The Foreign Minister of Venezuela, Yvan Gil, reads message of President Maduro calling for the defense of Palestine during the First Summit of The Hague Group in Colombia. teleSUR
00:00Hello, join us as we go to Bogota, Colombia, where Venezuela's Foreign Affairs Minister
00:09Iván Hill is delivering a message from President Nicolás Maduro in the context of the emergency
00:14ministerial meeting on Palestine of the Hague Group. Let's see.
00:22Good afternoon. Thank you very much.
00:26President of the table.
00:30The Republic of Venezuela wanted to do an intervention in this group, in this inter-ministerial
00:37meeting of the Hague, to which we were invited in this important moment to read a letter that
00:49the President Nicolás Maduro wrote, the constitutional president of the Republic of Venezuela, and
00:57addressed to the organizers who invited us to this meeting. So with your permission and
01:08the delegates here present, I will now go to read the letter. Your Excellencies, Gustavo Petro,
01:18President of the Republic of Colombia, Bogotá, and your Excellency Cyril Ramaphosa, President
01:25of the Republic of South Africa, Pretoria, to the people of the world, to the movement in
01:31defense of human rights, to the rebellious conscience of humanity, to the heroic Palestinian people,
01:38and to the nations of West Asia. From the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, with great hope and respect, we
01:48salute this reunion that was summoned by the Republic of Colombia with the Republic of South Africa within the
01:58framework of the Hague group, with the aim of addressing in a coordinated manner the atrocities that continue to be committed against the
02:09Palestinian people. This meeting represents an essential moral and political response at a time when the whole of humanity is challenged by horror and impunity. On behalf of the Venezuelan people, the Bolivarian government, the Bolivarian government, the
02:27government, and on my own behalf, we raise our voice with firmness, moved by the suffering of the Palestinian people, and deeply indignant at the passivity of the world in the face of the greatest crime in contemporary history, the ongoing genocide against Palestine.
02:49This is not a recent tragedy. Although since October of 2023, we have witnessed a particularly cruel phase of extermination, which has left nearly 60,000 martyrs, 138,520 wounded and thousands of missing under the rubble.
03:13This genocide did not begin 21 months ago. It dates back to 1948, with the beginning of the Zionist occupation, with the forced expulsion of the Palestinian people from their land, and the establishment of a colonial and criminal regime that has used dispossession, repression, blockade, and terror as state policies.
03:42What we see today in Gaza is not a conflict between equals. It is a systematic plan to destroy a people, to eradicate its identity, to erase its memory. It is a crime against humanity sustained by the constant flow of arms, money,
04:10escalate a mass submission. It is
04:38greatest threat to humanity.
04:41Every bomb that falls on a Palestinian hospital, on a school, on a house, not only kills innocent
04:49lives but also destroys the foundation of world peace, wounds international legality
04:56and threatens the very future of the United Nations system.
05:01There is no legitimacy or order that can resist this barbarism with impunity.
05:09Regrettably, the institutions created to protect humanity have caved in.
05:15The International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court have behaved with
05:21shameful slowness, if not outright complacency.
05:27These bodies, which should enforce international law and protect the aggrieved peoples, have
05:36been colonized by Western interests.
05:39They have become instruments of pressure against the weak but never against the powerful.
05:48International justice today has been hijacked.
05:53On Venezuela, we denounce this institutional colonization, this structural hypocrisy, this unequal
06:02and selective use of law.
06:05The international legal architecture cannot continue to be used as a tool of punishment
06:12against the sovereign countries of the global south, while privileges of impunity are being
06:18granted to those who commit crimes against humanity on a large scale.
06:24We also reaffirmed that Palestine has the right to exist, to resist, to live in freedom, with
06:33a fully sovereign state and with East Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with UN Security
06:41Council resolutions.
06:43There is no just solution without an immediate end to the occupation, without the annulment of
06:51the upper high regime, without full preparation for the damage inflicted for decades.
06:57In this sense, I have proposed to convene a great world summit for peace and against war, with
07:07the purpose of building a collective and firm solution that will stop the massacre and nuclear
07:14disarm the Israeli regime and force it to submit to the international legal system.
07:22The summit should structure a proposal for a just, effective and lasting peace, born from
07:32the people and not from the elites who profit from war.
07:36We would also like to express our respect and support for the courageous work of the UN Special
07:43Rapporteur Francesca Albanese on the human right situation in the occupied Palestinian territories.
07:50Her recent report constitutes an act of dignity and truth for which she has been attacked and threatened.
08:00Venezuela expresses its active solidarity with her, as well as a worthy recognition of her courage
08:07and a call to her not to cease in her mission in spite of the sanctions and the stigmatization
08:14to which she is subjected.
08:16Her voice is necessary.
08:18Her truth makes the powerful and comfortable, but will save the oppressed.
08:24From Caracas, we say with whole conviction, the Palestinian cause is not a regional or religious issue.
08:32It is the line that separates justice from barbarism.
08:36It is the moral battle of our time.
08:40To defend Palestine is to defend humanity itself.
08:44To remain silent in the face of Palestine is to betray the spirit of all the peoples who have fought for their independence and dignity.
08:53With the strength of our liberators, Simón Bolívar, and with the ethical and political clarity of Commander Pochávez for peace, for justice, and for the future of humanity, I reiterate our unwavering determination to strengthen the struggle until we find the road to lasting peace in Palestine.
09:15Palestine is not alone.
09:16Palestine is not alone.
09:17Venezuela is and will always be by its side.
09:22Palestine will live.
09:23Palestine will win.
09:25Please accept, dear President, the assurances of my highest consideration, President Nicolás Maduro-Muros.
09:32Thank you very much.
09:34Venezuela's Foreign Affairs Minister Ivan Hill read a letter from President Nicolás Maduro in which he, on behalf of the Venezuelan people,
09:41called for an end to the greatest crime in contemporary history, the Zionist genocide against the people of Palestine.
09:47This happened in the context of the emergency ministerial meeting on Palestine of the Hague group that is underway in Bogota, Colombia.
09:55This is all for the moment, but stay tuned with Telesur English for more details on this event.
