KUALA LUMPUR: The Palestine-Israel peace deal hatched by the United States is one-sided and will only perpetuate Israel’s apartheid-like occupation over millions of Palestinians, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.
Re-affirming Malaysia’s stand against the peace treaty which was described by US President Donald Trump as “the deal of the century”, Dr Mahathir said the one-sided deal will never see the creation of a contiguous sovereign Palestinian State.
Dr Mahathir said the so-called peace plan only acknowledges the powerful occupier, while completely ignoring the rights of the oppressed.
“The last time this happened was when Germany occupied Danzig and Sudetenland.
“And to make things worse, the ‘deal of the century’ hands over the holy city of Jerusalem on a silver platter to the Israeli side in absolute disregard for the feelings of millions of Muslims and Christians worldwide.
“This deal will only bring more conflicts to the region, and will antagonise billions of people around the world,” said Dr Mahathir in his speech at the opening ceremony of the Third Conference of The League of Parliamentarians For Al-Quds, here, today.
Present at the event opening the two-day conference were Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, who is also the organising committee advisor for the event; and the League of Parliamentarians For Al-Quds president Sheikh Hamid Abdullah Al-Ahmar.
Malaysia, said Dr Mahathir, finds the peace plan proposal announced by Trump on Jan 28 not only utterly unacceptable but also grossly unjust.
He said after more than seven decades, only one side of the Two-State Solution has come into form, which is Israel; while the Palestinian people are still left struggling for justice, peace, and a sovereign state of their own.
“The international efforts at finding a just solution to this issue have remained mostly unsuccessful or unimplemented,” he said.
Dr Mahathir said the Palestinian ‘Nakba’ or ‘catastrophe’ which saw a mass expulsion of Palestinian Arabs from British-mandated Palestine during Israel’s creation in 1948 will continue today.
“(The mass expulsion of Palestinian Arabs will continue) in the form of Israel’s ongoing theft of Palestinian land for settlements and for Jewish communities inside Israel.
“The world continues to witness its destruction of Palestinian homes and agricultural land, revocation of residency rights, deportations, periodic brutal military assaults that result in mass civilian casualties such as the one that took place in Gaza in the summer of 2014, and the denial of the internationally-recognised legal right of return of millions of stateless Palestinian refugees,” he said.
Later, Dr Mahathir told reporters that the peace deal formulated by the US is a form of bullying against the weak and that it is shameful.
“Here we have two bullies who are using their strength, calling their plan the ‘deal of the century’.”
“The word deal (in this context) sounds like some illegal action.
“This is what some business people do behind the backs of others. This is exactly what we see is being done by Israel and unfortunately the US,” he added.