Pro-Palestinian campaign group calls on Barbados to recognize State of Palestine

A pro-Palestinian campaign group is calling on Barbados to recognise the State of Palestine.

The locally-based Caribbean Against Apartheid in Palestine (CAAP) argues that if Barbados can’t recognise Palestine, it should not continue to validate the “colonialist settler apartheid state of Israel”.

But in a statement issued Tuesday night, the government said that it has always supported a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian question. It called on the international community to “urgently agree and take action to ensure that the Palestinian people can exercise their right to self-determination in an independent internationally-recognised state of their own in accordance with international law”.

Bridgetown has also called for an “immediate humanitarian” ceasefire in Israel’s military operation in Gaza as it retaliates against a coordinated terror attack on Israel by the militant Palestinian group Hamas on October 7.

An estimated 5 000 Palestinians have died in several airstrikes and military incursions into the Gaza Strip.

In an open letter to Prime Minister Mia Mottley dated October 24, CAAP’s secretary, attorney-at-law Lalu Hanuman, said that recognising Israel was not justified given flagrant breaches of international law being openly inflicted on the civilian population of Gaza.

He said: “Barbados since its independence has prided itself on a foreign policy skillfully articulated by the Right Excellent Errol Barrow as ‘friends of all and satellites of none’. This philosophy has successfully guided our engagements with other sovereign nations around the world.”

The government statement said that since joining the United Nations upon independence in 1966, “Barbados has supported a two-state solution, recognising the rights of the people of both Israel and Palestine to their own state”.

In an October 7 surprise attack, an estimated 1 200 Israelis were killed by missile strikes and armed attacks by Hamas militants. Many Israelis were slaughtered in acts of mass murder not perpetrated against Jewish populations since the Holocaust. Hamas seized more than 200 Israelis as hostages.

Israel is preparing for an imminent ground assault on Gaza with several Israeli hostages and Palestinian residents caught in the middle while humanitarian aid trickles in from neighbouring Egypt.

“Barbados further calls for the immediate, unconditional release of all hostages and the provision of humanitarian assistance in all its dimensions to the people of Gaza,” the government statement said.

“Barbados condemns the heinous terrorist attacks perpetrated on Israel on October 7th, 2023 which caused over a thousand to lose their lives and hundreds to be taken hostage, including women and children. Those responsible for these devastating violent acts must be brought to account.

“We express our alarm at the deteriorating situation in the Middle East and our deep concern for the safety and security of the people of Israel and Palestine.”

Barbados has warned that the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza threatens to spill over to the entire Middle East with catastrophic results for the people of that region, global peace and the already fragile multilateral order.

It suggested that if the conflict continues unabated it will also have devastating impacts on vulnerable populations everywhere.

“The international community of sovereign states and their peoples must therefore unite and prevent the situation from any further deterioration. The UN Security Council must act urgently and in unison,” the statement urged.

Barbados said such an immediate ceasefire, as urged by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, is essential in order to ensure the protection of the lives and well-being of the innocent civilians of Israel and Gaza.

“Even with the best intentions and the most sophisticated weapons, any aerial bombardment in Gaza, an area smaller than Barbados, but with seven times our own population, is bound to have devastating effects on civilians. The death of thousands of Palestinians is testimony to this,” Bridgetown declared.

Barbados also called for the immediate, unconditional release of all hostages and the provision of humanitarian assistance in all its dimensions to the people of Gaza.

“A sustainable peace must be the world’s singular focus and it is only with dialogue that this can be achieved,” the statement concluded.

Hanuman said his association has for several years advocated for the Barbados government to officially recognise the Palestinian State.

“We are at a loss as to why Barbados refuses to do so while 11 out of the 15 CARICOM member states have recognised the State of Palestine, have engaged with the Palestinian people in areas of development and cooperation, and stood by them in the face of the aggressive, brutal, and violent apartheid policies of the Israeli state,” the CAAP spokesman asserted.

Hanuman urged Prime Minister Mottley to accord Palestine due honour and recognition as most countries around the world have done.

“Nothing less can be expected of our country that stubbornly stands on the side of justice, fairness, and freedom for all peoples,” Hanuman said. “All civilian lives matter whether it be on a slave ship or in Soweto or in Kyiv or the Kfar Aza Kibbutz or in Gaza City.” (EJ)