Bangladesh has called on the Non-Aligned Movement member countries to mobilise their collective strength to send a strong message to Israel by imposing a trade embargo on the country.
Member states should deny visas to Israeli politicians, officials and business people accused of committing crimes against humanity and slap a ban on arms trade with Israel for violating the provisions of the Arms Trade Treaty, Gowher Rizvi, International Affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister, said.
He urged the suspension of overflight permissions to Israeli aircraft through the airspace of NAM member states.
Rizvi was speaking at an emergency meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement committee on Palestine held in Tehran yesterday.
Bangladesh was invited to the meeting as a member of the 11-member committee, a foreign ministry press release said.
“The way Israel is using the power of coercion, in the same way NAM member states should use the power of denial to bring Israel to civilised behaviour,” the prime minister’s adviser said.
He said the continued inability of the UN Security Council to implement a ceasefire and bring the aggression to a halt should prompt NAM member states to consider alternative approaches, including through the UN General Assembly.
“The adviser stressed that that time had come to move beyond the traditional approach of censure and official declarations and resolutions to drive home NAM’s unequivocal stand against Israeli brutalities and breach of international humanitarian principles,” the press release said.
Rizvi said Israel was no longer as invulnerable as it used to be since international public opinion was clearly divided on the wanton aggression it continued to commit against Palestine.
The emergency meeting was inaugurated by President of Iran Hassan Rouhani and heard a briefing on the latest situation in the Gaza Strip from Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Al-Maliki.
Ministers from Egypt, South Africa, Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon, Syria and Venezuela and special representatives from Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Morocco, Jordan and other NAM member countries spoke at the meeting.
The meeting adopted a declaration calling upon NAM member states to ensure a number of multilateral and bilateral actions in light of the current situation in the Gaza Strip.
