PUTRAJAYA: Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said he was disgusted by comments by an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman who labelled Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad as anti-Semitic and accused Malaysia of opposing the Olympic spirit.
Saifuddin said for more than half a century, Israel had continued to disregard the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people while committing inhumane policies and practices that were in clear violation of international laws.
“Israel has no right to talk about moral values when they themselves are the exact opposite,” he said in a statement today.
Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon yesterday condemned Malaysia’s ban on Israeli participation in international sporting events the country hosted and said the decision was inspired by Mahathir’s “rabid anti-Semitism”.
On Jan 10, Mahathir said the Malaysian government maintained its stand of prohibiting Israeli athletes from competing in the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships in Kuching from July 29 to Aug 4.
Saifuddin also reiterated that Malaysia had and would always be a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause, underpinned by its long-standing commitment towards the restoration of Palestinians’ rights and freedom.
In Muar, Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman said Israel was indisputably the biggest hypocrite in its condemnation of Malaysia.
He said Israel condemned Malaysia for allegedly “politicising sports” but had forgotten how it had illegally appointed itself as the “guardians” of Palestine by deciding who could and could not play against Palestinian athletes in their very own country.
“Has hypocrite Israel forgotten how they illegally control which Palestinian athletes can leave their homeland for training or tournaments?
“Isn’t that politicising sports? As the minister of youth and sports of Malaysia, I stand firm in Malaysia’s decision,” he said in a press statement here tonight.
On Monday, Syed Saddiq was reported as saying Malaysia would not allow Israeli Paralympic swimmers to participate in the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships in Kuching and the matter was discussed at the Cabinet meeting.
This led to Israel condemning Putrajaya.
But Syed Saddiq said despite Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch criticising Israeli aggression and war crimes, the Jewish state still tried to play victim.
He added that if South Africa could be banned from the Olympics for its apartheid regime, Malaysia, as a sovereign country had the right to ban the “murderous, state-sponsored, war criminal, apartheid Israeli regime” from coming to Malaysia.
Source from MSN News
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