By Alejandra Garcia on February 25, 2024 from Havana
Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Anayansi Rodriguez defending Palestine in the Hague
This week, Cuba once again raised its voice for Palestine, this time from The Hague, in the Netherlands, where the International Court of Justice is holding hearings on the genocide taking place in Gaza. Over 30,000 people make up the list of victims of the Israeli operation in Gaza since October 7, 2023, most of them children and women, and all this has happened before the gaze of the international community, which is just beginning to awaken from its lethargy, and seeks to put a stop to Israel’s brutality.
Cuba never left the Palestinian people alone. It has always held a historic commitment. Not to do so would be to betray the memory and legacy of the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz. That is why the Caribbean island reached The Hague, through the voice of Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Anayansi Rodriguez.
The hearings on this matter before the ICJ began on February 20, and follow the U.N. General Assembly’s request more than a year ago for the court to make a non-binding ruling on Israeli policies in the Palestinian territories occupied since the 1967 Six-Day War, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
This process is separate from the one initiated in January before the ICJ in which South Africa accused Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza for its military operations in the enclave. But it sheds light on the bloody nightmare being lived by people who, for the most part, have been forcibly displaced, and live in overcrowded areas with a lack of food, medicine, and minimal hygiene conditions.
“A comprehensive, fair and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on the creation of two States, cannot be postponed. Cuba feels a genuine interest in and commitment of the Caribbean nation to peace. We defend the island’s historic and unconditional solidarity with peoples subject to colonialism and foreign domination,” Rodriguez commented.
The ICJ must determine Israel’s responsibility and that of the other international actors involved, as well as their legal implications, according to the senior official. The island also denounced the complicity of some powers that, like the United States, guarantee Israel’s impunity and prevents any effective action by the UN system.
Likewise, “Israel must answer for the violations it commits against the Palestinian people,” she explained, “such as denying them the right to self-determination and measures to disrupt their demographic composition; the annexation acts of its territory, since 1967, and the status of the Holy City of Jerusalem.”
The Palestinian issue requires a clear position on the legal consequences for the non-applicability and violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention, adding that the land, sea and air blockades constitute collective punishment, and are extreme violations of freedom of movement and the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights. It is necessary to address the complicity of countries such as the United States in genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, and the Apartheid-like regime in Palestine.
The demand is common among all countries that want an end to the genocide in Gaza: “The International Court of Justice must establish legal consequences for Israel for its violations of the norms, threat to regional peace, and use of force. Palestine’s equality of rights and self-determination is at risk,” Rodriguez concluded.
Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English