PM urges Malaysians to go beyond physical aid to help Palestinians

"What we can offer is a vision of the future for Palestine, as well as our resources to share our assistance where needed.

"We can also learn what strife, unrest and war can do to a nation, something we want to avoid in its entirety," he said in his foreword of the souvenir programme for the 'Evolution for Palestine' conference organised by the Malaysia-Palestine Youth Movement (MPYM), here.

Najib, who is also the MYPM patron, said Malaysians, along with the people of many nations in the world, had always been emphatic towards the Palestinian plight.

This was because the conflict in that Middle Eastern country was not something that everybody could ignore and hope that it would resolve itself or go away, he added.

"They are as real to us as the air we breathe in, like the rain that washes down on us, like a cut on our hands and the blood that runs. We hear their cries, we feel their pain," Najib said.

The prime minister stressed that the MPYM was a good platform because it represented the hopes and dreams of Malaysia and Palestine, not to mention having exuberance, ideas and energy to build and strengthen relations between each other.

He also said that young Malaysians were lucky and privileged because they had grown up with peace compared to young Palestinians who had grown up with strife.

"However, youths, especially in this technological age of instant communication, would find their way to each others' minds and arms, sooner or later," he said.

Najib noted that the sadder fact of Palestine was that it was not recognised as a sovereign country although it had obtained observer state status in the United Nations General Assembly.