JUST commends PM Anwar's stand on Hamas and Gaza

THE International Movement for a Just World (JUST) commends Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for his courageous and principled stand on the evolving Gaza Crisis. His stand shows that he will not yield to pressure from any quarter on the Gaza Crisis which involves fundamental moral issues.

It must be acknowledged that Hamas is a democratically elected liberation movement which has the support of the majority of Palestinians as proven in the 2006 general election. That election was certified as a free and fair election by various international observer missions including those from Europe and the United States of America. It is such a shame that the US government and various other European governments refused to recognise the validity of the election result and even chose to punish Hamas and the Palestinian people for exercising their democratic right.

We know that Anwar does not concur with each and every tactic that Hamas employs in its liberation struggle. Neither does JUST endorse all Hamas’s approaches in its quest for Palestinian freedom. Nonetheless, all those who value self-determination and the right of a people to choose their own future are prepared to acknowledge the tremendous sacrifice and suffering that Hamas freedom fighters and ordinary men, women and even children of the land we call Palestine have undergone in pursuit of the quest for their honor and dignity.

- Dr Chandra Muzaffar, President of International Movement for a Just World (JUST) Malaysia