Malaysia PM Anwar Ibrahim condemns Israel genocide in Gaza, vows to continue defending Palestine

Malaysia’s Prime Minister has condemned Israel’s ongoing offensive on Gaza and its genocidal acts against the Palestinian population, insisting on Malaysia’s ability to raise its voice for the Palestinian cause.

In his keynote address at the 37th Asia-Pacific Roundtable (APR) in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, today, Malaysian Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, stated that the region and the wider world are “now entering an era of crisis and uncertainty unseen since the Second World War. Armed conflict and war are becoming commonplace in many parts of the world – Palestine, Ukraine and Myanmar, but not also forgetting the crises in Sudan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Haiti.”

Highlighting Malaysia’s role as a country seeking its own strategic interests and refusing to pick sides in an increasingly polarising world, Ibrahim stressed that “there are situations that call for unhesitating and unequivocal intervention”, which he specified as “war crimes, flagrant atrocities committed in the killing fields under the pretext of self-defence, and settler colonialism which is nothing short of a systematic campaign of genocide to displace an entire population of indigenous people”.

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The Premier condemned the Israeli Occupation of the Palestinian Territories as “a scourge on our collective histories and the conduct of nations. The Palestinians live oppressed and besieged while we are alive and free, limited in our influence and power, but sovereign and free.” While he relented that “Malaysia is no major power”, Ibrahim warned that “we will use our freedom to support the Palestinians’ fight for theirs.”

Since the launch of Israel’s ongoing eight-month brutal bombardment of the Gaza Strip, Kuala Lumpur has repeatedly joined in calls by much of the international community for a ceasefire in the besieged Territory, and has voiced concerns to the United States and its Western allies regarding their reluctance to impose sanctions on Tel Aviv and its leadership. Prime Minister Ibrahim’s address is the latest and most hard-hitting expression of that stance, however, and comes at a time when many in the international community – even some of its historic allies including the US – are increasingly urging the Occupation state to limit its aggression and agree to a ceasefire.

“We welcome these early signs of change in America’s approach towards the conflict. We hope that the US will keep re-evaluating its approach and hasten an end to the killings and carnage,” the Malaysian Premier stated. “We cannot stand idly by and allow this to be yet another chapter of mass killings and displacement that furnishes the historical volume of atrocities that have been committed, recognised and then tragically but conveniently ignored.”

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