The Pacific Elders Voice has expressed deep concerns regarding Israel's admission as a partner of the Pacific Islands Forum, considering the region's commitments to peace, self determination, human rights and respect for international law.
It joins The Elders’ recent Open Letter and Statements on Israel’s aim by the “Netanyahu
government to make Palestine disappear physically, culturally and politically”, a deliberate
attempt to destroy the two-state solution through the expansion of illegal settlements in the
West Bank and have called for urgent actions by governments worldwide.
The Elders say Pacific remains one of the only regions in the world with the largest number of peoples living under occupation, from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to Guam;
from Kanaky New Caledonia to French Polynesia and from West Papua to Bougainville.
They say they have consistently supported the liberation, self-determination, decolonization and the end of colonial occupation in Kanaky (New Caledonia) and West Papua, as well as the UN
OHCHR’s and Pacific Island Forum’s investigations of gross human rights violations by the
French and Indonesian states respectively.
The Elders say given their principled positions on colonialism and human rights violations in the region, they are is perturbed with the Forum’s recent partnership with Israel, the state which has committed genocide in Gaza, and has a long history of offending against UN resolutions and
international law.
They say Israel’s Prime Minister and other leaders are considered to have committed war crimes and arrest warrants against them have been issued by the International Court of Justice.
The Elders say they endorse the recent PRNGO statement seeking a review and reversal of the Forum
partnership with Israel.
They also strongly supports the Pacific Council of Churches, the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre and other national and regional NGOs which have demanded the immediate end of this partnership with the apartheid and genocidal state.
The Elders say partnership with Israel undermines the efforts of Pacific Island states to end colonial occupation in the Pacific including efforts at the UN level.
They add it also makes mockery of Pacific Leaders’ vision and rhetoric on the ‘Ocean of Peace’.
