Israel-Gaza war: UN must get mandate to mediate ceasefire, says select committee

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The United Nations (UN) must be granted the mandate to mediate a ceasefire in Palestine and manage the safe and orderly evacuation of any refugees on their terms, says Parliament Special Select Committee on International Relations and Trade chairman Wong Chen.  Read more at https://tinyurl.com/2v3w6bw6  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00 Malaysia has been consistent in condemning the atrocities and gross human rights violations

00:05 perpetrated by Israel on the Palestinians for decades.

00:10 Like the Malaysian government, we acknowledge that Hamas was democratically elected by the

00:14 people of Gaza and therefore has legitimate authority in Gaza.

00:20 We support the Malaysian government's position and its efforts in holding dialogues with

00:23 Hamas and other parties to find a peaceful resolution to the severe conflict.

00:29 We would also support our government's pledge to donate $100 million in humanitarian aid

00:35 to all those affected.

00:37 We are thankful for the opening of the Rafah-Gaza crossing and hope that this development will

00:41 encourage better regional cooperation towards peace.

00:45 The Committee condemns all atrocities and urges the immediate cessation of hostilities.

00:51 In accordance with the Fourth Geneva Convention on Protecting Civilians During War, we condemn

00:57 in particular the actions of Israel for cutting off basic supplies of water, electricity and

01:02 gas to the people of Gaza as these actions are tantamount to war crimes.

01:08 Lastly, we urge the United Nations be given the mandate to mediate a ceasefire and manage

01:13 the safe and orderly evacuation of all refugees on the refugees' terms.

01:18 We have an open-standing support for Palestinians all along.

01:23 If you go around KL, there are many Palestinians who have settled down.

01:28 Some of them even married locals.

01:31 And their children are Malaysians already.

01:34 So we will continue that, especially in this time of crisis.

01:37 But the most important thing is to get the refugees across to Egypt, somewhere safe.

01:42 Crossing back to Israel is not safe.

01:45 So thank God the Rafah exit is now open.

01:50 And I think we can send a team there to the Rafah area and try to see whether we can,

01:57 beyond the humanitarian, also help to bring some of them back to Malaysia.

02:02 I think we will have that discussion with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

02:06 What happened is a global crisis.

02:12 When the failed vote was vetoed by the US twice in the PBB Security Council.

02:22 And this finally caused anger on many sides, including Muslims around the world,

02:28 against the countries that have become the enablers for the war crimes that are currently happening in Gaza.

02:38 Japan, one of them, France, Britain.

02:42 So we were surprised to see the voting happen in that manner.

02:46 So as you know, part of the movement, strong grassroots movement, is the boycott, divestment and sanction, BDS.

02:53 So if anything happens to businesses involving these countries in Malaysia, we cannot blame them for doing so.

03:00 So the national government, we agree on many things regarding this.

03:07 We are just discussing a special agenda for this next week.

03:12 To discuss how we want to pressure the Malaysian government and also the countries that are members of the Rome Statute.

03:21 To drag Benjamin Netanyahu to the ICC.

03:25 Even if he doesn't go to the ICC because Israel is not a member of the ICC,

03:28 the Geneva Convention is enough to pressure the UN Security Council

03:33 to take strong action against Israel for the war crimes that they have committed in Gaza.

03:37 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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