Forum at CUCMS - Does Israel deserve to be a country?

Bro Harith as the moderator, Miss Juana Jaafar from PGPO

and Dr Hafidzi from PACE and Aqsa Syarif

Assalamualaikum,

I had the opportunity to share the same stage with Juana Jaafar from Global Perdana Global Peace in a forum organized by students from CUCMS (Cyberjaya Univ. College of Medical Sciences) on 5th May 2010. The theme of the forum is 'Does Israel deserve the rights to be a country?'

Miss Juana Jaafar was a participant in the Viva Palestina 3 Convoy back in December 2009. She with more than 600 volunteers travelled all the way from the UK to Gaza overland across Europe and crossed the Mediterranean from Syria to the port of El-Arish in Egypt. She has endured and put up with all the difficulties especially near the Rafah crossing where they had a hard time with the Egyptian authority and egypt's security forces.

But the most memorable lesson that she shared in the forum is the commitment shown by our non-muslim European volunteers who can relate with the sufferings of the people of Gaza. She was with a group of volunteers from Ireland, some of them were just kids. They can really appreciate what the Gazans were facing because as an Irish people they were once a persecuted and oppressed nation way back in the days of the IRA (Irish Republican Army) struggle for independence from Britain.

It was a commendable effort by the students of CUCMS for organizing such an event. Juana and myself agrees that we must not confined ourselves with the strict Islamic interpretation of the issue but also potrays the issue as one of humanitarian and human rights violations. The issue need to be embraced by the non-muslim community as well as this issue is not just the concerns of the muslims.

Dr Hafidzi Mohd Noor