Keeping the issue alive

NOV 20 is commemorated as World’s Children’s Day every year. But as Virginia Gamba, the Special Representative of the United Nation’s Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict, said on Monday, there is nothing to celebrate this year.

“Armed violence has worryingly increased in many ongoing conflicts, including in Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Myanmar, Niger, Somalia, Sudan, and most recently in Israel and the State of Palestine.

“So far this year, reported violations against children in conflict have climbed significantly, particularly those related to the killing and maiming of children and attacks on schools and hospitals, and their protected personnel.

“Perhaps no situation is more tragic than the case of Israel and the State of Palestine, particularly Gaza, where thousands of children have been killed and maimed, denied life-saving humanitarian aid, while others have been abducted.

“In Gaza, it is reported that more than 5,500 children have been killed [as of Nov 20] and more than 9,000 children have been maimed by airstrikes, while most of them are currently being denied access to the most basic humanitarian aid, including food, water, and medicine.

“While there must be accountability for the horrific terror attack against civilians in Israel, the ensuing continued bombardment and deprivation of humanitarian relief to an entire civilian population in Gaza, half of whom are children, cannot be justified. The hostilities against the children in Gaza must stop now,” she said.

As news broke on Wednesday of a Hamas-Israel truce, the reaction from around the world is one of relief, even if the truce is temporary. As this is being written, the ceasefire finally came into effect on Friday.

Qatar, which has played a key role in mediating with Hamas, announced that 50 hostages will be freed in stages, in exchange for the release of 150 Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had stressed that the regime would resume the war after the four-day truce and keep on fighting “until we achieve all our goals”, including the destruction of Hamas’ fighting and governing abilities as well as the return of all hostages.

The agreement also includes desperately needed humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza following around seven weeks of relentless Israeli attacks that have killed almost 15,000 people and forced about 1.7 million from their homes.

A boy carrying whatever he could salvage on his bicycle as Palestinians leave Gaza City to safer areas in the south on Nov 25, the second day of a truce between Israel and Hamas. — AFP

Yes, this will be a protracted fight, but it has really been going on for almost eight decades. The Palestinian fight against oppression and for the creation of its own state cannot be forgotten. That struggle must be kept alive. It must remain high on the Malaysian government’s agenda.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has been attending a series of meetings with global leaders since Oct 7 as part of the international effort to stop the bombing of Gaza and calling for a ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid in. He attended the recent Arab Islamic States Summit in Riyadh, then flew over to San Francisco in the United States for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation annual meeting where he reiterated that the world must not turn a blind eye to the killings and bombings carried out by Israel against the civilian population of Gaza.

Over the last few decades there have been numerous attempts at finding a solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict. Malaysia, which does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, supports the creation of an independent Palestine through a two-state solution, based on pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, as the only viable solution.

Malaysia has been a long-time advocate of the restoration of the inalienable rights of the Palestinians. In keeping the issue alive even after this current war, the unity government should consider hosting a conference on the matter. If the government feels strongly about the sufferings of the Palestinians, at the very least an international conference should be considered to continue to highlight this issue.

“We should not just be condemning here and there. It should not just be mere statement reading but a conference on Palestine must come out with tangible outcomes involving civil society, politicians, and humanitarian workers.

“If we are a country – or a bunch of countries – that fully supports Palestine and its unalienable rights, this is the moral support that we have to start ramping up, even if it is just in the form of a seminar or conference,” said one Malaysian official.

In 2020, Wisma Putra and the UN Committee for the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People in partnership with the Perdana Global Peace Foundation convened the International Conference on the Question of Pales-tine with the theme “South-East Asian Support for the Rights of the Palestinian People”.

UN experts, academicians, and humanitarian workers spoke at the conference.

“The Prime Minister has been doing the right thing in meeting leaders not just from Muslim countries, but is that enough? Hosting a conference may set the tone for us in highlighting the issue,” said another official.

A Malaysian diplomat said while the idea of hosting a conference is worth considering, questions remain on what kind of outcome to expect.

“If we are going to do so, we must ask ourselves how it will contribute to the Palestine peace process, reconstruction, and accountability of war crimes.

“Can we attract all the key players like Jordan, Qatar, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Egypt?”

With Palestine’s complicated history and the latest war in Gaza, the Palestine question has been gaining traction in social media and civil society space again.

Amid all these discussions and the need for the Prime Minister to bring to fore the issue, it is unsettling when a member of his Cabinet declared that his state would not accept refugees from Palestine. Works Minister Datuk Seri Alexander Nanta Linggi has been quoted by the media as saying that Sarawak need not accept any refugees, especially those from countries that are noted for violence and are torn by anger and hatred.

His remarks came on the heels of the caution issued by social activist Peter John Jaban of the Sarawak Association of People’s Aspiration and several other NGOs on the probability of Palestinian refugees being allowed into Sarawak.

Nanta, who is also MP for Kapit, said he wholeheartedly supports the stance of the NGOs.

“We must be very careful so as to maintain and nurture our peaceful state where the people are now happily living in harmony. We do not need any element that can sow negativity, divisiveness and hatred among Sarawa-kians eventually,” he said.

Where did the NGOs get the idea that Malaysia is taking in any refugees from the conflict area is anyone’s guess but for a federal minister to support such a statement is rather disappointing and could even be seen as xenophobic.

The mission now is to continue highlighting the mass murder of Palestinian children and women by Israelis. This is ethnic cleansing and genocide. Giving aid is not enough, Malaysia must be part of the process to free Palestine and bring justice to the people that Israel is annihilating and wants the world to forget.