SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a statement on Thursday (July 3) on the kidnapping and killing of a Palestinian teenager, apparently in revenge for the murder of three Israeli youths earlier this week.
The statement said: “The kidnapping and killing of the Palestinian teenager on July 2, 2014, is deeply reprehensible. Singapore strongly condemns it and hopes that those responsible will be apprehended. Our sympathies go out to the family of the victim.
“We also urge the Israeli and Palestinian authorities to do everything possible to reduce tensions arising from the tragic deaths of both Israeli and Palestinian teenagers and protect the lives of innocent civilians.”
Eyewitnesses said 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khder was seen being forced into a car by three Israelis in occupied east Jerusalem. Police confirmed a body had been found in a forest in Givat Shaul in west Jerusalem, although they did not link the two incidents.
Singapore Islamic Scholars & Religious Teachers Association (PERGAS)
Pergas would like to reiterate that it firmly condemns all kinds of injustice and violence against human regardless of religion and race. This includes the most recent violence on Palestinians as a result of the abduction of 3 Israeli teenagers. Targeting innocent civilians is against humanitarian values.
Pergas calls upon Muslim and other communities to condemn and resist these humanitarian violence. Pergas also encourages Singapore Muslim community to perform qunut nazilah or make dua for those who are being oppressed in all parts of the world such as Muslims in Gaza and Rohingyas in Myanmar.
Please also refer to the link below for Pergas’ previous statement regarding the citizens of Gaza which was issued on 20 November 2012:
PERGAS CATEGORICALLY CONDEMNS THE VIOLENT ACTIONS OF THE
ZIONIST ISRAELI REGIME ON THE CITIZENS OF GAZA, PALESTINE
The Islamic Scholars and Religious Teachers Association of Singapore (Pergas) categorically condemns the Zionist Israeli military operation on the citizens of Gaza, Palestine.
2 The operation clearly contradicts the ethics of international relations which give rights to all citizens of the world to live in peace and harmony, despite the differences in ethnicity and religion.
3 The barbaric Zionist military operation is incompatible with humanitarian values that emphasize the dignity of every man by giving his due rights, in accordance with the words of Allah which mean:
“We have honoured the sons of Adam; provided them with transport on land and sea; given them for sustenance things good and pure; and conferred on them special
favours, above a great part of our creation.” Surah Al-Israa’: 70
4 As a civilized nation, Israel must respect the rights of the Palestinians to sovereignty and freedom to govern their country in peace. Excuses of ‘building safe zones’ or ‘the right to self-defence’ is never justifiable in killing innocent human lives.
5 Pergas hereby reiterates the concept of peace in Islam that is built through justice and fairness, and that it can never be achieved through war or acts of terror.
6 Thus, Pergas calls on the local Muslim community to perform hajat prayers and qunut nazilah either individually or in masses, as one of our efforts to help theoppressed, and pray they are given the strength and calmness in facing this tremendous test.
7 May the sufferings of the Palestinians be eased and replaced with harmony and security, which are the rights of every man on the surface of Allah’s world. Amin.
The passing of Ariel Sharon brought back the memories of the horrors of the Sabra Shatilla massacre of September,’82. I arrived in August that year as a volunteer surgeon to help the war victims of Lebanon. The people in Lebanon were wounded, made homeless and lost precious friends and families as the result of ten weeks of ruthless bombardment. That was the Operation Peace for Galilee launched by Sharon who was then the Defence Minister of Israel in June 1982. No one knew how many were killed as the result of that offensive – the London newspapers estimated a thirty thousand with many times more made homeless. When a ceasefire was agreed with the evacuation of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Sharon broke that ceasefire and drove tanks under air-cover launching a land invasion into Lebanon’s capitol Beirut. Part of the tanks sealed Sabra Shatilla and prevented the helpless civilian victims from escaping, while sending in Israel’s allies into the camps to carry out the most brutal massacre of defenceless women, children and old people under Israel’s watch. The blame was quickly and deliberately shifted to the Lebanese as perpetrators of the massacres, so that today no one can mention that massacre without blaming the Lebanese Phalange, yet forgetting the Israeli organisers of that event.
I worked in Gaza Hospital in Sabra Shatilla during the massacre trying to save the lives of a few dozen people, but outside the hospital hundreds were killed. My patients and I knew that Sharon and his officers were in control, and without them the massacre would not be possible. The residents of Sabra Shatilla could at least have escaped. Now more than 30 years later, we know that the killers were brought in by Israeli armoured cars and tanks, obeyed Israeli commands, their paths lit by Israeli military flares, and some of them also wore Israeli uniforms. The mutilated bodies of the victims were thrown into mass graves by Israeli bulldozers.
This Sharon continued on to be Israeli Prime Minister, and built the Wall which imprisoned the Palestinians in the West Bank. Sharon’s Wall cut through their lands, separating people from their homes, children from their schools, farmers from their orchards, patients from hospitals, husbands from wives, and children from parents. He marched into the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem 2000 with fully armed Israeli soldiers and tried to have the West believe that his intention was for peace.
He was responsible for other massacres such as in Jenin, Qibya and Khan Yunis just to name a few. The older generation in Khan Yunis in Gaza remembers that he killed all the grown men in the massacre of 1956 and left only the women and children to bury the dead..
I thought these facts should be publicised. Those who eulogise Sharon in his role of building Israel should also remember that he built his nation over the dead bodies of the Palestinian people, and the continued dispossession of those who are still alive.
Dr Ang Swee Chai
Author of From Beirut to Jerusalem
Published by International Librarie, Beirut
12 January 2014
