Churches Criticize G.O.B.’s Position on Israel

On Tuesday, the Government of Belize announced a bold decision that it was suspending all diplomatic ties with Israel indefinitely.  In rationalizing its position, the Briceño administration pointed to the mounting number of Palestinian casualties since Israel declared war on Hamas, following the deadly attacks on October seventh.  Foreign Minister Eamon Courtenay is on record stating that the atrocities committed against innocent Palestinian women and children are, in fact, war crimes.  It is with that in mind that a hard-line position has been taken on Israel.  But the religious community is of a different view and today, both the National Evangelical Association of Belize and the Belize Council of Churches issued releases of their own, chiding government for being too heavy-handed in its approach.  We hear first from Pastor Lance Lewis who represents NEAB.

Lance Lewis

Lance Lewis, Nat’l Evangelical Association of Belize

“The position taken by the government is somewhat harsh and maybe you can use a stronger word than harsh, draconian. The issue is that Israel is a strong nation in every area you can think of and also because it’s been an ally of Belize for many years.  The situation that has brought this particular cut by the Belize government has to do with the October seventh incursion, rather invasion, into Israel by Hamas on the morning of October seventh.  That did a very serious blow to Israel, in terms of their whole psyche and their taken by surprise and to have lost so many Israeli lives, plus the lives of others would be a natural instinct to, “Let’s go after the persons, the perpetrators of this heinous crime.  So Israel went after Hamas, not after Palestine, but Hamas is in Palestine, it’s intertwined with the people over there.  So that has caused some damage.  I cannot say and I do not believe and I know, I would say that it was not intentional for persons outside of Hamas to be killed, but because Hamas is so skillful in the way they do their job, they make sure they camouflage themselves, they hide in certain places where other persons are so it’s harder to extricate them, it’s harder to hit them and get them alone.  This has created the problem because Israel has really felt, I don’t Israel has ever felt so bad since 1948 when they became a nation, and so they had to retaliate which is really the only thing possible.”