Friday, May 14, 2021

Muhyidin's statement on Palestine is not sufficient to address 'forced eviction' of Palestinians, illegal settlement of Israelis and other fundamental issues?

PM Muhyiddin's reaction as to what is happening was lame, as it fails to educate us about what is really happening - the bombing and use of force obviously needs to be condemn - but more importantly there must be education in Malaysia of the Palestinian issue. Is Malaysia OK with the forced eviction of Palestinians from East Jerusalem?

JERUSALEM - East Jerusalem is part of Palestine - it is Israel occupied Palestinian territory - what is happening is that Israel has been trying to evict Palestinians and have been building 'illegal settlements' bringing in Israeli Jews - there is also a wall being built, which is attempting to encroach into Palestinian territory - the UN have been condemning this....but alas, the UN actions is lacking. UN could have placed UN troops at the border of Israel and the the Occupied Palestinian territory but they have not done so - a 'buffer' would have prevented these attacks/killings. Pressure could have been put to liberate this 'Occupied Palestinian Territory' but ...

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has referred to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as "the Occupied Palestinian Territory" and this term was used as the legal definition by the ICJ in the ruling in July 2004.[7]More recently, the official United Nations (UN) terminology[8] has been used, occupied Palestinian territory

Palestine is still not a member of the UN, whilst Israel was recognized in 1949. WHY? Palestine's status was upgraded to 'non-member observer status' in November 2012. Why is UN discriminating against Palestine? Palestine should have been granted full member status at the same time as Israel - Members have different rights compared to non-members at the UN.

From the media report, PM Muhyiddin focusses on the attacks ...but the real issue is the 'eviction', the 'illegal settlements' by Israel, the wall ...


... the imminent mass evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in the neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem, and to take concrete action to prevent their expulsion by Israel. As soon as next week, four Palestinian families consisting of thirty adults and ten children may be removed from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah to be replaced with Israeli settlers, and more than one hundred other families face a similar eviction process. The “forcible transfer” of an occupied civilian population is strictly prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention, and CJPME considers the mass expulsion of Palestinian families to be a practice of ethnic cleansing.


...the planned mass evictions in Sheikh Jarrah have coincided with a sharp increase in Israeli police and settler violence and racist incitement against Palestinians in East Jerusalem. Such incidents include mobs of settlers chanting “Death to Arabs;” far-right Kahanist members of the Knesset setting up an “office” in Sheikh Jarrah; the deputy mayor of Jerusalem telling an activist it was a “pity” he didn’t get a bullet in his head; reports of social media censorship related to protests against the evictions; severe police brutality against demonstrations; and police spraying “skunk water” and tear gas into Palestinian homes. In parallel with the eviction process carried about by Israeli courts, Palestinian communities in East Jerusalem have been terrorized as part of a political process to drive them out of their homes.

PALESTINE is the home of a multi-religious community - Muslims, Jews and Christians, and their struggle has always been a Palestinian struggle. Some in Malaysia sadly sees it as a Muslim -vs- Anti-Muslim issue - and this denotes an ignorance, and a lack of understanding of history and the real issues.

The problem arises when Palestine was a British colony - and this colonial government wanted to 'divide' this nation - and started advocating a nation state for the Jews...The rise of the Zionist movement also advocated this ...which led to many 'overseas' Jews from Russia, Eastern Europe and then Europe migrating back ...impacting on a change of demography...

The capital of Palestine has always been to be Jerusalem...and the Israeli claim that their capital is Jerusalem has not been recognized by UN - as the United Nations partition plan drawn up in 1947 envisaged Jerusalem as a separate "international city.". 

That is the reason why all embassies are in Tel Aviv - not Jerusalem. Embassies in Jerusalem also moved to Tel Aviv to be in line with the UN position.

What US President Trump did by moving the US embassy to Jerusalem went against UN's position...will the new US President move the US Embassy back to Tel Aviv? After US, some other countries may follow US ... Note Israel claims Jerusalem as its own - but the fact is that East Jerusalem does not belong to Israel ...

How did that Palestinian-Israeli issue really come about? (I did some research over the net - and here is a brief summary about the struggle of the Palestinian peoples...). It is not complete but it will educate (or remind) those of us who have forgotten the issue/facts - something so easy to happen in these modern times when we are continuously fed with so much information about so many different things...

After World War I, rather than giving Palestine independence - British decides to create 2 states - one to be 'national home for the Jewish people'..

"The Palestine problem became an international issue towards the end of the First World War with the disintegration of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Palestine was among the several former Ottoman Arab territories which were placed under the administration of Great Britain under the Mandates System adopted by the League of Nations pursuant to the League's Covenant (Article 22) .

All but one of these Mandated Territories became fully independent States, as anticipated. The exception was Palestine where, instead of being limited to "the rendering of administrative assistance and advice" the Mandate had as a primary objective the implementation of the "Balfour Declaration" issued by the British Government in 1917, expressing support for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people".

During the years of the Palestine Mandate, from 1922 to 1947, large-scale Jewish immigration from abroad, mainly from Eastern Europe took place, the numbers swelling in the 1930s with the notorious Nazi persecution of Jewish populations. Palestinian demands for independence and resistance to Jewish immigration led to a rebellion in 1937, followed by continuing terrorism and violence from both sides during and immediately after World War II. Great Britain tried to implement various formulas to bring independence to a land ravaged by violence. In 1947, Great Britain turned the problem over to the United Nations." - Question of Palestine

1947 - UN proposes dividing Palestine into 2 independent States

1948 - Israel proclaims independence - and proceeds to occupy the area UN identified for Palestinian Arabs.

Remaining areas that were identified by UN as going to be the independent Palestinian State had been then occupied by neighbouring countries Jordan (West Bank) and Egypt (Gaza Strip)

After looking at various alternatives, the UN proposed the partitioning of Palestine into two independent States, one Palestinian Arab and the other Jewish, with Jerusalem internationalized (Resolution 181 (II) of 1947). One of the two States envisaged in the partition plan proclaimed its independence as Israel and in the 1948 war expanded to occupy 77 per cent of the territory of Palestine. Israel also occupied the larger part of Jerusalem.

Over half of the indigenous Palestinian population fled or were expelled. Jordan and Egypt occupied the other parts of the territory assigned by the partition resolution to the Palestinian Arab State which did not come into being.- Question of Palestine

1967 War - Israel occupied the remaining of the territory UN originally decided was for the Palestinian Arabs, which was then under Jordanian control (i.e. West Bank) and Egyptian control (i.e. Gaza Strip)

Israel also occupied additional areas of its neighbours - Egypt (Sinai) ,Syria (Golan Heights), ...

In the 1967 war, Israel occupied the remaining territory of Palestine, until then under Jordanian and Egyptian control (the West Bank and Gaza Strip). This included the remaining part of Jerusalem, which was subsequently annexed by Israel. The war brought about a second exodus of Palestinians, estimated at half a million. Security Council resolution 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967 called on Israel to withdraw from territories it had occupied in the 1967 conflict.- Question of Palestine

1974 - UN reaffirm rights of Palestinian People, grants PLO observer status

In 1974, the General Assembly reaffirmed the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty, and to return. The following year, the General Assembly established the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. The General Assembly conferred on the PLO the status of observer in the Assembly and in other international conferences held under United Nations auspices. - Question of Palestine

1982 - Invasion of Lebanon

1983 - Massacre of refugees at Sabra and Shatila

Events on the ground, however, remained on a negative course. In June 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon with the declared intention to eliminate the PLO. A cease-fire was arranged. PLO troops withdrew from Beirut and were transferred to neighboring countries after guarantees of safety were provided for thousands of Palestinian refugees left behind. Subsequently, a large-scale massacre of refugees took place in the camps of Sabra and Shatila.

In September 1983, the International Conference on the Question of Palestine, which was widely attended, adopted inter alia the Geneva Declaration containing the following principles: the need to oppose and reject the establishment of settlements in the occupied territory and actions taken by Israel to change the status of Jerusalem, the right of all States in the region to existence within secure and internationally recognized boundaries, with justice and security for all the people, and the attainment of the legitimate, inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. - Question of Palestine


1987 - Intifada

In December 1987, a mass uprising against the Israeli occupation began in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (the intifada). Methods used by the Israeli forces during the uprising resulted in mass injuries and heavy loss of life among the civilian Palestinian population. - Question of Palestine

The Peace Process - Palestinian Independence and Self-Government

A Peace Conference on the Middle East was convened in Madrid on 30 October 1991, with the aim of achieving a just, lasting and comprehensive peace settlement through direct negotiations along 2 tracks: between Israel and the Arab States, and between Israel and the Palestinians, based on Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973) (the "land for peace" formula). A series of subsequent negotiations culminated in the mutual recognition between the Government of the State of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, the representative of the Palestinian People, and the signing by the two parties of the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements in Washington on 13 September 1993, as well as the subsequent implementation agreements, which led to several other positive developments, such as the partial withdrawal of Israeli forces, the elections to the Palestinian Council and the Presidency of the Palestinian Authority, the partial release of prisoners and the establishment of a functioning administration in the areas under Palestinian self-rule. The involvement of the United Nations has been essential to the peace process, both as the guardian of international legitimacy and in the mobilization and provision of international assistance. In 2000 and 2001, Israelis and Palestinians held talks on a final status agreement, which proved inconclusive.

The controversial visit by Ariel Sharon of the Likud to Al-Haram Al-Sharif (Temple Mount) in 2000 was followed by the outbreak of the second intifada. A massive loss of life, the reoccupation of territories under Palestinian self-rule, military incursions, extrajudicial killings of suspected Palestinian militants, suicide attacks, rocket and mortar fire, and the destruction of property characterized the situation on the ground.

Israel began the construction of a West Bank separation wall, located within the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which was ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004. In 2002, the Security Council adopted resolution 1397 affirming a vision of two States, Israel and Palestine, living side by side within secure and recognized borders.

In 2003, the Middle East Quartet (US, EU, Russia, and the UN) released a detailed Road Map to a two-State solution, endorsed by Security Council resolution 1515.

In 2005, Israel withdrew its settlers and troops from the Gaza Strip as part of its “Disengagement Plan,” while retaining effective control over its borders, seashore, and airspace.

Following the Palestinian Legislative Council elections of 2006, the Quartet concluded that future assistance to the Palestinian Authority would be reviewed by donors against the new Government’s commitment to non-violence, recognition of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements.- Question of Palestine

 

 

M'sia condemns Israeli attacks on Palestinians

KUALA LUMPUR: The international community cannot choose to remain silent and oblivious to the atrocities committed by Israel on the Palestinians, says Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

As of today, the Zionist regime's attack on the Palestinians has resulted in the death of over 20 people including children.

Such monstrous acts, Muhyiddin said, are despicable and a stain on the face of humanity, especially to Muslims worldwide who are observing the holy month of Ramadan.

"Malaysia demands Israel immediately cease its aggression against Palestinians in the Occupied Territory, including in the Gaza Strip.

"The continued excessive use of force by Israel against the Palestinian people, especially during the holy month of Ramadan, is unjustifiable and unacceptable and something which Israel must be held accountable for.

"In this regard, Malaysia calls upon the international community, especially the United Nations Security Council, to act swiftly and decisively to demand Israel ceases its disproportionate and atrocious aggression against Palestine.

"The international community must take the maximum possible efforts to protect Palestinians from Israel's hostile acts," he said in a statement today.

Muhyiddin said Israel's military airstrikes on the Gaza Strip yesterday should be condemned, adding that the Zionist government's "atrocious, disproportionate and excessive" attacks were done in total and blatant disregard of all international laws.

He said Malaysia will continue to stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine in the wake of the Israeli aggression.

"Malaysia also reiterates its grave concern over the heinous ongoing incursion and attacks by Israel against the Palestinian civilians and worshipers in the Al-Aqsa Mosque since May 7, 2021, as well as forced evictions of Palestinians from their homes, including those in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem.

"Malaysia also reaffirms its position that the creation of an independent State of Palestine through the two-state solution, based on the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, is the only viable solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict," he said.

After yesterday's attack on Palestinian civilians and worshippers, news outlet Al-Jazeera reported today that the Israeli military had renewed its bombardment on the Gaza Strip, targeting several areas after rockets were fired from the enclave.

The new attacks came hours after at least 24 Palestinians, including nine children, were killed in overnight Israeli airstrikes on the strip after Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, launched rockets from the coastal territory towards Israel.

The rocket fire came after Hamas issued an ultimatum demanding that Israel stand down its security forces from the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem after days of violence against Palestinians. - NST, 11/5/2021

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