Subject : A Call for Historical Truth and Justice for Palestine

MAPIM – Majlis Perundingan Pertubuhan Islam Malaysia
Shah Alam , Selangor , Malaysia
azmiabdulhamid58@gmail.com
……………………………………..
April 16 , 2025

*Senator Bernie Sanders
332 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
United States of America*

Subject : A Call for Historical Truth and Justice for Palestine

Dear Senator Sanders,

Greetings from Malaysia.

We, the Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organizations (MAPIM), commend your recent efforts in tabling resolutions to halt the supply of arms to Israel. It is a courageous and commendable stance in the face of escalating atrocities. However, we respectfully submit that your resolutions fall short of addressing the historical injustice and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to resist prolonged occupation and oppression.

It is imperative that any discourse on Gaza not begin and end with the events of October 7, 2023. For more than 75 years, and particularly during the 17-year blockade on Gaza, Israel has systematically violated international law through military assaults, expansion of illegal settlements, and the denial of basic human rights.

The people of Gaza have suffered under three full-scale military assaults—in 2008/2009, 2014, and 2021—resulting in the deaths of thousands, including women and children. These were not isolated incidents but part of a sustained campaign to collectively punish and dehumanize an entire population. Gaza’s infrastructure has been decimated, medical aid restricted, and daily life rendered unlivable.

The events of October 7 must be seen within this broader context of occupation, apartheid, and dispossession. To focus solely on the attack—while ignoring decades of state-sponsored violence, land theft, and the siege of Gaza—is to tell an incomplete story. Furthermore, evidence has shown that many of the 1,200 claimed casualties in Israel include armed personnel and settlers, and some deaths may have resulted from Israeli military counterfire. Yet this figure is now used to justify a campaign that has brought genocidal destruction upon Gaza.

We respectfully urge you, Senator, to use your platform to advocate for the full truth—to recognize that Palestinians have the right to resist colonization, to live in dignity, and to return to their rightful homeland. Justice does not begin on October 7. It begins with the Nakba in 1948 and must encompass every displacement, killing, and act of apartheid that has followed.

Your voice matters. Your conscience is respected globally. We urge you to go further—to stand not only against Israel’s weapons, but against the injustice of occupation itself.

With deep respect and solidarity,

Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid
President
Majlis Perundingan Pertubuhan Islam Malaysia (MAPIM)
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