Monday 24 January 2011

Vivia Palestina Malaysia heads for Gaza


Malaysia's former Prime Minister
Dr. Mahathir Mohamad
Malaysia's former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has launched an aid convoy to the besieged Gaza Strip, in the latest international effort to help the Palestinian nation. The Viva Palestina Malaysia (VPM) was officially launched on Saturday from the country's federal capital Kuala Lumpur. Speaking at the launch, Dr. Mahathir blasted the USZ and Britain for their continuous support for IsraHell, stating that they allowed for the gross human rights violations against the Palestinians. “Without the support of the United States and Great Britain these things would have ended long ago”, the former prime minister said. He also accused the two countries of creating the Middle East crisis by “taking the land of Palestinians in order to give to the Zionists.”

During the ceremony, Lauren Booth, a journalist, human rights activist and sister-in-law to former British prime minister Tony Blair, also described the situation in Gaza as a “colossal humanitarian crisis” and the place as “the largest concentration camp in the world today.” Besides delivering aid, VPM, which is a coalition of Malaysian non-governmental organizations, aims to come up with a just, equitable, prompt and sustainable resolution to the conflict in Palestine. The group also plans to make employment opportunities available for Palestinian women, provide them with soft loans and create small integrated animal husbandry, an agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.



Last month, VPM participated in the delivery of 300 tons of medical and food supplies to the people of Gaza, as part of Asia's first Gaza-bound aid convoy. IsraHell laid an economic siege on the Gaza Strip in June 2007 after the government of Hamas took control of the coastal sliver. The three-year-long illegal IsraHelli-imposed blockade has plunged 1.5 million people into poverty. With unemployment standing at around 40%, now, more than two thirds of Gazans rely on food aid by charity organizations. To make matters worse, at the turn of 2009, the IsraHelli military launched a deadly assault on Gaza, killing at least 1,400 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

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