KUALA LUMPUR: The New York Declaration on Palestine and Israel could undermine democracy in Palestine if it excludes Hamas, said a political analyst.
International Islamic University Malaysia’s Associate Professor Dr Syaza Shukri said while it was reasonable to expect all armed groups in Palestine to come under the Palestinian Authority (PA), dismissing Hamas would align with the political preferences of Israel and certain Middle Eastern governments.
“Why are we putting the blame on Hamas as if it’s not in response to decades of oppression. We see the PA has not been effective in defending the rights of Palestinians against Israeli aggression,” she told the New Straits Times today.
She said a more sustainable approach would be to end the genocide in Gaza and hold free and fair elections to let Palestinians decide who would govern them.
She said agreeing to a predetermined political arrangement against Hamas could undermine Malaysia’s ability to call out non-democratic actors in the future.
She said many Malaysians also recognised Hamas as a legitimate movement oppressed by both Israel and the PA.
The New York Declaration outlines a plan to peacefully resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It has been endorsed by the 22-member Arab League, the European Union and a further 17 countries.
The United States and Israel chose to boycott the initiative.
Singapore Institute of International Affairs senior fellow Dr Oh Ei Sun said most Western powers and their allies gave Israel near-unconditional support, making it difficult for any agreement with strong language against Israel to win adoption by influential states.
He said a viable two-state solution would require American backing, but the present US administration was not in favour of it.
“It’s largely a restatement of the two-state solution, but Israel under the current government and the US under Trump are increasingly moving away from that,” he said.
Even if adopted, Oh added, such measures are unlikely to alter the stance of a very determined Israel.
Nusantara Academy for Strategic Research senior fellow Dr Azmi Hassan said a two-state solution was in line with Malaysia’s foreign policy, but it came with specific caveats, including defining Palestine’s borders along the 1967 lines, East Jerusalem as its capital and the right of return for seven to eight million refugees displaced during the 1948 ethnic cleansing.
He said the declaration’s call for Hamas to disarm is something the group might accept only if an independent and sovereign Palestine was first established.
“What worries Malaysia most is that the determination of the future government of a sovereign Palestine must be by its own people, which is the Palestinian people,” he said.
In spite of Malaysia’s unease, he urged the government to leverage the declaration, already endorsed by the Arab League and EU, to exert pressure at the upcoming United Nations General Assembly, particularly on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump.
On Aug 7, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan said Malaysia was “uneasy” with several conditions attached to the New York Declaration a document.
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