World Leaders Walk Out on Benjamin Netanyahu

All eyes were on the UN floor today as dozens of world leaders stood up and walked out just as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stepped up to the podium. Facing war crimes charges from the International Criminal Court, Netanyahu addressed rows of empty seats, defending Israel’s actions in Gaza, actions many nations now describe as genocide. Among those standing in solidarity with Palestine is Belize’s own Prime Minister, John Briceño. In his speech at the UN, the Prime Minister called for an immediate end to the genocide in Palestine, urging the UN to uphold international law and hold perpetrators accountable, as it once did during apartheid in South Africa.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“And the genocide in Palestine, must stop now. What hope can a child in Gaza have for tomorrow, when their home is destroyed? Their family murdered. Their future erased. What hope can there be if their right to self-determination is extinguished? The UN once confronted apartheid in South Africa with declarations, sanctions, conventions, and suspension of the regime from this assembly. We must draw that lesson again. No regime that desecrates the charter and destroys a people, has a place in this hall. And that is why the rule of law must prevail. No man, no country stands above the law of nations”