The Contrast of the Rich Kings of Empire and the Starved Palestinians of Gaza – Blog No. 69
14.05.2025
Who would have thought that after 580 days of the US Empire’s Israeli-led genocide that we would be suffering the disgusting spectacle of Donald Trump, accompanied by his coterie of billionaires entering the plush palaces of the hereditary Crown Prince Salman of Saudi Arabia, known for his role in killing and chopping into bits the gentle journalist Jamal Khashoggi, to the blaring sound-track of the fundamentalist lyrics “God Bless the USA”, in a split screen with the Palestinians of Gaza, corralled into an ever-smaller concentration camp, bombed, shelled and intentionally starved to death, children scrambling with empty bowls for a mouthful of food, and everyone living in the rubble left from the American bombs, all still suffering that very US Empire’s Israeli-led genocide next door? God Bless America?
Who would have thought that the new government in Mauritius would have opted out of its commitment to make oral submissions to the UN’s International Court of Justice at The Hague, and that it did not submit written contributions either, on the vital case of Israel’s blocking the UN and other organizations from alleviating the siege of Gaza, even after the ICJ has found that the Israeli occupation of Palestine, including Gaza, to be “unlawful”, and even after judging it is “plausible” that Israel is committing genocide there now?
It is time for the Mauritian State to join the South African “main case” at the ICJ accusing Israel of genocide. Let us all put pressure on the new Government to be on the right side of history, and not on the wrong side of perpetrating genocide. It is particularly important at a time when the USA and Britain are trying to get hold of Diego Garcia in exchange for blood money that the Mauritian State takes a principled stand. Make the political parties in Government remember, for a start, that the leaders of the Labour Party, the MMM and the Nouveau Democrates all signed, as members of the previous Parliamentary Opposition, the petition coordinated by the Muvman Liberasyon Fam that called for the Pravind Jugnauth Government to join this South African ICJ case, and we assume that the Rezistans ek Alternativ, who were not in Parliament at the time, also have that stand. All the four parties need to do now is to act on their own belief.
Lindsey Collen
for LALIT
References from our website, lalitmauritius.org:
1. Labour, MMM, ND, Linion Moris, PMSD and Lalit all sign up to Common Statement for Mauritius to support SA case against Israel (15.06.2024)
Here is a copy of the Common Statement of Opposition Parties and Alliances that LALIT is publishing again because the PMSD has now added its name to the Statement. The MLF informs us that the PMSD was late in signing due to a communications issue.
Common Statement by Opposition Parties/Alliances
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.
Adhered to by:
The Labour Party, Navin Ramgoolam.
The Mouvement Militant Mauricien, Paul Bérenger
The Nouveaux Democrates, Richard Duval
Linion Moris, Rama Valayden.
Lalit, Rada Kistnasamy.
Parti Mauricien Social Democrate, Xavier Duval*
Co-ordinated by the Muvman Liberasyon Fam in early June, 2024.
* PMSD adhered slightly later, on 15 June, 2024 (late due to a communications issue).
2. Parliamentary Question, June 2024 by Current Minister in Ramgoolam Government
This Parliamentary Question is a follow-up after a Common Statement.
On 15 June, all the Parliamentary Opposition Parties, that is to say, the Labour Party, MMM, Nouveaux Democrates, PMSD and the Linion Moris, together with the extra-Parliamentary party LALIT, announced in a “Common Statement” circulated by the Muvman Liberasyon Fam that they believe it is important for the Mauritian State to support the Republic of South Africa. The Common Statement was then delivered by hand to the Prime Minister’s office by a delegation of MLF members. The Statement read:
“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.”
