[News] Latin America's Leaders Respond to Israel's War on Gaza - While Europe's leaders Support Zionism

[Anti-Imperialist News]

*How Have Latin America's *

*Political Leaders **Responded *

*to Israel's Siege on Gaza?
*

*
*

By Stephan Lefebvre

CEPR 
<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=0017l8zR381_OEq4kUB_PcSibCPtr2cXfWonD-u7SD-9p7OEFWocHAAiz1HYWvUqaCaYOoXzl-WJjRY9qOg4SQLumxOA3v_9rAapCEsXMqWGCWDrw-vnD9Fr8EHFIz7Au8ltP8mEczVV6BcV7m0tMOAESDOqmP1s-aO6ucaP3Iy7ei-_uSV_rAyLFcUP-p7uGiuIhglXha7WtrujdIf_r3OUbgxdRVYV01D0hNDjDV8_cjnUdjG3oNNf3O9_PZI1ixryHJQQYVL-L57JFEgy1_fDUYCiLUWJNgHkcPjJA4oQGFlvJuWipaObtuT7glyzmtFsC9WScd15NSUuPg95aa8aWtWsxSaqFsdHZXfIZ4Q_3nPxkKNpNPmAta3tkdEma2PJ9DxRM4gvHTnYAQVTZWtMFhh3CIpdLrAudSrGdN7AJ5XCBHnKS-Tr7xVysJFGxXzC3tIz_p7vTo=&c=zemP__0H_xY-vj5KqgZgrWOWUhM8s6lo9da4b_nty6fjkAFkn4z7CA==&ch=yiyjYqaEcFbliJPhPkpFZ8wG-Jzp2pQ6-pElryOD_dJj_z8heVZL8w==> 
(July 21, 2014)
*http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?ca=8659f05d-18d7-4c28-bf8f-f8bb284660c8&c=9c658400-32a8-11e3-8b18-d4ae52753a3b&ch=9d7f5870-32a8-11e3-8bc0-d4ae52753a3b*

On July 10th, just two days after Israel launched Operation Protective 
Edge (the largest attack on Gaza in several years) President Obama 
released a statement in which he "reaffirmed Israel's right to defend 
itself." With a death toll now over 550, it is important to look beyond 
U.S. government sources for information and perspective. Foreign policy 
among the countries in Latin America conforms to the long-standing, 
overwhelming international consensus that opposes Israeli aggression and 
occupation, but it also reflects the region's "second independence." 
Over the last 15 years, most countries in Latin America have increased 
their ability to pursue a foreign policy agenda separate from the goals 
of the U.S. State Department. In the vast majority of cases, reactions 
to the latest hostilities are fundamentally at odds with the U.S. 
position, but they are also varied: many governments directly criticize 
Israel, using words like "crimes against humanity" and "genocide" to 
describe recent events; other official statements limit themselves to 
calling for a ceasefire and a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

Some of the strongest statements were issued by left-leaning governments 
in South America, including those of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, 
Ecuador, Uruguay and Venezuela. The government of Argentina issued a 
statement "strongly condemn[ing] that Israel -- defying calls by the 
Security County, by the Secretary General and by the many voices of the 
international community - has decided to escalate the crisis by 
launching a ground offensive." President Evo Morales of Bolivia 
announced that he had petitioned the United Nations High Commissioner 
for Human Rights (UNCHR) to consider a case against Israel at the 
International Court of Justice (ICJ) for "crimes against humanity" and 
"genocide." (Bolivia broke diplomatic relations with Israel in 2009 over 
Israel's Operation Cast Lead assault on Gaza.) The statement from Brazil 
reads in part:[1]

The Brazilian Government vehemently condemns the Israeli bombardment of 
Gaza, with disproportionate use of force, which resulted in more than 
230 Palestinians dead, many of them unarmed civilians and children. It 
equally condemns the firing of rockets and mortars from Gaza into Israel.

The foreign ministry of Chile released a statement that "strongly 
condemns the Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip," also saying that "The 
reprehensible kidnappings and deaths of three young Israelis and one 
young Palestinian cannot serve as an excuse to initiate terrorist 
actions nor to attack areas densely populated by civilians." Chile has 
reportedly suspended trade talks with Israel and is considering 
withdrawal of its ambassador in Tel Aviv over Israeli attacks in the 
Gaza Strip. The Government of Ecuador released a statement saying that it:

strongly condemns the disproportionate military operations by the 
Israeli army against the civilian population of the Gaza Strip, which 
have left more than a hundred deaths [sic] and considerable damage to 
property and civil infrastructure, demands an immediate cessation of 
these aggressions against the Palestinian civilian population and called 
[sic] the State of Israel to exercise maximum restraint and act in 
accordance to international law and humanitarian law.

Uruguay issued a similar statement condemning the military attacks by 
Israel in the Gaza Strip, which "caused dozens of civilian deaths and 
injuries, including women and children, in a disproportionate response 
to the launch of rockets against the Israeli territory on the part of 
armed Palestinian groups." The statement also condemns the "repeated 
[rocket] launchings that put the civilian population in central and 
southern Israel at risk." On the whole, this was not positively received 
by the Israeli ambassador to Uruguay. Finally, President Nicolás Maduro 
of Venezuela issued a statement lamenting the murders of three young 
Israelis, saying it is a case that "demands a full investigation." He 
also rejected the attacks by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, saying:

the Bolivarian Government of Venezuelan energetically condemns the 
unjust, disproportionate and illegal military response of the State of 
Israel against the historic Palestinian nation and urges its government 
to immediately end this aggression which goes against international law 
and against the most elemental sense of respect for life and human dignity.

Clearly the language used by each country varies, but it is interesting 
to note that Venezuela's response falls somewhere in the middle of the 
spectrum in terms of condemning the Israeli siege. The Venezuelan 
foreign ministry issued a separate statement on behalf of the ALBA 
counties which echoes the Venezuelan government's statement and 
reaffirms the ALBA group's "unconditional solidarity, support and 
influence for the people of Palestine before this new wave of violence."

Outside South America, several other countries issued strong responses, 
including Cuba and El Salvador. Cuba's foreign ministry condemned Israel 
for "us[ing] its military and technological superiority to execute a 
policy of collective punishment with a disproportionate use of force 
which causes civilian casualties and enormous material damage." El 
Salvador issued a statement in which the government "strongly condemns 
and rejects Israel's increased armed aggression against the Gaza Strip" 
which caused the "loss of human lives, hundreds of injuries and the 
flight of thousands of Palestinians from their homes, besides serious 
material damage." Also, the statement explains that the U.N.'s 
legitimate self-defense clause "does not justify the use of 
disproportionate military force against another State, much less against 
its civilian population."

As an historical aside, the United Nations declared 2014 the 
International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, and 
several of the countries that introduced the resolution to the General 
Assembly were from Latin America, including Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, 
Guayana, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

Colombia stands out, not only in South America but in Latin America as a 
whole, for condemning the "acts of violence and terrorism" against 
Israel and its civilian population. They called on both Israel and 
Palestine to end the confrontations and return to the dialogue and 
negotiation. Colombia has not supported U.N. membership for Palestine, 
abstaining during the 2012 vote.

More measured statements were issued by the governments of Costa Rica, 
Honduras [PDF], Mexico, and Peru. These statements typically called for 
a ceasefire, a peaceful resolution to the conflict, and condemned both 
sides equally for the violence. Several countries have not issued 
official responses, including the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Haiti, 
Nicaragua, and Paraguay. Panama's foreign minister did not release a 
dedicated statement on the recent events, but received the Israeli 
Ambassador for a meeting to strengthen the bilateral relationship during 
which time the Panamanian official expressed concern over the rise in 
violence in the Middle East and expressed support for a peaceful resolution.

These statements clearly show not only that the vast majority of Latin 
American countries are at odds with U.S. foreign policy, but also that 
these countries are more and more able to articulate opposing views that 
challenge U.S. State Department narratives. Back in 2010, CEPR examined 
the region's response to Israel's deadly raid of the Gaza Freedom 
Flotilla and then as now we found that there was a "hemispheric 
isolation of the U.S. on critical foreign policy issues." While the era 
of U.S. supported coups and interference in the region is not over, 
significant progress has been made to increase national sovereignty and 
independence in Latin America, and these are changes that reverberate 
not just throughout the hemisphere, but across the world.

_____________________________________________

[1] In this blog post, estimates for casualties and other statistics 
included in official statements are quoted as written in the original 
versions, not corrected for the latest information available. The latest 
numbers for the death toll indicate over 550 killed since July 8, 2014.

-- 
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