Minister Henry Charles Usher calls for Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza

A four-day truce between Israel and Hamas is set to begin on Friday morning. The first thirteen civilian captives are expected to be released as announced by the Qatari foreign ministry. Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails will also be released, and aid trucks will enter Gaza from the Rafah crossing. Countries like Belize are calling for a total ceasefire. On Wednesday, a march for peace in Palestine was held in Belize City and next week, the group calling itself the United Churches will hold a march for peace in Israel next week. On Wednesday, Minister of Public Service, Constitutional & Political Reform, and Religious Affairs Henry Charles Usher was asked for his views on the matter.

Henry Charles Usher

Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Public Service, Constitutional & Political Reform, and Religious Affairs

“Government stands on a principle position. This is a position that the government has reiterated to the Israeli government from since October 7th when the incident happened and I think it’s important to understand that their position is that there has to be a cease fire. This call for a humanitarian pause, to me, I don’t know who came up with that term but whoever came up with that term is definitely some PR genius because there is no such thing as a humanitarian pause. It’s like the eye of a hurricane. You don’t come out during the eye because you know that the rest of the hurricane is coming. A humanitarian pause all that it is a time to breathe and then the bombing starts again. c and that has to be understood. The Government of Belize has condemned all terrorist action. They have condemned the response that Israel has done. It really as the UN secretary general has said, the collective punishment of the Palestinian people. It’s akin to genocide what is happening there and we have to speak out against it. Now the step that the government took is just to show our seriousness about how much we support peace. And we call in the international community to resolve this matter in a peaceful way and I think that is important. The government has consistently said over and over that we support peace and we support ceasefire. I believe that any group, a group organizing a march today for Palestine, they are calling for peace. They are calling for the resolution of hostilities in that area and the group next week I don’t know which group that is but if they are calling for peace then that should be supported as well because i think it’s important that you stand on the side of peace, you stand on the side of rule of law and you stand on the side of international law and what this Government of Belize has said consistently is the state of Israel is violating international law and that has to stop. The international community has said this. The UN Secretary General, the United nations have said this and I think that its critical we stand on this side the right side and the principal side.”