TO THE best of our knowledge, except for the Guyana Government, NO other government of the fourteen member countries of our Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has publicly condemned Israel’s outrageous attack a week ago today on a peaceful aid flotilla providing much-needed humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people in Gaza.
It would be welcome news if we are incorrect. After all, CARICOM governments often boast of their solidarity with the Palestinian people in their long struggle for an Independent state, alongside Israel, but with restoration of their land that continues to be illegally occupied by Israel.
For its part, the Guyana Government deserves to be commended for swiftly taking its condemnation of that cowardly act in international waters with an official statement in the highest forum in our nation — Parliament.
It was there that Foreign Minister, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett outlined  the firm, unequivocal position of the government in identifying the criminal assault as “yet another reprehensible act (that resulted in loss of lives and injuries to innocent people) by the Israeli military…”
To its credit also, the Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana (CIOG)  lost no time in urging President Bharrat Jagdeo’s administration to condemn Israel’s military assault. In the process, the CIOG went as far as calling for an end to Guyana’s diplomatic relations with Israel.
That, of course, is not a route hastily pursued by the great majority of nations that maintain diplomatic relations with Israel, even though they rightly continue to denounce, at the United Nations and other international fora, the reduction and control of Gaza as a vast open prison by virtue of the undemocratic and inhumane politics of successive Israeli administrations that have maintained a dehumanising blockade against that strip of Palestinian territory.
In the wake of the May 31 Israeli military attack on the aid flotilla, the UN Human Rights Council voted, by an overwhelming 32 in favour and three against, to send an independent fact-finding mission to investigate the violations committed by Israel in international waters.
It is of relevance to note that the three nations whose representatives voted AGAINST the UN Human Rights Council’s resolution were the USA, Italy and The Netherlands.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the incident “highlights a serious underlying problem — that Israel’s closure of the Gaza Strip is counter-productive, unsustainable, and wrong and should be lifted immediately…”
Certainly a most reassuring, admirable stand by the world’s chief servant for the world’s governments to take note and act accordingly to influence Israel to cease its militaristic politics against Palestine, and carefully listen to at least its big allies and big donors for an end to the sufferings it has institutionalised in Gaza.
Those courageous international workers for peace who have organised the aid flotilla, with a view to overcoming the blockade by Israeli against Gaza, are to be saluted for their humanitarian commitment. The governments that have provided relevant assistance are also deserving of praise.
More voices should be heard, and without equivocation, within CARICOM, against Israel’s use of military force to prevent aid — including food and medicine — from reaching blockaded Gaza. This would be consistent with the Community’s claimed coordination of foreign policies and respect for the Rule of Law.
Lacking, to date, is that desirable collective ‘CARICOM Voice’.