And while those are former PUP Ministers - yesterday - it was Belize's only two living former Prime Ministers - Dean Barrow and Said Musa who put out a joint statement.
The pair never agreed on a whole lot during their time in politics - but in this case Barrow reached out to Musa - who is of Palestinian descent.
Today Dean Barrow told us why he has been gripped by this issue and how he feels that his party - the UDP's only formal statement on the issue has been pro-Israeli:
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Former Prime Minister
"That of course Hamas was wrong. What Hamas did was in itself beyond the pale. But again, taking a leaf from the book of Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General, clearly one can understand why Hamas did what he did, even if one cannot justify it."
"Even admitting the outrage, as some people have termed it, that Hamas's incursion into Israel and the killing of civilians, of some civilians, and the taking hostage of others, even admitting that that was an outrage. My God, that it's hard to try to be relative when you're talking about such an absolutely unspeakable tragedy, but that certainly paled in comparison to what Israel subsequently did. Israel said it had a right to self-defense."
"What has happened goes way beyond any notion, however elastic you try to make it, of self-defense. I don't know how anybody with a conscience could see what's happening, follow the images daily on TV, read at length about the absolute carnage, see how unrelenting, how pitiless the Israelis are, and not be stirred."
"Stirred in my own case, in a way that I don't think any other international issue before this has ever gripped me. When you look at the tally and you read that of the 8,000 odd killed, the majority, I think I've seen one figure suggesting 70% of those are women and children."
"And the Israelis are making it clear that there is going to be no stopping anytime soon or at all. And the excuses that Hamas is a terrorist organization that must be eliminated. That cannot ever serve for what really, in my view, is genocide."
Jules Vasquez
"Now, as you do this, you seem to come afoul of the position of your party. On October 8, 2023, a UDP press release on Letterhead. says that the United Democratic Party and the people of Belize condemn the despicable, murderous acts of war by terrorist organization Hamas that has led over to over 600 Israelis murdered and regrettably 350 Arabs killed in retaliatory strike. This was earlier on so the numbers have changed. But how do you square yourselves?"
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Former Prime Minister
"I don't. I don't. My son, who clearly very much espouses that particular line, is or was a convert to Judaism and it is not surprising at all that he's taken the position he has."
"I respect him. He is in, if not in good company, he's certainly aligned with the United States who is supposed to be the leader of the free world. So I won't indict him for any illegitimacy of his position, but as I have made clear by way of the joint statement and as I am reiterating to you, I absolutely find that sort of a position completely utterly unacceptable and I do think it flies in the face of the horrific facts of what's happening currently in Gaza."
"They have their position. As I said it is, I am in complete opposition to it, but I'm not going to condemn them for it. I'm going to say that that's it. You stay over there with your position. I am going to and the facts give me no choice. I am going to as long as there's breathe in my body, continue to cry foul, to cry murder on the Israelis for what's happening in Gaza."
