A PROPER and a well planned strategy to win hearts and minds all over the world is necessary to bring justice to Palestinians, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said.

“Just opposing (Israel) is not enough. To win this, we need to have a strategy to win the hearts and minds of the people,” Dr Mahathir told reporters after opening the third Conference of the League of Parliamentarians For Al-Quds in Kuala Lumpur today.

Dr Mahathir also branded the United States and Israel as bullies, citing US President Donald Trump’s controversial plan to bring peace between Palestine and Israel.

“What the powerful are doing right now is legalising the illegal. This is an act of a bully, just because you have strength, you bully the powerless.

“But we in Malaysia and other parts of the world, we will uphold the rule of law,” he said.

Mahathir likened Israel’s behaviour to Germany’s Adolf Hitler’s, saying how Israel had learnt a lot from Hitler, despite the pain it endured in the Second World War. 

“They learnt a lot from Nazi Germany. (Similar to) what happened to the Jews in Germany, they (Israel) did not become sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians and inflicted injustices (on them),” he said.

About six million Jews were massacred during the Holocaust in the Second World War.

Meanwhile, in his speech, Mahathir also slammed Trump’s peace plan in Jerusalem, calling it a one-sided deal hatched by the US and Israel without consulting the Palestinians.

“This peace plan acknowledges only the powerful occupier while completely ignoring the rights of the oppressed. The deal will never result in a contiguous sovereign Palestinian State, on the contrary, it will only further the domination of an apartheid-like occupation over millions of Palestinians.

“To make things worse, the deal of the century hands over the holy city of Jerusalem on a silver platter to the Israeli side, in absolute disregard for the feelings of millions of Muslims and Christians worldwide.

“This deal will only bring more conflicts to the region, and will antagonise billions of people around the world,” he said in his speech. – February 8, 2020.