Antigua and Barbuda joined with more than one hundred other members of the
United Nations in voting in favour of a ‘humanitarian ceasefire’ in the Middle
East, where Israel has stepped up its aerial and other bombardments of Gaza.
Foreign Minister E.P. Chet Greene noted that Antigua and Barbuda was the first
CARICOM nation to condemn the Hamas incursion into Israel killing more than
one thousand people on October 7.
Greene said the country has been consistent in its stance against violence of all
kinds. “On Friday, we voted in favour of the resolution put forward by the
Jordanian delegation calling for an immediate ceasefire on humanitarian grounds.
The Israeli reported that just over 1400 of its citizens were killed by Hamas
fighters who attacked by air and on land. However, as the Israeli Defense Force
has stepped up its bombardment of the narrow Gaza Strip, more than eight
thousand Palestinians have been killed and many more wounded. There is almost
nowhere to escape to, as Israeli bombs have struck in the north, where it asked
people to evacuate as well as in the south where, he had indicated, was a ‘safe
zone.’
Greene explained that the Jordanian resolution had first been amended by the
Canadians which Antigua and Barbuda did not support. “However, once they came
back to the Jordanian resolution, which had all the ingredients; the release of
civilians and humanitarian truce, then, Antigua and Barbuda had absolutely no
difficulty in supporting. We believe that the carnage in Gaza must stop; we believe
that the force being used by Israel is disproportionate and we cannot continue to
see, in a modern civilized world, this type of behaviour and not at the level of the
UN where our voice does count to make our position clear and to state it where we
stand in this conflict,” he stated.
The foreign minister said he recognizes that the conflict has some history and that
there have been previous UN resolutions that have addressed the issue of the
occupation of Gaza by the Israelis going back to 1948 when it was declared a state.
He added that peace in the region will be elusive unless one question is answered;
an independent Palestinian state. “I think to find lasting peace in this situation,
there has to be reference to and respect for, the original tenets of the UN position
on this matter. In the meantime, what we are seeking is an immediate, durable and
sustainable humanitarian truce because the carnage must stop! Diplomacy is at
work and I must commend the other 119 nations that voted in favour of this
resolution,” he declared.
Antigua and Barbuda was among eleven of the fourteen independent CARICOM
nations that voted in favour of the resolution.
