KUALA LUMPUR – If it is true that the Israelis are defending themselves from rockets fired by Hamas and other Palestinian groups, then they should be fighting in their own country and not on Palestinian land, said Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
The former prime minister said Israel’s excuse that it has the right to defend itself is unacceptable because Palestinians are the ones trying to defend themselves.
“I am sure the Israelis after this will take over Sheikh Jarrah and the land where Al-Aqsa Mosque stands,” he told a virtual interactive session themed “Palestine: Malaysia With Love” moderated by Farrah Adeeba on Facebook last night.
Dr Mahathir, who said he has always wanted to go back to his original struggle of making wars of aggression a crime, described Israel’s intense attacks in different parts of the blockaded Gaza City as an unfair fight as the Palestinians are weak and do not have weapons like that of the Zionist regime.
His words echoed Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein’s, who had said it is an insult when other countries come out and speak about Israel’s right to self-defence and not a single word is said about the Palestinians’ rights when they are being slaughtered and have been occupied for more than 50 years.
Hishammuddin said this in his speech during the virtual open-ended extraordinary meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) executive committee yesterday.
Prior to this, US President Joe Biden was reported as saying that “Israel has a right to defend itself” amid a barrage of rockets fired by Hamas and other Palestinian groups from Gaza in retaliation to Israel’s recent aggression.
The death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza Strip yesterday rose to 197, including 58 children and 34 women, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The number of injured has reached 1,235, while many buildings have been destroyed or damaged.
The recent tensions started in East Jerusalem in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and spread to Gaza after Palestinian fighters there vowed to retaliate against Israeli assaults on Al-Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Jarrah if they were not halted.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognised by the international community. – Bernama, May 17, 2021
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