Maduro: Silence on genocide in Palestine a 'moral crime'
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At the Bogotá summit, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro warned that every bomb dropped on a Palestinian school, hospital, or home, not only kills innocents but undermines the foundations of world peace.
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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro holds a news conference at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 31, 2024. (AP)
During his speech at the Bogotá summit, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro declared that the gathering serves as "a moral and political response to the atrocities being committed against the Palestinian people amid unprecedented impunity." He urged the international community to break its complicit silence in the face of what he called the Israeli "killing machine."
“We raise our voices with determination and anger at the world’s silence in the face of the ongoing genocide against the Palestinians,” Maduro said, emphasizing that the situation in Gaza and across Palestine "is not a conflict between equal parties, but a systematic plan to destroy a people and erase their identity."
Maduro warned that “every bomb dropped on a Palestinian hospital, school, or home not only kills innocent lives, but also undermines the foundations of world peace and accelerates the moral collapse of the international order.”
He concluded by affirming “Palestine’s right to exist, to resist, and to live freely within a fully sovereign state with East Jerusalem as its capital,” reiterating Venezuela’s full and unwavering support for the Palestinian cause and its people.
The Hague Group, initially formed by South Africa and Colombia, has grown to include Algeria, Brazil, Indonesia, Qatar, and Spain. Additionally, Colombian President Gustavo Petro, hosting the event, stated that the world is transitioning from condemnation to collective action against "Israel’s" military aggression.
In an official statement, the Colombian government described the summit as “an important turning point in the course of international action,” adding that participants are “moving toward practical steps, not just statements of condemnation,” in response to the global community’s repeated failure to stop crimes against civilians in Gaza and the West Bank.
Albanese defies sanctions, joins coalition to end Israeli occupation
UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, has vowed not to be silenced by sanctions imposed by the US last week. She praised a 30-nation Hague Group conference in Bogotá, Colombia, aimed at ending "Israel’s" occupation of Palestine, calling it "the most significant political development in the past 20 months."
Albanese will speak at the two-day gathering that begins on Tuesday, describing it as a critical moment for both the Palestinian people and "Israel". The conference includes representatives from China, Spain, Qatar, and other states, and seeks to take practical steps in support of a UN General Assembly motion mandating measures to end "Israel's" unlawful occupation.
The gathering also aims to devise a plan of political, economic, and legal actions to implement a July 2024 advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which declared "Israel’s" occupation of the Palestinian territories unlawful.
The UN resolution supporting the ICJ opinion calls for full implementation by September 2025.
In its advisory, the ICJ stated that "Israel’s security concerns do not override the principle of the prohibition of the acquisition of territory by force," urging the occupation to end "as rapidly as possible." It also noted that UN member states are obligated "not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence in the occupied Palestinian territory."
