PM Briceno Dismisses Concerns of International Repercussions for Israel Decision

Will Belize face any repercussions from the international community for taking measures against Israel? Prime Minister John Briceno says no. Since Belize moved to temporarily suspend diplomatic ties with Israel, there have been many speculations as to whether the move will have adverse consequences. Israeli officials have since condemned the country’s decision and claimed that persons of the Jewish faith may refrain from visiting or investing in the country. However, PM Briceno believes otherwise and says that Belize is not an anti-Semitic nation.

Hon. John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “I know there are going to be some people that are not going to be happy with the decision that we have taken but I believe in the months to come they will be able to reflect and to understand that we as a country, we as a people also have a right to make our own decision. That does not mean that we don’t like Jews. We like them, we support them and they also have a right to existence. The Israeli citizens they also have a right to have a country called Israel and we support that a hundred percent but it comes down to what the Israeli government is doing, committing genocide against the Palestinian people and I don’t think that any person or any Christian or non Christian, any person with a conscience should be able to look at that and standup and speak out on behalf of the Palestinian people. And that East Jerusalem should be the capital of Palestine that has always been our position. Again it goes to the right to self determination. We because we fought for the right of self determination and because nations around the world stood up to support us we’ve managed to go against a giant next door Guatemala to be able to get our independence with our territory intact. And so whenever it comes to the issue of self determination we need to do it. Look at Taiwan. You know one of the main reasons why we support Taiwan is because we believe that the Taiwanese people should also be given the opportunity or the right to self determination, that they should decide they either want to be known as Taiwan or want to be a part of China. Whatever decision they make we would support that is the principle of the right to self determination.”