Two former Prime Ministers and three former Foreign Ministers have issued a statement supporting South Africa's case against Israel at the ICJ, and urging Belize to do more.
In the statement signed by Dean Barrow, Said Musa, Eamon Courtenay, Assad Shoman, and Godfrey Smith, they note that the court did order that Israel, quote, "take all measures within its power to prevent killing or causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group… to precent and punish direct and public incitement to commit genocide, and to take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services." End quote.
The statement continues to say that the ICJ's decision vindicates Belize's decision to suspend relations with Israel, and that the signatories are now calling on the Evangelical Churches that condemned GOB's move to join the call for Israel to stop the genocide.
The signatories also urged Belize's government to take all other steps to comply with the convention, including joining South Africa in the substantive case against Israel for the crime of genocide, especially since, quote, "we Belizeans who have faced the threat of Guatemalan forces armed and trained by Israel should step up and defend the right of the Palestinian people to life and to self-determination." End quote.
In a tweet, former FM Eamon Courtenay wrote, quote, suspending payments to UNRWA will cause further suffering for the people of Gaza. In the name of humanity, I urge all countries to reverse their decisions to suspect payments." End quote.
Since October 7th, Israel has killed over 23,000 Palestinians.
