I don’t. It is not obvious to me that the Palestinians are on the side of the right.
When Malaysia stood against the Apartheid system in South Africa, I think we can safely say that all Malaysians are against the Apartheid system, but in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, if it is said that all Malaysians are on the side of Palestine in the conflict between Israel and Palestine, I don’t think this statement is correct.
I think only Muslims in Malaysia are for Palestinians and against Israel, but not all Malaysians feel the same way.
In my view, the Israelis and the Palestinians are just two people at war. It is not clear to me that justice is on the side of the Palestinians, although it does appear to me that in their long running conflict, it is often Israel that has the upper hand.
Just because Israel is often the winning side, it doesn’t strike me that Israel is on the side of wrong and just because the Palestinians are often on the losing side, it doesn’t strike me that the Palestinians are on the side of what is right.
I feel that most Muslims are supportive of the Palestinian cause simply because they share a common identity with the Palestinians.
I also think that many Muslims have an antagonistic view of the Israelis for reasons that are not related to the conflict between the Palestinian and Israelis, and it is this antagonistic view that is driving them to always view the Israelis as the wrongdoer.
Malaysians who are not Muslims, and thus do not share an identity with the Palestinians and who do not have a religious or a racial reason to view the Jews as a particularly wrongdoing people, do not see how justice or innocence is clearly on the side of the Palestinians.
To put the matter in context, most Tamils in Malaysia see the struggle for a Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka as a just movement by innocent Tamilians who have long been oppressed by the Sinhala majority of Sri Lanka, but to the Chinese, Malays, Sabahan and Sarawakians in Malaysia, the struggle for a Tamil Nation by the Tamils in Sri Lanka is just a foreign conflict, where it is not clear who is on the side of right and who is on the side of wrong.
In the same way that the non-Tamils view the Tamil-Sinhala conflict in Sri Lanka, so do the non-Muslim view the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the middle east.
I understand why most if not all Muslims feel that that justice is on the side of the Palestinians and that the Palestinians are innocent people who have been prodded to take extreme action only because they have long been oppressed by the Israelis.
Most if not all Tamilians feel the exact same way about the struggles of the Tamils in Sri Lanka too.
But just like how every Tamil in Malaysia must understand that their view is only limited to them, because they happen to share a common identity with the Tamils in Malaysia, and thus they cannot expect any Chinese, Malay, Sarawakian and Sabahan to see the struggle of the Tamils in Sri Lanka in the same way that they see it, the Muslims in Malaysia cannot expect the non-Muslims in Malaysia to see the struggle of the Palestinians in the same way that they see it either.
If individuals or private institutions in Malaysia wish to support the Palestinian cause, that is their prerogative, but the government of Malaysia, which represents all Malaysians, should not always conflate the sentiments of the Muslims in Malaysia with the sentiment of all Malaysians.
In the matter of Israel against Palestine, I think the Malaysian position should be one that is for peace, not for Palestine.
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