2009: Venezuela Recognized the State of Palestine and Broke Relations with Israel

The Gaza War was a three-week armed conflict between Gaza Strip Palestinian paramilitary groups and the Israeli Defense Forces that began on December 27, 2008 and ended on January 18, 2009. The conflict resulted in the deaths of more than 1,300 Palestinians, including 400 children, and 14 Israelis [3]

On January 6, 2009, President Hugo Chavez called Israel’s offensive in Gaza a Palestinian “Holocaust” and said that the Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, should be tried at the International Criminal Court [1]. Chavez condemned the prohibition against water, food and the International Red Cross entering the Gaza Strip.

On January 6, Venezuela expelled the Israeli ambassador and his staff from Caracas [3] A week later, Venezuela broke off all diplomatic relations with Israel. On January 28, Israel ordered Venezuelan diplomats to leave.

Venezuela urged the UN Security Council to put measures in place to stop Israel’s invasion of Gaza and rejected the attitude taken by the UN against stopping the “massacre owing to the veto imposed by the United States.” [4] On January 30, 2009 Chavez accused the Israeli government of committing “genocide” against Palestinians [2]

On April 27, 2009, Venezuela officially recognized Palestine, being the first country in the Americas to do so.

In 2018 the governorate of Tubas, in the State of Palestine, named a main street as” Hugo Chavez Street” inspired by the gratitude of the Palestinian people for his firm position in support of the Palestinian Cause.

 

1.Reuters, Venezuela’s Chavez calls Gaza attack “Holocaust” January 6, 2009

2.Chavez Welcomes Expulsion of Venezuelan Diplomats from Israel, Venezuelanalysis, January 30, 2009

3. BBC, Israel Expels Venezuela Envoy, January 28, 2009

4.Venezuela Expels Israeli Ambassador in Solidarity with Palestinian People, Venezuelananalysis, January 8, 2009

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
  2020:U.S. Drug Monitoring Data Show that Venezuela is not a Major Source of Illegal Drugs On March 11, 2020, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) released a Research Report authored by Geoff Ramsey and David Smilde: Beyond the Narcostate Narrative: What U.S. Drug Monitoring Data Says About Venezuela. [1] The Report concluded that: ·         “Venezuela is not a primary transit country for U.S. bound cocaine. About 90% of all    U.S.-bound cocaine is trafficked through Western Caribbean and Eastern Pacific routes, not through Venezuela’s Eastern Caribbean seas.” The Research Report relied on data from the U.S. Interagency Consolidated Counterdrug Database (CCDB), a multi-source collection of global illegal drug trafficking events that is gathered from intelligence data such as detection and surveillance as well as interdiction and law enforcement data. The authors noted that:” According to the Department of Defense ‘The ...
Read more

The Venezuela Reader - A Blog Focused on Recent History and Venezuela-U.S. Relations

Image
  The Venezuela Reader- A Blog Focused on Recent History and Venezuela-U.S. Relations My name is Leonard G.- I am The Venezuela Reader. I am a retired agricultural policy analyst living in the Washington, DC area. After retirement and when Covid closed off many activities, I began reading about US foreign policy. I was particularly intrigued by Venezuela. So, I began reading about Venezuela five years ago and haven’t stopped. Faced with mountains of paper, I took it on myself to summarize events in Venezuela’s history and in its relations with the US. I challenged myself to write one-page summaries which are factually accurate and documented with outside sources -newspaper articles, academic articles, government reports. I have already drafted over 200 one-page summaries covering events and milestones including elections, riots, court rulings, US sanctions, oil policies, social policies, food and agriculture, racism, drug trafficking, important reports, and biographies. I am...
Read more
Image
  2025:Former United Nations Drug Official Calls Venezuelan Narco-State Narrative a Great Hoax   Pino Arlacchii was the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) from 1997 to 2002. He recently wrote an article about the U.S. declaration that Venezuela is a “narco-state.” [1] His article was translated into English and released by Venezuelanalysis. [2] Here are excerpts from his article:[2]   Pino Arlacchi : The Great Hoax Against Venezuela: Oil Geopolitics Disguised as “War on Drugs” ·        “During my time as head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), I frequently travelled to Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Brazil, but never to Venezuela. There was simply no need. ·        “The Venezuelan government’s collaboration in the fight against drug trafficking was among the best in South America, rivalled only by Cuba’s impeccable record. This makes Trump’s nar...
Read more