Tag: free palestine

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

February 25, 2017
Donald Trump: I Like 2 State Solution But I’ll Leave It Up To Israel And Palestinians

WASHINGTON – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he likes the concept of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, expressing his preference on the issue for the first time since sparking international criticism for appearing to back away from the longstanding bedrock of Middle East policy.

But in an interview with Reuters, Trump stopped short of reasserting a U.S. commitment to eventual Palestinian statehood and instead said again that he would be “satisfied with whatever makes both parties happy.”

Trump’s comments put a new twist on a statement he made at a Feb. 15 joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggesting that his administration would no longer insist on the creation of an independent Palestinian state as part of any future peace accord.

It could also send a signal to both sides, as well as the international community, that the principle that has long underpinned U.S.-led peace diplomacy will not be discarded if the Trump administration moves forward, as he has promised, with an initiative to restart long-stalled peace efforts.

“No, I like the two-state solution,” Trump said when asked whether he had backed away from the concept during his joint White House appearance with the right-wing Israeli leader. “But I ultimately like what the both parties like.”

“People have been talking about it for so many years now. It so far hasn’t worked,” he added. But he then repeated his revised position, saying: “I like this two-state solution, but I am satisfied with whatever both parties agree with.”

Trump’s comments provided nuance to his earlier comments.

“I’m looking at two states and one state, and I like the one both parties like,” he said at last week’s news conference. “I can live with either one.”

Those words were welcomed at the time by the Israeli right but denounced by Palestinians, who seek a state of their own.

A one-state solution would be deeply problematic for both sides. One concept would be two systems for two peoples, which many Palestinians would see as apartheid and endless occupation. A second version would mean equal rights for all, including for Palestinians in an annexed West Bank, but that would compromise Israel’s Jewish character.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres cautioned against abandoning the idea of a two-state solution, saying there was “no alternative,” and Egyptian and Jordanian leaders also renewed their commitment to that goal.

Trump’s revised language could soften such criticism, but still fails to meet demands that he explicitly re-commit to seeking a two-state solution.

At the news conference, Trump pledged to work toward a peace deal but said it would require compromise on both sides. He also surprised Netanyahu by urging him to “hold back on settlements for a little bit,” a vague appeal to curb construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

But at the news conference he offered no new prescription for achieving an accord that has eluded so many of his predecessors, and Palestinian anger over his strongly pro-Israel stance could make it difficult to draw them back to the negotiating table.

Source: www.todayonline.com

February 24, 2017
Israel PM Describes ‘Battle For Future Of Humanity’ During Singapore Visit

In the first visit to Singapore by an Israeli head of state in 30 years, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday issued a call for greater diversity and tolerance.

Netanyahu gave a roughly 10-minute speech to Jewish community members gathered at the tightly guarded Maghain Aboth Synagogue, built in Singapore in the late 1800s.

Netanyahu spoke of his recent visits to Muslim-majority countries Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, noting that he visited a synagogue in the latter.

“Jewish children in Kazakhstan were singing Hebrew songs as they sang here, in a Muslim state and that reflects the kind of world we like to see: a world of tolerance, a world of diversity as opposed to the world that is being challenged today by the forces of barbarism and intolerance,” he said. “This is a battle for the future of humanity.”

Netanyahu added that the relationship between Singapore and Israel had expanded beyond the defence ties which were set in the mid-1960s, when Singapore became independent of Malaysia.

“It’s not only that we’re both innovation nations. It’s not only that we’re small people that have defied the limitations of our size. It is that we’re committed to a better world. A world of diversity, a world that follows the values that we as a people have held for so many years,” he said.

Netanyahu said he had held talks with Singapore’s government earlier in the day and that the talks would continue later. His speech at the synagogue coincided with the reading of Singapore’s budget in Parliament.

Netanyahu’s visit to Singapore comes hard on the heels of the Israeli prime minister’s meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in the U.S. last week, but that visit went unmentioned.

Netanyahu’s visit to Singapore on Monday was quieter than the last visit of an Israeli head of state to the island-nation.

In 1986, Israel’s then-President Chaim Herzog became the first Israeli head of state to visit Singapore. But when the Israeli embassy in Singapore announced the visit about a month ahead of time, protests erupted across Muslim-majority countries Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, and Singapore faced diplomatic ire and pressure to cancel the visit.

Source: www.cnbc.com

February 22, 2017
Providing More Aid To Palestine Should Not Be Used As Bargaining Chip For Singapore Government To Invite Israel PM

Assalamualaikum,

Bros i think we have heard the news by now – Israel PM is coming to Singapore. I won’t even mention his name because I think he is inhuman for all the injustices that he has sanctioned against our brothers and sisters in Palestine.

In the past, the Singapore government has been very careful not to invite the Israel PM because they were sensitive to the views and conscience of the local and regional Muslim population.

So what has happened? What has caused a change in the attitudes so much so that they don’t care about our feelings anymore?

What i know is that every living Muslim cannot condone the presence of someone like the Israeli PM, who, by many accounts, can be counted as a war criminal.

So what if they appointed Hawazi Daipi as a non-resident representative to Palestine? So what if they double the technical assistance package to $10 million? So what if we allowed high-level Palestinian officials to Singapore to learn from our experience? This gesture of recognizing Palestine and providing a large amount of aid should be a magnanimous one because it is only decent for us to help an oppressed people. Like how we helped our friends in Aceh during the tsunami.

Don’t use it as a bargaining tool to justify the unjustifiable.

Fuad

Reader Contrbution

February 18, 2017
Activist Doctor Mads Gilbert Denied Access to Gaza Indefinitely

Mads Gilbert, an outspoken Norwegian doctor and activist who treated patients at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital during Israel’s assault on the Palestinian territory this summer, has been denied access to Gaza “indefinitely” by Israeli authorities.

Gilbert told Al Jazeera on Friday that he was turned away from the Erez border crossing when attempting to return to Gaza in October, despite having all the legitimate paper work.

“To my surprise I was denied access by the Israeli military,” he said. “When I asked the reason they informed me that it was a security issue.”

Gilbert said that when he asked for a fuller explanation, he was told to “leave the premises or the police would be called”.

Telling the world about the burdens of the Palestinians in Gaza is considered a security risk.

The 67-year-old, who has been involved in solidarity work with Palestinians for decades and volunteered at al-Shifa during three wars, has been a vocal critic of Israel’s military campaigns and its occupation of Palestinian territory.

During the seven-week conflict between Israel and the Hamas movement that left more than 2,000 Palestinians dead, Gilbert frequently spoke to international media, including Al Jazeera, about the situation at al-Shifa hospital, which was overwhelmed with civilian casualties.

However, a spokesperson for the Coordination of the Government Activities in the Territories, the Israeli authority that coordinates all traffic between Gaza and Israel, told Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang that the refusal of entry was related to security reasons and had “nothing to do with Gilbert’s anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic remarks”.

Gilbert told Al Jazeera he was informed that the ban was “infinite without any time limit”.

He said he had been invited by the Gaza Health Ministry which had requested his assistance to research the the impact on healthcare of the Israeli bombardment and to follow up on work done during that time.

The Norwegian embassy in Tel Aviv has made numerous inquiries to the Israeli government about the ban.

Bard Glad Pedersen, state secretary at the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, told Verdens Gang, “we have raised Gilbert’s exclusion from Gaza and asked Israel to change their decision. The humanitarian situation in Gaza is still difficult and there is a need for all health workers.”

Medical Aid for Palestinians, a UK-registered charity which has been working in the occupied West Bank and Gaza for over 20 years and supports al-Shifa hospital called the ban on Gilbert “deeply concerning” and reiterated that, “following the recent conflict, thousands of Palestinians in Gaza require specialised surgical treatment and it is imperative that the right to health is unimpeded.”

Denouncing his entry ban as a limitation of freedom of expression, Gilbert said it appeared the Israeli government “doesn’t want the effects of their continuous attacks on the civilian population in Gaza to be known to the world.”

“Telling the world about the burdens of the Palestinians in Gaza is considered a security risk”, he said, adding that in a larger perspective, the ban was not about him but about the Gazans’ right to international assistance.

“The Israeli authorities are, in my opinion, in no position to deny the Palestinian people support from the international community,” he told Al Jazeera.

He vowed to continue to challenge Israel and called for political pressure to be exerted to lift the “long overdue” siege of Gaza.

“There is no way we’re going to accept that medical and humanitarian assistance to the people in Gaza shall be denied just because the Israeli government has decided so. I will not give up travelling to Gaza as long as they have medical needs,” he said.

Israel launched “Operation Protective Edge” following firing of rockets by Palestinian armed groups from Gaza.

According to UN figures the Palestinian death toll was 2,131, of whom 1,473 were identified as civilians, including 501 children.. On the Israeli side, 77 people, mostly soldiers, were killed.

Source: www.aljazeera.com

November 15, 2014