And as Minister of Foreign Affairs - our next story is one issue Fonseca will have to deal with.
There's an online petition from a Belizean group called 9/21 to repeal the VISA waiver for Israeli citizens, which was established in 2011. This petition comes following over two years of genocide of the Palestinian people by the Israeli state.
The petition has so far garnered over 700 signatures and that was presented to the new Minister of Immigration yesterday by one of the members of the solidarity group, Dylan Vernon. Today we spoke with Vernon about the response from Minister of Palestinian descent, Kareem Musa.
Dylan Vernon, Member, Liberation 9/21
"Basically we handed in also a list of the 765 persons who have signed along with a cover letter and attachments of things we referred to. He was cordial, it was a cordial meeting. He committed to take the petition to Cabinet and that will most likely be in the coming week. Clearly because we're still in an advocacy mode, Liberation 9/21 will be talking to other ministers of Cabinet about it and trying to get their support. But the meeting was cordial and we know it's going to be an uphill battle because it's not only him."
Courtney Menzies:
"Would you say that the target for the petition was met?"
Dylan Vernon, Member, Liberation 9/21
"It was hard to know what the target was going to be and the wildcard in all this is that there is an atmosphere of fear, of signing such a petition that supports the Palestinian people in essence and condemns Israel. And because the United States is a big supporter of Israel people's fear that doing so publicly might result in some sort of reprisal. when I say that, I talk about Visas and stays in the US, etc. and that's real but even in that context we had 765 brave people, Belizeans at home and abroad and others signing the petition and not allowing the fear to stop them to do so."
"Because there has been some concerns from the Tourism Sector, we will certainly be talking to the Minister of Tourism in the course of the coming week. And that concern is a bit exaggerated and the concern was basically that Israelis come to Belize as tourists and the petition would stop that. First of all, the petition is not saying that Israelis can't come to Belize, or shouldn't come to Belize. We're saying that VISA free approach where they could come in just by coming to the airport for 90 day or cross the border should be removed. And that they should be asked to as most other people, apply for a VISA to come to Belize. That will allow then the government to vet to see that Israelis who are coming into Belize have not in any way participated in or abetted the genocide taking place in Gaza."
Liberation 9/21 will also attempt to meet with the Foreign Minister.
