🇲🇾 Malaysia takes a stand for Palestine

MYAirline scandal turns to licensing arrangements

Hello friends!

A whip around Malaysia, where the Palestine cause is central to the national government, Singapore and Brunei.

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🇲🇾 Anwar Ibrahim leads solidarity demo

Around 19,000 attended the KL demo (c/o Anwar Ibrahim’s Instagram)

Thousands rallied in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday in support of Palestine, following smaller-scale protests across the country in recent days. It was organised by local groups Viva Palestina Malaysia (VPM) and MyCare, who have been behind humanitarian assistance from Malaysia, Al Jazeera reports. Huge turnout, but a bit of scandal involved — attendees say they were banned from using placards attacking Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden (maybe reasonable, I’ve seen some stuff that is yeesh) as well as chanting ‘Allahu Akbar,’ or ‘God Is Great,’ which is a stretch in my opinion. You can’t tell people to abandon a well-known, frequently used phrase because it’s misunderstood elsewhere.    

No such reports, as of yet at least, from a government-arranged demonstration last night in Kuala Lumpur. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim told about 19,000 people that Malaysia won’t be backing down: “It's a level of insanity to allow people to be butchered, babies to be killed, hospitals to be bombed, and schools to be destroyed... it's the height of barbarism in this world … We are with the Palestinian people yesterday, today and tomorrow” he told the crowd, as per Reuters.

The Prime Minister is standing strong. He has repeatedly criticised the US and Europe for its role in funding the atrocities and has promised he won’t “yield” to pressures. This is very interesting to me, I wonder if he has received any pressure given that Malaysia’s stance on Palestine hasn’t really shifted in decades and is so well known. It does prickle up some of the memories re: criticism of Najib Razak going to bat for the Rohingya in a cynical way, aimed more at shoring up support from the Muslim flanks. But we’ll see. 

Well, put the legislation where your mouth is, says the All-Party Parliamentary Group Malaysia (APPGM) on Refugee Policy. The group wants to see the government issue temporary work and stay passes for all Palestinian refugees currently in Malaysia. Around 800 Palestinians are currently in Malaysia, with the majority of them from Gaza, Malaysiakini reports. 

“I cannot put into words how all this means to me,” 46-year-old Abdalrahim Shehab told Channel News Asia last week after a local shouted him a haircut after learning he is from Palestine. It was a rare moment of calm for him since the conflict erupted: “I am charging my phone four times a day and the phone is beeping every few minutes. I cannot sleep as images of kids dying keep on appearing. My father is 77 and has health issues while my mother is 72.” Beautiful and grim analysis piece here from Rashvinjeet S Bedi, that goes deeper into Malaysia’s official response.