LALIT calls for Government to act against Israeli genocide Against Palestinians
22.11.2024
A two-member LALIT delegation hand-delivered a letter to the new Prime Minister on Wednesday, calling on him to act swiftly in order to help prevent and stop the genocide that Israel is committing against the people of Palestine. Here is our letter:
Dear Dr. Navin Ramgoolam,
We are writing to you as Prime Minister of the newly elected government on an issue of critical importance, the continued genocide in Palestine in particular in Gaza.
You will recall in June this year, as Leader of the Labour Party, you adhered to the Common Statement by opposition parties/alliances circulated by Muvman Liberasyon Fam and calling on the then Prime Minister to support the South Africa ICJ case against Israel for the crime of genocide in Palestine.
Paul Bérenger, Leader of the Mouvement Militant Mauricien, and Richard Duval, Leader of the Nouveaux Democrates, now elected in the Alliance Changement government, also adhered to the Common Statement. We have no reason to believe that Ashok Subron of the Rezistans ek Alternativ, also in Parliament now, would not have signed.
The Common Statement to which you signed up, just to put it on record, reads as follows:
“Noting that the State of Mauritius in 2019, by signing the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948, has, like all signatories, already agreed that genocide is 'a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish' (Article 1),
"We believe it important for the Mauritian State to support the Republic of South Africa’s case before the UN’s top Court, the International Court of Justice, in which South Africa is holding Israel responsible for violations, in Palestine in particular in Gaza, of the Convention.”
Since June, the world has continued witnessing the genocidal war by Israel on Palestine "live on the internet".
We are therefore calling upon you to take a bold stand to honour your call, back in June, for the State of Mauritius to join South Africa in its brave case, which accuses Israel of genocide in Palestine before the International Court of Justice. As Prime Minister, you will make Mauritius proud by joining the commitment shown by other countries and peoples across continents to stand with Palestine, and against the Israeli state's genocide against them, genocide being the crime of all crimes.
As signatories of the Genocide Convention, each state, as you know, also carries the added responsibility of preventing genocide. We need to act urgently on all fronts to put an immediate stop to the genocide.
So, we have a second proposal.
On 1st November, a letter calling on all countries to stop the sale of arms and ammunition to Israel, signed by 52 countries across the continents and together with two UN-recognized multilateral organizations, was delivered to the UN. One way of preventing genocide, as is our obligation, is to actively stop arming Israel, and to call on those countries arming Israel to stop participating in the crime of genocide by this unrelenting supply of the arms and ammunition being used for the genocide. Joining the cross-continental call to implement an arms embargo on Israel is the immediate response needed to stop the genocide now. Signing on to the South African case at the ICJ, which is vital, is not necessarily a swift solution to the slaughter and starvation being perpetrated against the Palestinians. An arms embargo might put a stop to the genocide.
Thirdly, as you know there is a precedent for suspending membership of the United Nations of a country that acts illegally, and that defies international law. Apartheid South Africa was suspended from the United Nations, and this contributed to the end of Apartheid. We call on you to request the Mauritius Permanent Representative at the UN to, at once, work with other countries, starting with the African union, to join in the initiative already underway towards a UN General Assembly Resolution to suspend Israel from the UN until it ends the genocide, and until it implements the ICJ judgment that has declared its occupation of Palestine unlawful. This will be an additional pressure on Israel and its enablers.
We write to you even as you are in the process of forming your government, since we have on-the-ground testimony from one of our members, Ragini Kistnasamy, who spent three weeks in Palestine last month, as part of a team of internationals dedicated to offering "protective presence" to Palestinians facing violence from Israeli Settlers and to documenting Israel’s daily crimes in Palestine. This testimony reported to our party adds to our conviction that the three measures we urgently propose in this letter, will have an enormous impact on the balance-of-power within the international sphere, and help tip the scales of history in favour of respect for international law, and against the perpetration with such impunity of a "live" genocide, and towards saving the UN system, itself, from auto-destruction, should it allow a member-nation, Israel, to remain a member while flaunting all international conventions, UN resolutions, and the norms of civilized behavior.
Yours sincerely,
Alain Ah Vee
for LALIT
* See our references below
Addressed to Dr Navin Ramgoolam,
Prime Minister of the Republic of Mauritius,
Treasury Building, Port Louis.
20 November 2024
* Our references, FYI:
52 countries + 2 Organisations that are Signatories of the joint-letter to the UN calling for an arms embargo
1 Türkiye 2 Iran 3 Palestine 4 Bahrain 5 Bangladesh 6 The United Arab Emirates (UAE) 7 Bolivia 8 Brazil 9 Brunei 10 Burkina Faso 11 Algeria 12 Djibouti 13 China 14 Indonesia 15 Morocco 16 Gambia 17 South Africa 18 Iraq 19 Qatar 20 Kazakhstan 21 Kyrgyzstan 22 Colombia 23 Comoros 24 Kuwait 25 Cuba 26 Libya 27 Lebanon 28 Maldives 29 Malaysia 30 Mexico 31 Egypt 32 Mauritania 33 Namibia 34 Nigeria 35 Nicaragua 36 Norway 37 Pakistan 38 Russia 39 Saint Vincent and Grenadines 40 Sao Tome and Principe 41 Senegal 42 Somalia 43 Sudan 44 Saudi Arabia 45 Chile 46 Tunisia 47 Oman 48 Jordan 49 Venezuela 50 Vietnam 51 Yemen 52 Zimbabwe 53 Organization of Islamic Cooperation. 54 Arab League
14 Countries to participate in the ICJ trial, thus supporting the South African case
1. Nicaragua: intervention request submitted on 8 February, 2024
2. Belgium: intention declared on 11 March
3. Ireland: intention declared on 27 March
4. Colombia: intervention request submitted on 5 April
5. Libya: intervention request submitted on 10 May
6. Egypt: intention declared on 12 May
7. Cuba: intention declared on 22 June
8. Mexico: intervention request submitted on 28 May
9. Palestine: intervention request submitted on 3 June
10. Spain: intervention request submitted on 28 June
11. Türkiye: intervention request submitted on 7 August
12. Chile: intervention request submitted on 13 September
13. Maldives: intervention request submitted on 2 October
14. Bolivia: intervention request submitted on 9 October
