Najib, Hadi to join NGOs in massive rally for Jerusalem
This will show Malaysian govt is against Trump’s Jerusalem decision, says DPM
PRIME Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Pas president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang will lead a massive rally to condemn the United States’ recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, at a press conference yesterday, said the rally would be held on Friday next week at Masjid Putra here.
He said Najib and Hadi would address the crowd, along with a non-governmental organisation (NGO) representative.
The rally will involve Muslim and non-Muslim NGOs, and there will be three speeches.
“I call on all Malaysians and NGO leaders, regardless of your faith, to come together and assemble at Masjid Putra on Friday at 2.30pm,” Zahid said after chairing the Cabinet Committee Meeting on Foreign Workers and Illegal Immigrants at Perdana Putra.
This is not the first show of solidarity between Najib and Hadi. They shared the stage on Dec 4 last year to protest the violence against the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
At the Extraordinary Summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul on Wednesday, member countries unanimously recognised East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine and urged the international community to do the same.
Najib, who was at the summit, said Malaysia condemned and rejected the unilateral decision by the US to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and relocate its embassy there, from Tel Aviv.
He said the move undermined efforts to find a comprehensive, just and durable solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, adding that the future of the twostate solution hanged in the balance, given its fragile context.
Thus, Zahid said, the rally would show that the Malaysian government was against US President Donald Trump’s decision.
“The government is confident that the steps mentioned by the prime minister during the summit in Istanbul shows our concern about the policy and decision by the US, under the leadership of Donald Trump, to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, instead of Tel Aviv.”
Najib had said OIC, as an organisation that represented more than 1.6 billion Muslims, must not be indifferent and cannot remain silent in the face of such an unjust development.
He said Muslim countries must unite to reject any move to proclaim Al-Quds Al-Sharif as the capital of Israel.
At the same time, he said, Muslim countries must strive to dissuade other countries from following suit in proclaiming the city as Israel’s capital.
He said the impasse in the Middle East peace process needed pragmatic solutions based on international laws and norms.
He expressed that the US would, firstly, rescind the decision, and secondly, shoulder the responsibility to help achieve comprehensive and lasting peace in the region on the basis of a two-state solution.