Bangladesh urges NAM to take tough actions against Israel

Bangladesh has called upon the members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to impose sanctions on Israel to send “a strong message” against its brutalities in Gaza.

Suggesting some actions, Prime Minister’s International Affairs Adviser Gowher Rizvi said the time had come “to move beyond the traditional approach of censure and official declarations and resolutions”.

Instead, he suggested NAM should take “unequivocal” stand against Israeli “brutalities and breach of international humanitarian principles”.

“The way Israel is using the power of coercion, the same way the NAM Member States should use the power of denial to force it to maintain civilized behaviour,” he said.

The adviser was representing Bangladesh at an emergency meeting of the NAM Committee on Palestine in Tehran on Monday.

The foreign ministry said Bangladesh had been invited to this meeting as one of the members of this 11-member Committee.

The meeting adopted a ‘Declaration’ calling upon the NAM member states to ensure “a number of multilateral and bilateral actions” against the backdrop of the current situation in the Gaza Strip.

Israel launched its offensive on July 8 in Gaza following a surge in Hamas rocket salvoes.

It escalated from air and naval barrages to overland incursions centred on Gaza's tunnel-riddled eastern frontier and pushing further into densely populated towns.

Gaza officials say 1,788 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed and more than a quarter of the impoverished enclave's 1.8 million residents displaced.

As many as 3,000 Palestinian homes have been destroyed or damaged, Reuters reported.

Bangladesh had earlier strongly condemned the Israeli aggression and called for an immediate cessation of atrocities on the civilian population in Gaza.

The foreign ministry said Bangladesh maintains its principled position on “a comprehensive solution” of the Palestinian question in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions, the Arab Peace Plan and the Road Map.

Bangladesh also called upon all parties to exercise the “maximum restraint to avoid further loss of lives and resume dialogue to revive the peace process at the earliest for a two-State solution”.

Adviser Rizvi on Monday reaffirmed Bangladesh’s solidarity with the government and people of Palestine, who were subjected to “unremitting violence and atrocities by Israel”.

“Israel is no longer as invulnerable as it used to be since the international public opinion is clearly divided on the wanton aggression it continues to commit against Palestine”.

He said NAM should mobilize “its collective strength and send out a strong message to the Israeli authorities by imposing trade embargo, denying visas to Israeli politicians, officials and business people accused of committing crimes against humanity”.

He also suggested “slapping a ban on arms trade with Israel for violating the provisions of the Arms Trade Treaty, and suspending over-flight permission to Israeli aircraft through the airspace of NAM member States”.

He said that the continued inability of the UN Security Council to impose ceasefire and bring the aggression to a halt should prompt NAM member states to consider alternative approaches, including through the UN General Assembly.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani inaugurated the emergency meeting that also heard a briefing on the latest situation in the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Al-Maliki.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif chaired the meeting in his capacity as the Chair of the NAM Coordinating Bureau.

Ministers from Egypt, South Africa, Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon, Syria and Venezuela and special representatives from Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Morocco, Jordan and other NAM member countries also spoke at the meeting.