7 News Belize

The Anti-Israeli Protest, A Look Back
posted (June 27, 2018)

Yesterday we told you about the climax of the protest against Israel's involvement with the Belize Police Department.  We showed you how the protesters reacted angrily to Minister Elodio Aragon's explanation of the Israeli training. It all happened late in the evening in Belmopan, and today we'll give you a more in depth look into the protest and the challenges it faced. Alex Courtenay reports...

Yesterday a group of artists, politicians and concerned citizens marched through the streets of Belmopan to protest the Israeli facilitated police course, “Police and Community”. The initiative, “labeled” as a comprehensive community policing program that involves several departments and sectors has met backlash from certain members of the public namely the “Artists for Peace and Common Sense”.

The group cites multiple reasons for their opposition to the training; the main ones being the Israeli’s harsh and violent treatment of Palestinians as well as a conflict of interest when it comes to Belize’s foreign policy…

Katie Usher - Protesting Artist
"We cannot, the 13th of June know that there was excessive force used by the Israelis against the Palestinians and then just - what day is today? Today is like the 26th, so 13 days later we're saying, we're going to celebrate your independence by training our police."

The protesters delivered three letters highlighting their concerns while in Belmopan. One to the Prime Minister, another to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the final one to the National Assembly building.

And while the protest remained peaceful, it was not without confrontation. After stopping at the National Assembly for a round of chanting the group encountered a woman who made her support for Israel clear.

The National Evangelical Association of Belize also made its disapproval of the protest known in a press release yesterday. The protesters addressed this criticism…

Katie Usher
"I think it is really sad that when we talk about rejecting the excessive force by the Israeli police and Israeli military against Palestinians that it is understood as anti-Semitism. I am not an anti-Semite, nobody in this entire group is anti-Semites, in fact we have a mother here who have Jewish children, American Jewish children. This is not about anti-Semitism, what it is about is that we cannot afford to have excessive violence against our community."

Despite the cries from the protesters, the training will continue. However, Minister of State Elodio Aragon says that this is the only planned collaboration that the police have with Israel…

Reporter
"Final question, is this the only partnership with Israel or do you have other initiatives in the pipeline?"

Hon. Elodio Aragon, Minister of State - National Security
"No, as far as I know I think as far as I could recall since I've been here I think this is one of the first I could recall in terms of training that they are giving. I think it is only a consequence as a result of them celebrating their 70th anniversary and that is the whole situation.”

And while Aragon says this is first Israeli training that he knows of, very interestingly, a press release from the National Evangelical Association of Belize says, quote, “Israel(’s) security forces are known to practice a defence which is firm, restrained, compassionate and effective. That is why Belize police have been trained by them for years.”

Well that’s news to us, and leads us to conclude that the training must have been covert or an official secret, because in 25 years of doing the news, we have never heard of Israeli training for Belize Security Forces until this year.

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