By
Kazi Mahmood, IOL South Asia correspondent
JAKARTA,
April 5 (IslamOnline) – At a press conference following The
Special Session of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers on
Terrorism,
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said the world has the
power, if it wants, to stop Israel from committing state terrorism
against the Palestinians.
He
said the world demonstrated its ability to end the massacres
perpetrated against Bosnians by the Serbs, adding that this should be
the case with Israel.
The prime minister said the world did nothing for a long time until
almost 200,000 Bosnians were killed, but when it decided to put a stop
to it, the world just did it and was now it has even brought Serb war
criminals to justice.
"So the world has the power to put a stop to acts of terror
committed by the Israelis," he said during a meeting Thursday,
April 4, in Putrajaya with about 20 international journalists who
covered the just-concluded Special
Session of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers on Terrorism.
The
report published by Bernama, the official Malaysian news
agency, added that Mahathir pointed out that one of the main causes of
terrorism was the Palestinian issue and this had to be removed.
However,
Mahathir said the world community did not seem to see the Palestinian
problem as something relevant to them as compared to the September 11
terror attacks which prompted immediate action.
He
said the world must take action to tackle the Palestinian quagmire
through the United Nations; the United States, the world’s number
one power, was also needed.
The aging premier also deplored that most of the powerful countries in
the world appeared to adopt the attitude that they had nothing to do
with the fate of the Palestinians.
During
the press briefing, Mahathir said it: "Of course, some of the
European countries have begun to say something. But you know, Europe
is still feeling guilty about the Holocaust. It dares not say anything
against Israel.
"And as a result, the Palestinians have to pay a price for the
Jews being killed in Europe during the last [World] War," he
said.
He
said he Palestinians have been fighting and dying in their struggle
against Israeli occupiers for the past 50 years.
“The
Palestinian struggle is a fight for freedom,” Mahathir said,
describing, however, suicide attacks by the Islamic resistance group
Hamas as acts of terror.
Mahathir said he believed the whole world can put
pressure on Israel to stop its acts of terror.
"Until they [Israelis] stop it, they cannot blame the
Palestinians for suicide bombings of Israelis, including their
civilians," he said.
Mahathir said that Israelis attack Palestine, kill Palestinian
civilians and keep the Palestinian President under arrest without
declaring war.
"All this is wrong and the Palestinians, not having any other way
of defending themselves, have to resort to this act of blowing
themselves up even if their victims are civilians," he said.
The prime minister said the Palestinians were fighting back with
everything they had.
"It may be termed as terrorist attacks but what choice have you?
You have no choice, so you attack. When people use terror against you,
it is legitimate to use terror [in return]," he added.
He again insisted that it must be acknowledged that such actions could
only end if the world pressured Israel to stop its attacks against the
Palestinians and evacuate all the Arab lands it occupied.
He said Palestinian President Yasser Arafat had been accused of not
being able to stop his people from making such attacks, but the fact
was that the 40,000 Israeli troops in Palestine too had apparently
failed to stop them.
