Johnny
Blades RNZ Pacific senior journalist
The Pacific
Elders’ Voice (PEV) has called for the Pacific Islands Forum
(PIF) to review and reverse its partnership agreement with
Israel.
The group of former Pacific prime ministers,
presidents and senior diplomats says the
Forum’s decision to make Israel a sectoral partner
conflicts with the region’s commitments to human rights,
self-determination and international law.
In a
statement, the group said the Forum’s decision raised
questions about the consistency of the region’s positions on
colonialism, human rights and self-determination.
It
cited the conflict in Gaza, Israeli settlements in the
occupied West Bank and what it described as violations of
international law, while also noting unresolved issues of
political status and self-determination in the
Pacific.
The PEV said the agreement to partner with
Israel should be reversed to ensure the Forum’s external
partnerships remain consistent with the region’s stated
principles on peace, justice and respect for international
law.
“The 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.”
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The
group said it had consistently supported decolonisation and
self-determination in Kanaky and West Papua, as well as
investigations by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights and the Pacific Islands Forum into alleged
serious human rights violations by France and
Indonesia.
“Given our principled positions on
colonialism and human rights violations in the region, the
PEV 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.”
The PEV echoed a range of Pacific
Islands civil society groups in calling for the Forum’s
partnership with Israel to be reviewed and
reversed.
The group noted that Israel’s prime minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders are considered
to have committed war crimes, with arrest warrants in their
name issued by the International Criminal
Court.
Members of the Pacific Elder’s Voice include
former Pacific Forum secretary-general Dame Meg Taylor,
former Kiribati President Anote Tong; the former Palau
President Tommy Remengesau Jr, former Guam delegate to the
US House of Representatives and former University of Guam
president Dr Robert Underwood, Tuvalu’s former Prime
Minister Enele Sopoaga; former Fiji Foreign Minister and
ambassador Kaliopate Tavola; and Tongan academic and a fomer
University of the South Pacific professor Konai Helu
Thaman.
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