Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad reveals his strong opposition to Israel and the situation in Palestine. He argues that Israel's actions are not only a violation of human rights, but also an indication of a barbarity and disregard for human values that equals, if not surpasses, the horrors committed during colonial times.

Despite knowing of the atrocities being committed against Palestinians, Dr. Mahathir believes that leaders from powerful Western nations continue to support Israel in denying Palestinians of their rights. He also compares Israel's treatment of Palestinians to the way in which imperialist leaders of the past denigrated colonial subjects.

Dr. Mahathir exposes the leaders of the Muslim and Arab world for their failure to address the genocide being committed against the Palestinian people. He labels Israel as an occupying force committing genocide on the occupied Palestinians, and

Dr. Mahathir is speaking about the Arab and Muslim leaders who have failed to take real action against Israel despite their summit victory. Dr. Mahathir states that these leaders preferred to take a "safe" approach, which only resulted in a meaningless diplomatic appeal. As a result, the Palestinians are still suffering and suffer from Israel, the U.S., and their Western allies.

Dr. Mahathir emphasizes that these leaders are equally responsible for the genocide committed against the Palestinians.

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AT THE WEBINAR: A CRITICAL DISCUSSION ON THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY'S APPROACH TO GAZA'S GENOCIDE, ORGANISED BY THE ARAB ORGANISATION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ( @AohrUk )

1. First of all, I would like to thank the organiser for inviting me to share some thoughts with all the distinguished personalities present.

2. I do not know how much of what I say can make any difference to the situation in Palestine where we witness, every day for the past one month, the barbarity of Israel conducting mass murder and genocide.

3. But I am bound by a very basic principle in Islam when witnessing a grave injustice, in which, if I am not capable of raising my hands and join the fight, I must speak up and oppose the tyranny.

4. And that is what I am doing.

5. I am now 98 and I have lived through numerous phases as the world evolved. I have witnessed the cruelties and atrocities of colonialism, the arrogance of the colonialists and the hypocrisy of powerful nations.

6. But the arrogance of Israel, its barbarity and colossal disregard for human values equals and most times surpassed the horrors committed during the colonial past.

7. It is difficult to find words to describe the atrocities and horrendous cruelties inflicted by the Israelis on Palestinians.

8. These horrors perpetrated by the Israelis are brought right into our living room as we watched them on news channels and other sources of information on social media platforms.

9. Then we ask ourselves, surely leaders of the Western world, the US and the UK in particular, have access to the same graphic images – of children and babies being killed, dying horrific, suffocating deaths in rubbles of bombed buildings.

10. On the one hand, these leaders of the so-called civilised world demand the third world to observe human rights and even animal rights, and show overbearing concerns over homelessness and poverty.

11. And yet, all these that they preach to the world are being stripped blatantly off the Palestinians. Worst, they are abetting the Israelis to deny Palestinians of their rights, their homes while totally impoverishing them.

12. They supply the arms and incendiaries, including phosphorus bombs to Israel to conduct genocide on the Palestinians and deprive them of all their rights.

13. Surprising as it may seem to most people; it is actually a consistent trait of leaders from these nations who are imperialists.

14. If we today discover that, to these leaders, the lives of Palestinians are of no consequence – it was likewise to them with the lives of Iraqis, Afghans, Vietnamese, Japanese, Koreans, Africans, Irish, Malays, Indians, Aborigines and Native Americans.

15. In the past, when they were pursuing their imperialistic dominance, they labelled freedom fighters with pejoratives which I am sure we are all quite familiar with – barbarians, rebels, savages, uncivilised, infidels, recalcitrant and of course terrorists.

16. As in the past, all these labelling are mere facade to distract the rest of the world from what was actually happening – the expansion of imperialism.

17. For us, we need to be steadfast in our support for the Palestinians and call a spade, a spade - “Israel is an occupying force committing genocide on Palestinians who are the occupied people. Israel is being abetted to commit the atrocities by the Western powers whose hands are as bloodied as that of the Israelis with the blood of Palestinian children and babies.”

18. And let us be clear - in any language or definition – the occupier is the evil force and those occupied are victims. Victims of occupations have every right to rise against their occupier.

19. And Palestine had been occupied for more than seven decades and we should not let ourselves be taken for a ride by the modern-day imperialists who want to confine Israelis’ genocidal reaction to Hamas’s retaliation on October 7.

20. The world must be reminded that the genocide had never ceased since the illegal creation of Israel and that it is funded and armed and fully blessed by leaders of these nations.

21. To sum up, the Palestinians are dealing with present day imperialists and colonialists who stick together in pursuit of their common interests - geopolitical dominance which in turn ensure control over crucial regional resources.

22. We have established that the Palestinians are victims of neo-imperialism which mean that neither Israel nor the US, neither the UK nor their Western allies, are interested in seeing peace or justice being achieved.

23. With that in mind, I cannot help but feel utterly disappointed with the recent joint Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit which failed to propose any concrete or strategic measures to pressure Israel and its Western allies to stop the massacre of Palestinian civilians.

24. Let’s not fool ourselves - all the strongly worded communiqué, statements, demands and condemnations directed towards Israel and its Western allies, in particular the United States will fall on deaf ears.

25. As it is, the reaction from war criminal Netanyahu is very telling, condescending and derogatory when he arrogantly said: “I say to the Arab leaders, if you want to preserve your interests, you must do one thing… remain silent.”

26.  The reality is that despite efforts by Israel over seven decades to strip Palestinians of their dignity, the Palestinians still hold their heads high.

27. In the past month, the Palestinians, including school going youths again proved their courage and defiance in the face of Israel’s barbarity and atrocities.

28. In the face of such adversity, we witnessed civilian Palestinians especially doctors and nurses, refusing to leave their hospitals for safer places, insisting on staying and treating the wounded at the risk of their own lives.

29. Many died but they will live on as martyrs and heroes.

30. Instead, it is Muslim and Arab leaders who are being stripped of their dignity as Israel, the US and their Western allies continue to “humour” them but never taking them seriously.

31. Despite sitting on areas of abundant wealth that could be used as leverage to demand Western nations apply sanction against Israel for its atrocities on Palestinians, Arab and Muslim leaders merely appeal for Israel to stop the genocide. They don’t even demand that the UN send peace keepers.

32. I am aware that some of these leaders are nauseated and want the Arab and Islamic Summit to take more drastic and concrete measures against Israel.

33. However, the others preferred to play it safe so that consensus could not be reached – other than the meaningless diplomatic appeal.

34.  With that, the Palestinians are left at the mercy of Israel, the US and its Western allies. And they are as culpable as Israel over the genocide.

Wassalam and thank you.

DR MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD

Nov 16, 2023

AT THE WEBINAR: A CRITICAL DISCUSSION ON THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY'S APPROACH TO GAZA'S GENOCIDE, ORGANISED BY THE ARAB ORGANISATION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS (@AohrUk)

1. First of all, I would like to thank the organiser for inviting me to share some thoughts with all the… https://t.co/a4WzknKxSJ pic.twitter.com/1Ci88Qktis

— Dr Mahathir Mohamad (@chedetofficial) November 17, 2023