PUTRAJAYA, May 15 — Some Malaysian political parties could have links with the military unit of Palestinian party Hamas in support of its fight for freedom, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said today.
But he added that the Malaysian government does not have such relations with the Palestinian group.
“I would like to clarify that Malaysia has no relations with the Hamas militant military wing, but political parties in Malaysia have relations with Hamas militant political wing on the basis of the struggle to uphold Palestine.
“So for me, or rather for the government, our stand is firm and we hold to the principle that ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’,” Fahmi told a press conference at his ministry here after this week’s Cabinet meeting.
Hamas is both a political and military organisation, with its military wing called the Al-Qassam Brigades. The Israeli Defence Force claimed that the wing possesses some 30,000 fighters.
The Al-Qassam Brigades has been designated as a terrorist organisation by among others the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.
Fahmi, who is also the unity government spokesman, had been asked about possible economic backlash against Malaysia from Western countries following Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s meeting with Hamas' political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh and its former leader Khaled Masyal in Qatar two days ago.
On a related matter, Fahmi said his ministry and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) have received complaints from Malaysian media outlets, Malaysiakini and Sinar Harian, about the removal of their social media posts about Anwar’s meeting with the two Hamas leaders.
Another online news site, Malaysia Gazette also had its entire Facebook account shut down, leading it to register a new account.
Fahmi said his ministry and the MCMC have written to Meta Platforms Inc, the parent company of social media platform Facebook, for an explanation.
“I condemn the action of Meta for removing the article or postings uploaded by the media outlets, Malaysiakini and Sinar Harian, on their social media page, what more when this is an official report of the prime minister’s visit to Qatar and his meeting with a political wing of an organisation and not the military wing,” he said.
