PRIME Minister Jeremiah Manele has shrugged off any co-relation between Solomon Islands vote in support of the United Nations (UN) Resolution demanding that Israel withdraw militarily from the West Bank and Solomon Islands enhanced relations with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the development assistance they offer.
The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday September 18 voted on the Resolution and adopted it after 124 nations, including Solomon Islands, voted for it. 43 nations, including Australia, abstained, while only 14 nations, including the United States of America, voted against it.
The resolution demands, “that Israel comply with international law and withdraw its military forces, immediately cease all new settlement activity, immediately evacuate all settlers from occupied land and dismantle parts of the separation wall it constructed inside the occupied West Bank.”
PM Manele told a press conference, Wednesday, upon his arrival in Honiara from his back-on-back visit to Saudi Arabia and UAE that, “I don’t think or I don’t believe that the change in voting pattern at the UN reflects our enhanced relations with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States.
“Our position on the Israel-Palestine Conflict has always been one on having a Two-State Solution. Yes, Israel is there but also, the Palestinians need a state of their own. So, we support the Two-State Solution on the Middle East question.”
The PM, whose back-on-back visit to Saudi Arabia and UAE came a week after the UN voted on and adopted the Resolution demanding the military withdrawal of Israel from the West Bank, was answering a question as to whether the change in voting pattern by Solomon Islands on the Middle East Conflict and related issues as reflected by its vote in favor of the resolution was a demonstration of its enhanced diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia and UAE and the development assistances they are offering Solomon Islands.
In the past, Solomon Islands has maintained the neutral position of abstention at the UN when it comes to voting on the Middle East Conflict and related issues.
After his brief answer, he tasked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Peter Shanel Agovaka to respond to the aspect of ‘changed voting pattern.’ Minister Agovaka flew from New York to join the PM on his trip to Saudi Arabia and UAE after leading the Solomon Islands Government delegation to the 79th United Nations General Assembly Session. He arrived back in Honiara on the same flight with PM Manele.
Minister Agovaka, in turn, stated that,” we have diplomatic relations with Israel and they are our friends. What we are saying to our friends is that there should be dialogue.
“They should withdraw, ceasefire and enter into dialogue with Palestine. At the moment, they are fighting. Retaliation after retaliation and it is causing human rights repression to the Palestinians as well as the Israelis. So what Solomon Islands is doing is supporting what the UN is doing. We are supporting the two-state solution.”
But the favorable vote on the UN Resolution does not sit well with the Minister for National Planning and Development Coordination, Rexon Ramofafia. He expressed his disagreement to Solomon Star after the press conference.
He said the voting was undertaken by Solomon Islands officials at the Solomon Islands Mission in New York prior to the arrival of the Solomon Islands Government delegation for the 79th UNGA, which he was part of.
Minister Ramofafia said the officials should have maintained the voting pattern of abstention when they voted on the UN Resolution.
He said he has expressed his disapproval over the changed voting pattern to Solomon Islands Government officials at the Solomon Islands Mission in New York and to other members of the SIG delegation to the 79th UNGA.
The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Natanyahu in his address at the 79th UNGA likened Israel’s war against its enemies as a battle between good and evil and there must be no equilibration.
He said Israel has made its choice and that is it seeks to move forward to a bright age of prosperity and peace, while Iran and its proxies have also made their choice and that is to move back to a dark age of terror and war.
“Israel seeks peace, Israel yearns for peace and Israel has made peace and will make peace again.
“But yet, Israel faces savage enemies who seek our alienization and we must defend ourselves against these savage murderers who do not only seek to destroy us but to destroy our common civilization and return us all to a dark age of tyranny and terror.”
PM Natanyahu said while Israel is defending itself, it is also defending all else against the common enemy which through violence and terror seeks to destroy Israel’s way of life and there should be no confusion about this.
“But unfortunately, there is a lot of it (confusion) in many countries and in this very hall (UNGA). Good is portrayed as evil and evil is portrayed as good.
“We see there’s more confusion when Israel is falsely accused of genocide when we defend ourselves against our enemies who try to commit genocide against us,” he added.
By DELI-SHARON OSO
Solomon Star, Honiara
