After Hamas launched its surprise – but perhaps not surprising – attack against Israel by land, air and sea on October 7, the entire world was forced to take notice even though Israel is a mere 8550 square miles and Palestine – consisting of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank – 2324 so miles. Israel is a bedrock ally of the US – the world’s largest superpower – and the largest recipient of its aid programme. Guyana was forced to declare its position, which, of course, had to be couched in diplomatic language because of the volatile nature of the situation.
We state the Government’s position in full: “The Government of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana has noted with growing alarm and concern the escalating violence between Israel and Palestine which has resulted in the senseless loss of lives, the destruction of property, the displacement of persons, and a further setback in the Middle East.
The Government of Guyana condemns all acts of violence and finds repugnant the invasion of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. We hold sacred and worthy of respect, places of worship of all religious faith. The Government of Guyana implores all parties to apply restraint and to cease all actions that are in contravention of international and humanitarian law.
Guyana stresses that constructive dialogue between the Israeli and Palestinian authorities is pivotal to advancing the peace process and to the realisation of the two-state solution as the legitimate end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
There is first, alarm expressed over the loss of lives in both Israel and Palestine. This is an ultimate humanist position that places value on all human lives – unlike what has been the dominant reportage by Western media that has only stressed the loss of Israeli lives. Our Government understands that the unfolding tragedy did not begin on October 7, but only has its proximate origins after WWII when the Western powers sought to provide a country for the Holocaust-decimated Jewish people, in Palestine. That they chose Palestine – a land to which Jews had a historic linkage – but was now occupied by Palestinian Arabs – provided the ultimate cause. The Jewish people have a sense of rightness and indeed righteousness to the land, because it is mentioned in the Bible that their God Jehovah gave the land to them via Moses. The Palestinians have a similar sense of righteousness because they have occupied the land for thousands of years and have sacred spaces such as the Al-Aqsa mosque that was “repugnantly invaded” – by Israel – according to our Government,
The situation fits to a “T” Hegel’s view of a tragedy. This view is described pithily in an Oxford Academic text: “In Hegel’s view, the essence of tragedy is conflict, not a moral conflict between right and wrong, but a conflict between legitimate rights and institutions. Such conflict moves the unmovable, i.e., the norms’ and institutions of ethical life, threatening them with destruction. Such conflict arises out of the false consciousness of the tragic hero, who, convinced of his own rectitude, embodies a stubborn fixity of will that issues in one-sided action that both violates another legitimate right and plunges the hero into self-contradiction. S/he refuses to recognise what, if s/he were true to her/himself, s/he should honour. Like Aristotle Hegel believes in tragic resolution. In Hegel’s view the tragic resolution demands that the hero yield, give a little, recognise what s/he refuses, enlarge her/his perspective. If s/he yields, the drama does not have to end tragically; but if s/he refuses to yield, then the hero is destroyed by the very powers s/he refuses to recognise.”
In the present conflict, the Guyana Government takes the position that each party (hero) must “enlarge their perspective” and compromise to avoid their destruction. Our Government supports the 1974 UN resolution on the “Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine”. This called for “two States,” Israel and Palestine … side by side within secure and recognised borders” together with “a just resolution of the refugee question”.
Let justice for all be done.
