In September 2024, 124 member nations of the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution setting a 12 month deadline for Israel “to bring an end to its unlawful presence in Occupied Palestinian Territory of Gaza.” Guyana made a forceful, well-received contribution to that debate. The resolution also imposed obligations on the voting States to freeze assets, cease imports and the sale of arms, sanctions, prosecutions and investigations of Israeli criminality
Almost twelve months on, these ringing declarations have generated little follow-up action. Although the responsibility of abandoning Gaza fall heavily on large Western countries, this does not leave countries like Guyana as innocent bystanders. Silence and failure to challenge the continued destruction of Gaza and the accelerating genocide of the Palestinian people renders signatory countries like Guyana complicit in the atrocities. Inaction amounts to compliance.
While Israel does not figure prominently as an economic or political partner of Guyana and Guyanese products are not imported or exported directly to Israel, Guyanese private and public sector companies do business with their Israeli counterparts. Other countries with similar insignificant economic ties have taken symbolic actions such as banning Israeli-flagged ships from using their ports and deterring tourism. The issue is less what the effect on Israel may be, as the moral and political effect of signalling continued flouting of international law.
As a country which depends, literally, for its continued physical integrity on international law, Guyana shows remarkably little interest in sustaining the integrity of the international legal system. Respect for decisions of the international Court of Justice is Guyana’s sole defense against international aggression by Venezuela. Guyana has no military, economic or numbers of citizens to counter Venezuelan aggression. To this extent Maduro’s designs on Essequibo have clear similarity to Netanyahu’s intentions for Gaza, minus the genocide.
Both Trump and Netanyahu have made clear that Palestinians are to be completely removed from Gaza which – unless the international community intervenes – will be reduced to upscale residential areas for wealthy Israelis and farms for Israeli settlers. While Israel’s continuous/sustained barbaric behaviour is sufficient reason for repetition of Guyana’s prior condemnation, a forceful additional argument is to emphasize the cost to other nations of continued flouting of international law.
Moreover, in light of the UN declaration of Gaza as ‘the hungriest place on earth’ Guyana claim to be the ‘breadbasket of the Caribbean’, would make even a symbolic gesture of a shipment of rice commendable.
