjars, 393 in one family including tiny baby Zein, just weeks old. Read and weep. If this is not evil, then what is?
Save the Children says over 1 million children in Gaza have been forced to flee their homes because of Israeli violence. To go where? Nowhere in Gaza is safe from Israeli bombs. Not schools. Not hospitals. This is why people across the globe are marching for Palestine and chanting that Israel is a terror state. This is why progressive Israeli and New York Jewish organizations joined massive protests against Netanyahu when he visited New York last month and why protesters demanded his arrest for genocide.
Guyana’s Permanent Representative to the UN, HE Birkett-Rodrigues spoke for all decent and civilized people, not just the Guyanese, at the UN Security Council meeting, when she demanded an “unconditional and immediate ceasefire” and said that “we must work to ensure that Palestinians exercise their right to self-determination, including through the creation of their own independent state based on the pre-1967 borders.”
But political statements, however good, are not enough. For decades Israel has behaved like a rogue state, repeatedly and deliberately violating international law and defying the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Israel’s undermining of the international rule of law is the foundation of conflict in the Middle East which threatens world peace.
Palestine’s legal right to self-determination, the international rule of law, the legal authority and international credibility of the ICJ, the necessity for peace and reparations, Israel’s rogue state behaviour, all of these things require the Government of Guyana to break off diplomatic relations with Israel. This is the last remaining morally and legally acceptable path. Not enough? Think again.
International law determines Guyana’s sovereignty over its territory. Thanks to the folly and incompetence of the Granger and Ali governments Guyana’s once legally inviolable and settled western border is now under threat at the ICJ. I have no doubt that under international law the Essequibo belongs to Guyana. I hope the ICJ will say so. More than ever now Guyana needs to uphold the international rule of law.
So, if the government of Guyana is not convinced by morality and law they should try realpolitik and break off diplomatic relations with Israel until Israel complies with international law and respects the authority of the ICJ.
Your sincerely,
Melinda Janki
