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.