Rilek1Corner

Tag: conflict

  • Netanyahu Tosses Hamas Policy Paper On Israel Into Waste Bin

    Netanyahu Tosses Hamas Policy Paper On Israel Into Waste Bin

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday symbolically tossed into a bin a Hamas policy paper published last week that set out an apparent softening of the Palestinian Islamist group’s stance toward Israel.

    In a document issued last Monday, Hamas said it was dropping its longstanding call for Israel’s destruction, but said it still rejected the Jewish state’s right to exist and continued to back “armed struggle” against it.

    The Israeli government has said the document aimed to deceive the world that Hamas was becoming more moderate.

    Netanyahu, in a 97-second video clip aired on social media on Sunday, said that news outlets had been taken in by “fake news”. Sitting behind his desk with tense music playing in the background, he said that in its “hateful document”, Hamas “lies to the world”. He then pulled up a waste paper bin, crumpled the document into a ball and tossed it away.

    “The new Hamas document says that Israel has no right to exist, it says every inch of our land belongs to the Palestinians, it says there is no acceptable solution other than to remove Israel… they want to use their state to destroy our state,” Netanyahu said.

    Founded in 1987 as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, the banned Egyptian Islamist movement, Hamas has fought three wars with Israel since 2007 and has carried out hundreds of armed attacks in Israel and in Israeli-occupied territories.

    Many Western countries classify Hamas as a terrorist group over its failure to renounce violence, recognize Israel’s right to exist and accept existing interim Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements.

    Outgoing Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said Hamas’s fight was not against Judaism as a religion but against what he called “aggressor Zionists”. Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s leader in the Gaza Strip, was named on Saturday to succeed Meshaal.

    Netanyahu concluded his clip by saying that “Hamas murders women and children, it’s launched tens of thousands of missiles at our homes, it brainwashes Palestinian kids in suicide kindergarten camps,” before binning the document.

     

    Source: www.reuters.com

  • Pergas Wrote Letter To Lee Hsien Loong, Expressed Concerns On Israeli-Palestine Conflict

    Pergas Wrote Letter To Lee Hsien Loong, Expressed Concerns On Israeli-Palestine Conflict

    The Singapore Islamic Scholars and Teachers Association (Pergas) has written to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to highlight the Muslim community’s concerns about the “situation in Palestine”, saying the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “regrettable and worrying”.

    The letter, written in Malay and dated 17 February, expressed Pergas’ hopes that Lee would bring up the matter during the two-day official visit to Singapore by Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Monday and Tuesday (20-21 February).

    In the letter, the President of Pergas, Ustaz Hasbi Hassan, said, “Israel’s occupation has lowered the value of human lives. It has caused the lives of children, women and the elderly.

    Pergas has expressed our concern and the Singapore Muslim aspiration to the Singapore government on the Palestine situation. Alhamdulillah, our concern has been conveyed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to the Israeli’s Prime Minister during his two-day Singapore visit earlier this week.

    “The blockage and control of Gaza has ravished the basic human rights for protection, housing, health, education and more. The upholding of these rights has been agreed upon by the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), which urge Israel to stop illegal housing on Palestinian land,” he said in the letter.

    Ustaz Hasbi stressed that as Muslims and citizens of Singapore, Pergas stands by the values of harmony and justice and, like any other community, rejects any form of tyranny, invasion and repression.

    “Violence will only beget violence, and peace could never be achieved as long as discrimination, tyranny and repression still exist,” he said.

    Pergas understands the Singapore government’s policy on such matters, which has been affirmed by the appointment of former Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Hawazi Daipi, as Singapore’s new non-resident representative to the Palestinian Territories. Hawazi assumed the position in November last year.

    “We support the government’s policy and hope that Israel and Palestine can work together towards peace and harmony. We also hope that all forms of repression and violence will cease with justice prevailing for both parties,” Ustaz Hasbi said.

    Prime Minister Lee’s reply to Pergas

    In a letter addressed to Ustaz Hasbi dated Tuesday (21 February), Lee thanked Pergas for expressing its concerns about the situation in Palestine and the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

    Lee said he fully understands these concerns. Singapore is friends with both Israel and the Palestinian National Authority, and many Arab countries, he added.

    “While the situation is complex and progress is difficult, Singapore has always urged Israel and Palestine to resume direct negotiations and work towards a just and durable solution to this longstanding conflict,” Lee said in the letter.

    Lee also reiterated Singapore’s position in the letter, saying that the Republic is convinced that “a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, however hard to achieve, is the only way to bring peace and security to both peoples.”

    The prime minister has stated Singapore’s position and concerns to Netanyahu during his visit here and last year. In the letter, Lee said he has explained to the Israelis that the Middle East matters to Singapore.

    “People all over the world are seized with the Israeli-Palestinian issue, and with the plight of the civilians caught up in the conflict. For Muslim communities particularly, it is an emotional matter.

    “Singapore is in Southeast Asia, surrounded by Muslim-majority countries. And we ourselves have a substantial Muslim population, who are an important part of our harmonious multi-ethnic population,” Lee said.

    He added that “Singapore fervently hopes for peace between Israel and the Palestinians”, which will contribute to a more stable Middle East and a safer world.

    “I thank you for supporting Singapore’s position, which reflects the interests of our nation,” Lee concluded in the letter.

    Source: https://sg.news.yahoo.com

  • Ismail Kassim: World Cannot Remain Neutral On Israel Oppression Of Palestine

    Ismail Kassim: World Cannot Remain Neutral On Israel Oppression Of Palestine

    With the arrival of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu today for an overnight visit, let’s give him a warm welcome and also take the opportunity to look at the ME conflict in perspective and set the record straight.

    By now, it has become clear – to those who want to see – that the Israelis prefer to seize captured land rather than peace and have no compunction of oppressing the Palestinians and treating them as a conquered people.

    Under the circumstances, to stay on the side lines and to insist on being neutral is tantamount to supporting the aggressor.

    Let’s look at the record:

    1. By now, the Israelis have killed more innocent Palestinians than IS, Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups have killed non-Muslims.

    2. More Muslims have died at the hands of IS and gang than non-Muslims.

    3. The main beneficiary of IS bloody rampage is Israel.

    4. The biggest losers everywhere are Muslims.

    5. I cannot rule out the possibility that this so-called IS Caliph is actually a Mossad and CIA agent.

    6. IS suicide volunteers have blown themselves up in vain.

    7. The Caliph and his followers can do the world no better favour than to blow themselves up.

    8. Hitler oppressed the Jews for about7 years but Israel have ill-treated and lorded over the Palestinians for more than 50 years.

    Should the world continue to stay on the side lines and remain neutral, satisfy only in making empty appeals, to both parties to resolve their conflict peacefully?

     

    Source: Ismail Kassim

  • PAP: DAG-Designate, Hri Kumar, No Longer Party Member

    PAP: DAG-Designate, Hri Kumar, No Longer Party Member

    Deputy Attorney-General-designate Hri Kumar Nair is no longer a member of the People’s Action Party (PAP), the party said on Friday (Feb 17) in response to TODAY’s queries, although it declined to say when Mr Nair had resigned.

    Mr Nair’s appointment, which will take effect next month, was announced on Thursday.

    It marks the first time an ex-lawmaker will take on the State’s prosecutorial function.

    As a lawyer, Mr Nair, 50, acted in a wide range of litigation and arbitration matters.

    He was appointed Senior Counsel in 2008. He became Member of Parliament for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC in 2006 and later headed the Government Parliamentary Committees for Home Affairs and Law.

    He served two terms before quitting politics just before the 2015 General Election, citing his wife’s diagnosis of lymphoma in 2012, which made him relook his priorities.

    Lawyers and legal academics dismissed concerns about partisanship as insignificant.

    However, lawyer Sylvia Lim, who is also chairman of the opposition Workers’ Party — which has been criticised by Mr Nair on several occasions, including over the financial management lapses by the WP-run Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council — called the appointment “not ideal”.

    She added: “It is critical that persons entrusted with vast prosecutorial discretion act in the public interest, and not for partisan political gain … Whether my concerns prove to be founded or otherwise — remains to be seen”.

    Mr Nair could not be reached for comments. During his term as an MP, Mr Nair spoke on several issues and had several run-ins with the WP, including over the financial management lapses by the WP-run Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com

  • Sylvia Lim: Appointment Of Hri Kumar As Deputy Attorney-General Not Ideal

    Sylvia Lim: Appointment Of Hri Kumar As Deputy Attorney-General Not Ideal

    PMO has announced that Mr Hri Kumar, former PAP MP, will be appointed Deputy Attorney-General with effect from March 2017.

    I was asked by a local paper whether I had any concerns about partisanship, given that Mr Kumar was such a strong critic of AHPETC, our WP-run Town Council.

    I gave my response as follows (which I was just told would not be published due to lack of space):

    “It is critical that persons entrusted with vast prosecutorial discretion act in the public interest, and not for partisan political gain. The appointment of a former PAP MP to such a post is not ideal. Whether my concerns prove to be founded or otherwise – remains to be seen”.

    #DAG

     

    Source: Sylvia Lim