PRESS RELEASE

16 October 2015 / 3 Muharram 1437H

Viva Palestina Malaysia has been tracking very closely the tragic sequence of events in Palestine.

Our global partners have reported that up until 14 Oct 2015, 30 Palestinians have been murdered, many in cold blood. And 2,000 have been injured by Israel’s Occupation Forces (IOF) and fundamentalist settler terror groups since early October 2015.

A shoot-to-kill policy, among other illegal and draconian measures, have been adopted by the Israeli government in an attempt to violently suppress this mostly spontaneous popular revolt led by a new generation of Palestinians who will not accept living under Occupation and Apartheid.

The fact that Israel and its state-supported settler militias are committing their racist crimes in broad daylight and recorded live on television goes to show the level of impunity that Israel still enjoys. This simply demonstrates the deep complicity of the Superpowers and the West with the illegitimate Zionist Project in Israel and the abysmal failure of the UN to protect the basic human rights of the Palestinians.

Just like Israel’s 7 year siege of Gaza and the four massacres since 2008, there is a complete bias of the reporting of the mainstream international media and an outrageous paucity of international response to the Israeli killings and brutalities of the Palestinians in West Bank and Gaza.

VPM in solidarity with the youth led popular uprising in Palestine urges:

1 The Malaysian government though her offices in the Security Council of the UN, OIC and ASEAN to demand for a military embargo and sanction of Israel.

2 All Malaysian government linked companies (GLC) and corporations to divest from companies which are blatantly complicit in the ongoing oppression taking place at present. The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions National Committee (BNC) has black-listed complicit international companies, such as G4S and HP, and Israeli companies, such as Elbit Systems, that participate in Israel’s infrastructure of oppression. See more at:http://www.bdsmovement.net/2015/call-out-international-wave-of-solidarity-with-palestine-13334#sthash.MtuxpxpN.dpuf

3 All Malaysian NGOs and people of conscience to deplore the extra-judicial killings and brutalities of the innocent and support the humanitarian struggle of the Palestinian people in their quest for justice, freedom and equality.

#SolidarityWaveBDS

Dato’ Dr Musa Mohd Nordin

Chairman VPM

bdsmovement.net/solidarity-wave

Roger Waters strongly worded letter to Bon Jovi who performed in tel aviv on 3rd Oct, despite calls to boycott. He chose the side of oppression when he could've chosen justice.

Often in the past I have written detailed, and sometimes even persuasive, letters to colleagues in the music business, encouraging them not to give succor to the Israeli government’s apartheid policies by performing in Israel. Having read Jon’s comments last week in Yedioth Ahronoth, I won’t waste my time drawing parallels with Apartheid South Africa and the moral stand that so many artists took then and that thousands are taking now in the face of decades of Israeli oppression of Palestinians.

So the die is cast, you are determined to proceed with your gig in Tel Aviv on October 3. You are making your stand.

You stand shoulder to shoulder

With the settler who burned the baby

With the bulldozer driver who crushed Rachel Corrie

With the soldier who shot the soccer player’s feet to bits

With the sailor who shelled the boys on the beach

With the sniper who killed the kid in the green shirt

And the one who emptied his clip into the 13-year-old girl

And the Minister of Justice who called for genocide

You had a chance to stand

On the side of justice

With the pilot who refused to bomb refugee camps

With the teenager who chose eight prison terms over army service

With the prisoner who fasted for 266 days until freedom

With the doctor banned from entry for saving lives

With the farmer who was cut down marching to the wall

With the legless child growing up in the rubble

And the 550 others who won’t grow up at all

Because of the missiles and tank shells and bullets we sent

The dead can’t remind you of the crimes you’ve ignored. But, lest we forget, “To stand by silent and indifferent is the greatest crime of all.”

Roger Waters

Come listen and join his call for Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) against Israel to end the seige of Gaza and the occupation of Palestine

BRIEF INTRODUCTION of DR MADS GILBERT

DR MADS GILBERT was born in 1947. He is a Norwegian physician and humanitarian activist. He is a specialist in anesthesiology and head of the emergency medicine department at the University Hospital of North Norway. He is a professor of emergency medicine at the University of Tromsø.

Dr Gilbert has a broad range of experience in international humanitarian work. He has volunteered at a kibbutz (Israel), Angola, Myanmar, Cambodia, Lebanon etc. Since 1970s, he has been actively involved with helping the Palestinians. He has served as a doctor several times in Palestine for NORWAC (Norway Aids Committee)

His home city of Tromsø is the twin town of Gaza since 2001. Tromsø has sent more health workers to Palestine than any other in the world.

His 2009 book "Eyes in Gaza" on the Gaza War has been translated into several languages. Dr Gilbert has been lauded as a "hero" on social media for his work in Gaza.

Dr Gilbert was on emergency assignment for the Norwegian Aid Committee (NORWAC) with the surgeon Dr Erik Fosse to support the humanitarian effort at al-Shifa Hospital during the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict. During this period foreign journalists were barred from entering the Gaza Strip. As international media reported from outside the conflict zone, Dr Gilbert maintained frequent contacts with Norwegian media, CNN, BBC, ABC and Al Jazeera.

Dr Gilbert draws a clear distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. “I’m a strong anti-racist, there is not a milligram of anti-Semitism in me. But I oppose apartheid and colonialism.”

He adds "This is not a difficult conflict, it is an illegal occupation – it continues, it expands and it costs thousands of innocent Palestinian lives. These people have the right to defend themselves, the right to resist. The right to resist implies also the right to resist with arms, if you’re occupied.”

The number of people who turned up to listen to Dr Mads Gilbert was overwhelming. People were sitting on the floor and standing at the back and the sides of the hall. His talk was an eye opener to many and some were not quite prepared to see and hear what he had to reveal.

As one of VPM committee member posted on her Facebook:

I saw men cry. When Dr Mads Gilbert played a video of a little boy screaming from his injuries I saw grown men cry. The injured, the scarred, the besieged people of Gaza were seen today. The dead were heard today. In a way that will haunt us for a long time. Maybe forever.

And yet he says, "Gaza is the cradle of humanity. It's where you should go if you wanna know what it's like to be human."

BDS National Committee (BNC) address to the conference in Malaysia held on 12 September 2015.

Viva Palestina Malaysia is working with University Malaya and Humanitarian Care to organise a conference on BDS at University Malaya in September. The purpose of the conference is to galvanise support for the worldwide BDS movement as a way to force Israel to recognise the rights of Palestinians to freedom, equality and self determination, and ultimately to end the brutal oppressive occupation of Palestine.

Ali Abunimah, Anna Baltzer and Samah Sabawi have confimed their participation, and we hope as many people as possible will join us to learn how all of us here in Malaysia and the Asia-Pacific region can play our part in this cause.

Here's the event page, keep checking for updates! ttps://www.facebook.com/events/418207771637502/

Dear BDS supporter, 

 

A month has now passed since the end of Israel’s massacre of the besieged population of Gaza.

 

Gaza may no longer be on our TV screens, but the medieval siege remains in place and Israel appears more determined than ever to press on with the expansion of its illegal Israeli settlements.  

 

As civil society organisations in Gaza have said, there is now a battle underway to ensure that Israel is held to account. The outcome of this battle will determine whether Israel’s latest assault will be yet another stage in Israel’s incremental genocide” of Palestinians or the turning point that will bring an end to Israel’s status as an entity above the law. The outcome of this battle depends on you.

 

Palestinians everywhere were inspired by the international outpouring of support for Palestine during the Gaza massacre. Hundreds of thousands of people across the world joined theAugust 9 Day of Rage protests initiated by organisations in Gaza. Israeli ships were prevented from docking at Oakland and other ports in the US. Israeli arms factories were shut down and protests were held at hundreds of retailers across the world that sells Israeli goods.

 

And we know that BDS is working: Israeli exporters are complaining that it's becoming impossible to export produce to Israel. Big companies like G4S and Veolia are scaling back their involvement in Israeli crimes. Latin American governments responded to public pressure by withdrawing their ambassadors to Israel.

 

What happens next depends on how strong we can build the movement. Get involved with the BDS movement today:

 

-       Read our Make an Impact (at http://www.bdsmovement.net/make-an-impact) page that is full of ideas on what products to boycott and how to be effective

8 August 2014

VPM UNEQUIVOCALLY ENDORSES & SUPPORTS BDS - BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT & SANCTIONS.

IT IS MORALLY & ETHICALLY THE RIGHT THING TO DO

THE GLOBAL BDS CAMPAIGN SIGNALS THE RISE OF THE NEW SUPER POWER – PEOPLE POWER

JOIN THE BDS MOVEMENT AND BOYCOTT ISRAEL

IT ENDED APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA, AND SO WILL IT END APARTHEID ISRAEL

For the past 66 years since the creation of Israel in 1948, she has been violating the rights of the Palestinians with impunity. Israel has denied the Palestinian right to freedom and self-determination and subjected them to ethnic cleansing and systematic discrimination. And for the third time since December 2008, the world watches in horror at the genocide taking place in Gaza.

But in spite of her glaring brutal oppression of the Palestinians, Israel has hardly been rebuked, let alone held accountable for its crimes against humanity.

In 2005, Palestinian civil societies called upon the world to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel or BDS. BDS is very similar to the anti-apartheid movement of the 1980s which led to the boycott, sanction and isolation of racist, white South Africa. It ended Apartheid South Africa and so will it end Apartheid Israel.

Today BDS Israel is a global movement, spanning the US, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The global BDS campaign heralds the rise of the new super power – people power!

And contrary to popular belief, it is more than just economics. It is morally and ethically the right thing to do.

 BDS is a global campaign of isolating Israel culturally, academically and economically. It sends a clear message to the Israeli government that it is a rogue state not welcome anywhere until it recognizes the Palestinians right to self-determination and fully complies with international laws.

Stephen Hawkings, the world's most famous scientist, boycott of the Israeli president's conference hit Israel where it hurts most, science and technology which drives its economy. Hawking's decision threatened to open a floodgate with more and more scientists coming to regard Israel as a pariah state.

Hawking's public refusal follows that of prominent singers, artists and writers, from Brian Eno to Mike Leigh, Alice Walker and Adrienne Rich, all of whom have publicly rejected invitations to perform in Israel.

Sixty four public figures, including 7 Nobel Peace Prize winners, published a letter in the British  Guardian newspaper calling for an international arms embargo on Israel for its “war crimes and possible crimes against humanity” in Gaza.

In an open letter to the Lancet, twenty four doctors and scientists who have worked in and known the situation of Gaza have written “on the basis of our ethics and practice, we are denouncing what we witness in the aggression of Gaza by Israel.”

More recently, the University of Malaya rolled out a petition among the nation’s academicians, staff and students to express their outrage and condemnation of the Israeli atrocities, stating “Neutrality and silence in the face of such ongoing and irrefutable barbaric crimes is not an option. The time to be silent is over and the time to speak out is now.”

BDS creates awareness and is a grim and gruesome reminder of the long and brutal occupation the Palestinians have been living under. Each time we see the brands or companies targeted by the BDS against Israel campaign, we will remember the occupation. Each time a consumer reaches out for the boycotted product, he will picture the savage killings of innocent children, women and the elderly.

Thus, anyone can be part of the BDS movement. It is a personal choice to become a conscious consumer.  It is about standing in solidarity with a people under occupation for 66 years. BDS is a personal political statement that says, “I don’t consume these products because it is morally and ethically wrong.”  It empowers consumers and reminds them that as individuals they have a choice. Similarly, any organization can endorse the BDS campaign and make the advancement of BDS part of their organization's program and agenda.

The BDS campaign against Israel is peaceful in nature. The recent press reports of destruction of cars and premises displaying or selling the targeted products are criminal acts of vandalism and do not embrace nor demonstrate the non-violent spirit of the BDS campaign.

The BDS consumer boycott against Israel is not only about refraining from purchasing products of an Israeli company or products of international companies that are complicit in Israel's occupation and Apartheid. It also invites one‘s active participation in the campaign. BDS is not only about "refraining from products of an Israeli company" but also about "campaigning for stores not to stock those Israeli products". This pro-active and strategic approach has been successful in forcing supermarkets and stores across the world to terminate relations with Israeli companies or change their business policies with a government that violates the rights of an entire people.

BDS Israel is now a global movement that involves Nobel Laureates, academicians, poets, musicians, artists, award winning journalists and the lay public. It includes universities, churches, student bodies, businesses and even the government of South Africa. BDS Israel is a call to stop this bully through peaceful, non-violent means.

Boycott South Africa first conceived in the 1950s was the idea of a small group of civil society activists. It took decades but eventually almost the entire world stood united and brought an end to South Africa’s racist government.

Can we do it again?

In unity lies our strength. Do not make the mistake of doing nothing just because we think we can only do little. Just do what we can. Let us each act, each within our circle of influence to impact change. We boycott because it is morally and ethically the right thing to do. We call on you to be a part of this global movement, a part of the new super power called PEOPLE POWER.

We call on you to Boycott Israel.

Dato’ Dr Musa Mohd Nordin
Chairman, Viva Palestina Malaysia