As Al Jazeera reported "Leaders of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) countries on Friday denounced Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip and demanded an immediate ceasefire there, during the annual summit of the 120-member bloc.
“Since October 7, we have witnessed one of the cruelest genocidal acts ever to be recorded by history,” Cuba’s vice president, Salvador Valdes Mesa, said in a speech to delegates.
“How can the Western countries, who claim to be so civilised, justify the murder of women and children in Gaza, the indiscriminate bombings of hospitals and schools and deprivation of access to safe water and food?” he questioned.
Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairperson of the African Union Commission, called for an immediate end to what he called the “unjust war against the Palestinian people”."
This came after Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, at the Meeting of the Ministerial Committee of the Non-Aligned Movement on Palestine on January 17 issued a powerful statement calling for the move:
The international community is being witness to the genocide that is being perpetrated against the Palestinian people.
Israel, the Occupying Power, is attacking with bombs and missiles the defenseless population in Gaza. By implementing its “philosophy of dispossession”, Israel has brought about a humanitarian catastrophe of extreme proportions in the Palestinian territory which has been illegally occupied for 75 years.
Nothing would justify such barbaric acts. We call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire as well as the unrestricted delivery of humanitarian aid in Gaza.
Cuba condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the murder of civilians, particularly women, children and humanitarian workers of the United Nations system; the indiscriminate bombings against the population in Gaza and the destruction of houses, hospitals and civil infrastructure as well as the deprivation of water, food, electricity and fuel services to the Palestinian people.
Those actions are significantly worsening the humanitarian situation resulting from the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip and are considered as flagrant violations of International Humanitarian Law.
It is imperative to stop the forced displacement of Palestinians from the land that belongs to them in their own right. We reject all actions carried out by the Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank territory, which have led to increased repression and murder of the Palestinians living in that area, in open violation of International Law.
The impunity with which the Israeli government is acting must cease. Such behavior can only be explained by its confidence that it will not be held accountable for its actions, since it enjoys the support of the US government and other NATO allies.
It is unacceptable for the Security Council to continue failing to enforce its own resolutions intended to put an end to the disgraceful behavior of Israel, the Occupying Power, which have traditionally enjoyed the complicit support of the United Sates, for it has repeatedly obstructed and resorted to the veto to prevent this UN body from taking action, thus undermining regional peace, security and stability.
Every minute of impunity, passivity, double standards or silence passing by, will be taking a toll on more innocent lives. The international community must take action now.
Cuba reiterates its unswerving solidarity with the Palestinian cause and reaffirms that it will never be among the indifferent.
Under the present circumstances, the protection of the civilian population is an absolute priority.
Cuba suggests this Committee to recommend the 19th Non-Aligned Summit, which will be in session the day after tomorrow, to support the urgent dispatch of an International Protection Mission, authorized by the United Nations General Assembly, to the Gaza Strip, with the mandate of guaranteeing the security and protection of the civil population and facilitating the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian assistance and food.
We will continue to support, as much as possible, all international efforts aimed at putting an end to the current situation.
In that context, our country supports the case brought by the Republic of South Africa before the International Court of Justice against Israel, for this country’s violations of its obligations as State Party to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948.
These proceedings initiated before the main UN justice body should be understood and addressed as an urgent call to stop the horrible international genocide crimes, the crimes against humanity and apartheid committed against the Palestinian people.
Our country also supports the convening of an International Peace Conference with the purpose of guaranteeing the enjoyment of human rights by the Palestinian people. Similarly, we express our support to the prompt incorporation of the Palestinian State as a full-fledged member of the United Nations.
The search for an immediate solution to this conflict, in conformity with International Law and the UN Charter, is a fundamental duty of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries, which should make an urgent call for a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on the creation of two States, so that the Palestinian people can exercise its right to self-determination and have and independent and sovereign State within the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, equally ensuring the right of refugees to return.