PAS Slammed For Comparing Palestinian Struggle With Malays For Political Purposes
Any attempt to equate the Palestinians’ plight with the Malays in Malaysia for political purposes is regrettable and should cease immediately, says BDS Malaysia.
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PAS’ attempt at drawing comparisons between the Palestinian struggle and the Malays’ land ownership in Penang has drawn flak from various quarters.
The party’s Twitter account recently posted a thread saying “Penang should learn from the history of Palestine.”
Pulau Pinang perlu belajar dari sejarah Palestin.
— PAS Pusat (@PASPusat) June 13, 2023
Pemilikan Zionis Yahudi ke atas tanah milik rakyat Palestin bukanlah berlaku sekelip mata.
Zionis yang asalnya orang asing telah mendapat 1.5% tanah di Palestin pada 1918.
Nampak kecil dan tidak memberi kesan kepada penduduk
The thread wasn’t attributed to any particular party leader but comes in the heels of the party’s state election chief Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor’s statement that historically, Penang belonged to Kedah.
Palestinian support group BDS (Boycott, Divestments, Sanctions) Malaysia in a statement said any attempt to equate the Palestinians’ plight with the Malays in Malaysia for political purposes is regrettable and should cease immediately.
BDS Malaysia notes a statement that equates the situation in Penang with the situation in Palestine, where the decline in land ownership of Malays in Penang is equated with the decline in land ownership of Palestinians in their land.
BDS Malaysia
BDS Malaysia said the statement was not only historically wrong, but it was hazardous as it underestimated the cruelty that has happened to the Palestinian people for more than seven decades and continues to this day.
It should be noted that the case of Palestine is a form of `settler-colonialism’ where foreigners who came from Europe colonized the land of Palestine and at the same time killed the Palestinian people, including children, women and the elderly, destroyed their homes and hometowns, seized their land and drove them out to become refugees.
BDS Malaysia
These refugees, who number in the millions, have not been allowed to return to this day, BDS Malaysia remarked.
It should also be noted that the killing of innocent Palestinians, the destruction of their homes, the imprisonment of thousands of Palestinians, and the forcible seizure of land continue to this day.
BDS Malaysia
PAS’ Twitter thread claimed that it was not impossible that the same thing that happened to the Palestinians could happen in Malaysia, alleging that it was in fact, already happening.
“Little by little a Muslim majority area has been swallowed by development. Bit by bit land was bought up and taken over by developers. In 2008, a research by USM found that Malay land ownership in Penang was only at 20.41%.
PAS on Twitter
The Twitter thread claimed that the Penang government was committing “systematic seizure” in taking over land ownership and dominating areas that were originally of Malay-Muslim majority.
“If this is not stopped, it is not impossible that in the next 50 years, Malays will be wiped out from their own land.”
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