Even in Malaysia, antisemitism is rife

The Gaza War, triggered by the murderous Hamas attacks on Israelis on 7 October, has polarised communities and nations. However, Malaysia, a multi-religious nation with a 65% Muslim majority, provides a unique example of how the narrative can be shaped by mainstream media, activists, governments and their agencies.

Two days after the Hamas attacks, the mainstream broadsheet New Straits Times, in an article by Luqman Hakim, summarised a ‘complex attack’ by the Hamas military wing on Israeli settlements which were taken over. The ‘Israeli Occupation Army’ then launched an operation against the Hamas groups. No mention was made of the massacres of Israeli civilians by the Hamas attackers. Attention was, however, directed to a mosque funded by Malaysian sources that was destroyed by Israeli bombing. The article concludes with the declaration that: ‘Despite the destruction, the jihadist spirit of Muslims will never fade.’

Refusing to criticise Hamas

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was reported as refusing Western pressure to criticise Hamas, stating that: ‘We, as a policy, have a relationship with Hamas from before, and this will continue … we don’t agree with [the West’s] pressuring attitude, as Hamas, too, won in Gaza freely through elections, and Gazans chose them to lead.’

As in other world capitals, Kuala Lumpur played host to pro-Palestine protests without, however, marches as seen in some other capitals presenting a voice more sympathetic to Israel. Within a week there was a protest of thousands in Kuala Lumpur’s Independence Square arranged by local NGOs, Viva Palestina Malaysia (VPM) and MyCare, which were organising humanitarian assistance for Palestinians.

Solidarity week in schools

The starkest example of government shaping of the narrative came with a 21 October announcement by Malaysia’s Ministry of Education (MOE) that all educational institutions under the MOE would hold a Palestine Solidarity Week from 29 October to 3 November. This event would take place in schools, vocational and matriculation colleges, as well as teacher education institutes across the country.

However, this announcement did not go unchallenged. A Press Statement issued on October 25 by a group of NGOs, many of them Christian, based in the states of Sabah and Sarawak where Muslims are not in the majority, stated with concern that: ‘We are looking at the seriousness of dragging school children into becoming part of the global, grown-up adult world of protests … We have seen before how a particular school in Malaysia, very recently, had made its young students stomp on an Israeli flag … the school is sowing hatred in these young, impressionable minds.’ Citing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1995), the statement declared that ‘the government has clearly taken sides and joined various quarters globally hinting [at]antisemitism.’

In similar vein, in a Memo to Heads of Mission Schools from the Diocese of Sarawak and Negeri Brunei Darussalam, the Right Revd Datuk Danald Jute declared that: ‘It is not appropriate to involve schools and school children’, accusing the MOE of presenting ‘a one sided narrative’.