Wednesday, 2 November 2016 | MYT 11:27 PM
Palestinian plight not a religious issue but a humanitarian one, says social activist
KUALA LUMPUR: The plight of the Palestinians should not be viewed as a Muslim issue but rather a humanitarian one, said a Christian social activist who has dedicated much of her life to the cause.
Dr Ang Swee Chai (pic), the co-founder of Medical Aid for Palestinians, said many had asked why a Christian Chinese woman was walking the journey of the Palestinians.
“This is an important question as I am not an Arab, not a Muslim, not even a Jew. But I see the Palestinians as my brothers and sisters struggling for their rights and human dignity. I have learnt that humanity is not bound by race, colour or religion,” Dr Ang, 67, told The Star in an interview.
“People are being killed, dispossessed. It is a cruel occupation. People are being ethnically cleansed and I am supporting them because I am a human being,” she added.
Penang-born Dr Ang, a Singaporean citizen, is also the author of From Beirut to Jerusalem, a book about her personal journey to war-torn Lebanon in 1982.
It was there that she witnessed the Sabra and Shatila massacre, where thousands of Palestinian refugees were killed.
A Chinese version of her book was launched at the Perdana Global Peace Foundation here on Friday.
“I am so happy to see my book published so that the Chinese community can read about it and learn that this is a human issue. In fact, there are a lot of Palestinians who are Christians,” said Dr Ang who currently works in the emergency and trauma centre at the Royal London Hospital.
She said that supporting the Palestinians didn’t mean one had to give up his or her religion.
“By supporting the Palestinians, it doesn’t mean you give up being a Buddhist, give up being a Christian. You become a better human being,” she said, adding that in the past even her family had asked why she was taking up a “Muslim issue”.
Dr Ang, who was brought up in Singapore but now settles in London, first went to Lebanon to help out victims of the war in August 1982.
After that she went back to Lebanon and Gaza to help out the victims of such human atrocities.
For her work, the orthopaedic surgeon was awarded the Star of Palestine by the late Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).
“I support the Palestinians because they are victims of injustice. As a people, I support their rights. Suppose you switch the whole thing around and the Palestinians one day gain power and are oppressing the Jews, I will switch sides,” she said.
“People are being killed, dispossessed. It is a cruel occupation. People are being ethnically cleansed and I am supporting them because I am a human being,” she added.
Penang-born Dr Ang, a Singaporean citizen, is also the author of From Beirut to Jerusalem, a book about her personal journey to war-torn Lebanon in 1982.
It was there that she witnessed the Sabra and Shatila massacre, where thousands of Palestinian refugees were killed.
A Chinese version of her book was launched at the Perdana Global Peace Foundation here on Friday.
“I am so happy to see my book published so that the Chinese community can read about it and learn that this is a human issue. In fact, there are a lot of Palestinians who are Christians,” said Dr Ang who currently works in the emergency and trauma centre at the Royal London Hospital.
She said that supporting the Palestinians didn’t mean one had to give up his or her religion.
“By supporting the Palestinians, it doesn’t mean you give up being a Buddhist, give up being a Christian. You become a better human being,” she said, adding that in the past even her family had asked why she was taking up a “Muslim issue”.
Dr Ang, who was brought up in Singapore but now settles in London, first went to Lebanon to help out victims of the war in August 1982.
After that she went back to Lebanon and Gaza to help out the victims of such human atrocities.
For her work, the orthopaedic surgeon was awarded the Star of Palestine by the late Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).
“I support the Palestinians because they are victims of injustice. As a people, I support their rights. Suppose you switch the whole thing around and the Palestinians one day gain power and are oppressing the Jews, I will switch sides,” she said.
What a lady, what a human being, what a humanitarian.
There must be something in Penang that has seen so many Penangites being caring, compassionate and cute like kaytee, wakakaka.
Chinese Malaysians, heed her word - Israel is the oppressor state as it had always been - read the Old Testament to understand what sort of people the Israelites were, as are now their descendants, the Israelis.
The Palestinians are the oppressed, the victims, the dispossessed.
At the root of it have been the Americans and their blinkered blind Christian obsession with the supposed Second Coming of Yehoshua ben Yosef in Israel.
I have it on allegedly good authority, wakakaka, that Jesus will make his Second Coming in Tahiti or Krabi or Hainan, and not that blood-soaked strip of land in the Levant.
Just as I call upon Chinese Malaysians to re-think their current but totally incorrect misconception about Palestine and Israel, I now call upon Malay Malaysians to also re-think their blinkered blind Muslim support for Palestinians for no other reason than that Palestinians are Muslims.
If that's why Malay Muslims support Palestinians, that that's grossly wrong. Muslim Malaysians should support Palestinians, some of whom are Christians(Coptic, Maronite, Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants, etc), some are Druzes and some Mandeans.
Muslim Malaysians should support Palestinians because they are the oppressed race, not because they are Muslims. That most are Muslims are largely coincidental.
If any Muslim Malaysian supports Palestinians because of your biased attitude based on religion, then be aware that is one of the principal reasons why Chinese and Indian Malaysians see Palestinians as unpleasant arrogant Muslims they have come to identify as Malay Muslims, and thus do not deserve support.
Since biblical times the Judean (of the tribe of Judah, one of the 12 Israelite tribes) were slaughtering the Amalekites, Edomites, Philistines, and even their own brethrens, the other 10 tribes and most of all, No 11, the Benjaminites (because of David's enmity with Saul). They liked to and still do, kill other races which they claimed (still do) had been on the orders of their god.
Today, only 99.9999999999% of Jews are from the House of Judah (Judean, hence Jews). Their cruelty are particularly obscene like the Nazis of Germany.
We should support Palestinians as Dr Ang has, for injustice done to them, for oppression imposed on them, for cruelty suffered by them at the hands of the Israelis.
Is she "giving aid and comfort" to suicide bombers ?
ReplyDeleteobviously you haven't read what has been reported by the Star Online, or you wouldn't have asked such a moronic question
DeleteWhy consider this a moronic question ?
DeleteNothing in the Star article negates the question whether she may be aiding and comforting terrorist suicide bombers.
I'm not saying that she is an armed combatant.
There are reports of a highly skilled University of Cambridge-trained Muslim British surgeon working with ISIS .
He was the one who operated upon and saved ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's life when one of Obama's CIA drones attempted to "take him out".
They Always consider themselves as helping victims of atrocities.
ya, suicide bombers would still be around to require comforting? I suppose in your moronic thinking
Deletealmost every reader here know kt support a thief.
ReplyDeleteand we all know HY's political proclivity, for a sodomite and anti DAP, typical of a PKR-ista
Delete