And while Barrow believes NEAB has failed to recognize the ongoing horrors occurring in Palestine because of Israel, The Minister of Foreign Affairs told us today that while they respect NEAB 's religious perspective, GOB's position does not impact any Belizean's ability to travel to the holy land if they so wish.
Eamon Courtenay, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"Well we issued a release yesterday in response to the release by the Belize council of churches and the national evangelical association of Belize. While we respect each organization's right to present their statements we think first of all it would have been better if we were consulted so that we could have corrected the inaccuracies in their statement. For example, Belizeans continue to be free to travel to Israel, and we have made arrangements with a friendly country in the event any Belizean gets into trouble there. There is no visa requirement to go to Israel so any Belizean who wants to go to the holy land can do so freely. the decision that we took has not impacted or changed that in any way as far as we know. I mean Israel might change their mind, they might react but we do not know that up to date. Also I think it was just completely wrong to suggest that the government of Belize has not condemned the actions of Hamas, we regret it very strongly and condemn what we regard as the killing of innocent civilians on the 7th of October. However, what we have said is that the response by Israel is not only illegal it is not only contrary to international law and international humanitarian law it is disproportionate it amounts to genocide and we condemn that in the strongest way. and we have made that very clear to Israel."
REPORTER-
"Is it somewhat disappointing to see the stance that the churches took?"
Eamon Courtenay, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"Well they are coming at it from a different perspective, they are coming at it from primarily a religious perspective and we and we respect that and we appreciate their support, at least the council of churches support for a two state solution to pray for peace that is very important but most importantly the issue i would say is that they should have consulted with us first and they could have made in my view a more informed statement. Let me underline this with both of those entities. The government of Belize has a very good and constructive relationship and we will just continue to build on it."
