The Gaza ceasefire agreement, a key part of Trump’s 20-point plan to end the Gaza war, went into effect on Oct 10. It remains fragile amid disputes over the pace of hostage and body exchanges and the delivery of humanitarian aid.
The two-year conflict started when Hamas launched its deadly attack on Israel on Oct 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and abducting around 250 hostages.
Israel’s devastating retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed more than 67,000 people and displaced nearly the entire population, according to Palestinian health authorities.
BDS Malaysia’s Mohd Nazari, who is also director of the Hashim Sani Centre for Palestine Studies at the University of Malaya, said Sunday’s protest is to raise awareness that Trump has been an “accomplice to Israel” in the atrocities wrought on Palestinians in Gaza.
Tian Chua, a former Member of Parliament from Anwar’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat who is spokesperson for SSP, said SSP will be joining Sunday’s demonstration.
“We want the Trump administration to be aware pro-Zionist policies hurt the US relationship with ASEAN, especially Malaysia,” added the former lawmaker.
The current ceasefire agreement is “very tentative” and Chua said it does not provide solutions to Palestine statehood.
“The reason Trump shifted his position from hawkish pro-Zionist stand to a half-hearted ceasefire agreement was mainly due to global public outcry,” Chua claimed.
Many pro-Palestine activists are of the view that Trump’s peace deal is skewed towards Israel’s interest, said political analyst James Chin.
“Many of these groups believe that the peace deal was not designed with input from Palestine and was imposed on them. So for them the deal does not work because it does not require Israel to recognise a Palestinian state,” said Chin, who is a professor of Asian Studies at the University of Tasmania and Senior Research Associate at the Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman.
Analysts said the protests are likely to be bigger than similar ones in the past few weeks on streets as well as in public spaces like malls and petrol kiosks.
On Sep 24, protestors gathered in front of the Prime Minister’s Office and near an air force base in Selangor, pressing Anwar to retract the invitation to Trump.
There have also been pro-Palestine demonstrations staged at the Apple store at TRX Exchange in Kuala Lumpur as well as Caltex petrol stations in Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Penang.
Azmi said this coming weekend’s demonstrations are likely to be larger in scale as they coincide with the ASEAN Summit. The groups would want to make a stronger, more unified statement by organising one single event instead of multiple ones, he said.
“Even though the ideologies of these groups are different, the main objective is similar, to show their dissatisfaction towards Trump,” he said.
Chin expects the Friday event to be larger given PAS’ ability to mobilise its supporters. “More eyes will be on the one organised by PAS,” he said.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/malaysia-asean-summit-donald-trump-protests-gaza-israel-anwar-5420501
