HOME Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said it was unfair to demand Palestinians brought to Malaysia for medical treatment be sent back to their war-ravaged country due to an isolated incident.
According to reports in the New Straits Times, he said they were flown here for medical treatment and that the incident involving two misbehaving women at Wisma Transit in Kuala Lumpur was an isolated one.
"The Palestinians are those who are injured and parents of children who are injured. We took them and provided them with treatment as a humanitarian gesture.
"I agree with the Defence Minister's (Datuk Seri Khaled Nordin) stand in appealing to Malaysians not to make generalisations, playing blame games and (demanding) to deport them to their country which has been ravaged by the war," he told reporters after attending a town hall session with Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) students in Kuala Lumpur today.
"The incident occurred because some of them were unhappy that they were confined at a transit point (Wisma Transit) and their movements were restricted because they were brought here for treatment. So we issued them with a special pass," he said.
Saifuddin was responding to an incident involving two Palestinian women on Wednesday, who were caught on video causing a commotion and damaging public property at Wisma Transit in Kuala Lumpur.
The duo were part of 127 wounded Palestinian civilians who had arrived in Malaysia on Aug 16 to receive medical treatment here following Israel's attack on Gaza last year.
A series of video clips, which have since gone viral, showed the women behaving in an unruly manner at Wisma Transit, where the injured Palestinians and their families were being housed for the duration of their medical treatment. - October 4, 2024
--
