Envoy advises Palestinians to be alert

Compiled by CHARLES RAMENDRAN, BEH YUEN HUI and R.ARAVINTAN

PALESTINIAN Ambassador to Malaysia Walid Abu Ali has advised the roughly 4,000 Palestinians in Malaysia to be careful of their personal safety following the arrest of a 36-year-old Israeli at a Jalan Ampang hotel.

Walid issued the warning to his countrymen, including students, as he found the Israeli’s confession to police that his motive was to execute an Israeli mafia leader to be illogical.

“It does not make sense for the Israeli to acquire six firearms and 200 rounds of ammunition to merely kill one individual. Many questions need to be answered by the police.

“We have been targeted by Israel for over 75 years. Palestinians all over the world have been kidnapped and murdered by Israel. As such, we need to be cautious not just in Malaysia but anywhere we are.

“When Israel decides to kill someone, it will do whatever it wants, including going undercover, because the operatives will not use their Israeli passports when they pull off such missions,” he was quoted as saying by Utusan Malaysia.

Walid also claimed that all Israelis own two or more passports to enable them to slip into countries that do not have diplomatic ties with Israel, such as Malaysia.

He did not discount the possibility that there are several other Israelis in Malaysia currently who may have gained entry with the travel documents of other countries.

However, Walid urged Palestinians to remain calm and not panic but continue putting their trust in the Malaysian police and government to ensure their safety here.

He also urged the police to carry out a thorough investigation.

> For a mere allowance of RM400 per month, middle-aged women in Terengganu are marrying foreigners to help them get business licences and other privileges meant for Malaysians.

Kosmo! reported that most of the women, who are single mothers in their 50s and 60s, are fully aware they are being exploited by the foreigners.

Terengganu Immigration Department director Azhar Abd Hamid said the foreigners would register their businesses under the names of their wives and enjoy various benefits offered by the government.

He said that a number of the women have admitted this and said they are aware they are being manipulated by the foreign men, but refused to lodge complaints or seek a divorce as they are content with the RM400 allowance they receive monthly.

“This is why it is a challenge to carry out enforcement on foreigners running businesses here. When we carry out raids, the business licences they produce are legit and are registered under Malaysians,” Azhar said.

The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.