0n 23 Feb 2013, Universiti Teknologi Mara (Perak), in conjunction with their Program Perkongsian ilmu mentor menteri UiTM, handed a cheque to Viva Palestina Malaysia amounting to RM10,414.50. This amount was collected from students, staff and parents at the UiTM Perak Seri Iskandar Campus. The cheque was handed over to us by the university's Menteri Mentor, Yg Bhg Dato Seri Ahmad Husni Mohamad Hanadzlah (who is Malaysia's Seconf Fianance Minister).

Tun Mahathir with VPM's Treasurer, Puan Sri Norma Hashim and VPM's guest, Dr Abdul Rahim Shehab, Director of Islamic Society Jabaliya, our NGO partner in Gaza. Seen in the other picture is VPM's Media commitee, Puan Noraini Hashim.

Harry Fear was in Kuala Lumpur to give a series of talks on the Palestine conflict as part of his world tour. His trip to Malaysia was organised by Viva Palestina Malaysia and it proved to be a very successful one as reported in The Star http://archives.thestar.com.my/search/?q=harry+fear

“If possible, visit Gaza.” These are the words of British independent journalist Harry Fear (pic), urging people to see for themselves what life is like in the embattled area in Palestine.

“Generally people don’t know what it is like for the Palestinians,” said Fear, 23, who is on a talking world tour to raise awareness about the situation in Palestine.

Malaysia is his seventh stopover after Britain, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Canada and the United States.

The Subang Jaya Old Boys Charity Futsal organized their Annual Charity Futsal & Bazaar 2013 event but this time around they made it bigger and better! In view of the recent onslaught on Gaza, they unanimously agreed to donate the full proceeds from the Event to Viva Palestina Malaysia.

The VPM team — Amin Rahman, Neville Ponnurajah, Adly Almanzo Adnan, Ahmed Khamis, Faheem Amir and Adam Azman.

The teams were briefed by Ahmed Khamis  about Gaza before the start of the tournament. 

There was also a team from MSRI made up of boys who are refugees from Iraq, Afganistan and Iran, and the coach from Syria.

The town of Migdal HaEmek was built on the ruins of the Palestinian village of Al-Mujaydil (المْجيدل) which was depopulated of its Palestinian Arab residents by the invading Zionists in 1948. The village, which is located near Nazareth in the northern part of occupied Palestine, was rebuilt and renamed Migdal HaEmek and now has 24,000 Jewish settlers living in it. Prior to the ethnic cleansing and destruction of Al-Mujaydil, 18,165 out of 18,836 dounams of the land of al-Mujaydil were privately owned by Palestinian Arabs, and the remainder was largely public village lands. The villagers were expelled and have since been denied their right to return to their homes and lands. L'Oreal's plant is located on private illegally occupied land, and was erected without permission of its owners. Thus, the company is conducting business in violation of international law. It is trespassing on privately-owned property.

Jojn us to demand that L'Oreal shut down and dismantle its plants in Israel and stop profiting from its operations on land stolen from Palestinian refugees without permission of the owners. Join us in boycotting all of L'Oreal's products until the company does so. Please sign the petition and Help us by spreading this message.

23 Jan 2013
Statement from Dato' Dr Musa Mohd Nordin
Chairman, Viva Palestina Malaysia

One of the sweetest moments for a prisoner is when his loved one visits him. Imagine the excitement of the Gazans living in the "largest ever open prison in the world" being visited by a VIP, the PM of Malaysia himself. It would be a historic occasion realizing they are not forgotten and their visitor carries the greetings from Malaysian of all walks of life, reaffirming Malaysia's solidarity with their struggle for freedom, justice and self determination. Malaysia's proven track record of arbitrating peace deals between parties at odds would place her in an enviable position to broker an amicable solution between the Gaza and Fatah factions. Both factions of the Palestinian struggle aspire similar end points, namely an end to the siege, return of their homeland and the establishment of the Palestinian nation state. VPM lauds the initiative of the PM and his team to incubate a One-Palestine team to face together the treacherous neo-colonialist schemes of the Israeli government.

Dr Husna and Mohamad Afiq are representing VPM on this trip to Gaza organized by Aqsa Syarif (AS) code A2G13. 

Apart from the job allocated by AS, as VPM volunteers, they will be required to audit VPM projects in Gaza. It is a working visit and not like others who go to "just see the disaster and tour". We in VPM & AS do not encourage the idea of "disaster tourism" or "volunt-tourism". All our volunteers must make themselves useful to the people of Gaza and ensure all our projects to help the people of Gaza are up and running.

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Mideast conflict has done little to help Israel's image in the world, but the way local filmmakers deal critically with the Israel-Palestinian issue has won wide international praise — and, this year, recognition from the top of the movie industry.

Two Israeli-produced documentaries about the conflict have been shortlisted for possible nomination in this year's Academy Awards. Few Israeli films have contended in the Best Documentary category before. The shortlisted films represent rare recognition of foreign entrants in a category dominated by American productions.

For the first time ever, the African National Congress (ANC), the ruling party in South Africa, today made the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions on Israel part of its official policy.

Mbuyiseni Ndlozi of BDS South Africa said the decision "by the ANC's National Conference, its highest decision making body, is by far the most authoritative endorsement of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel campaign."

1 Dec 2012 A group of VPMers went hopping from restaurant to restaurant along Jalan Ampang in KL to collect donations and to spread the awareness about the November attack by Israel on Gaza.

2 Dec 2012 VPM had a charity booth at BSC for a week from Monday, 26 Nov. The response we received from the crowd at BSC was overwhelming and the crowd ranged from local to expatriate across all nationalities and religion. We had no shortage of yummy food from cakes to chocolates to curry puffs to 'nasi tumpang' to 'nasi goreng' to tiramisu and quiche etc etc etc that were brought to our booth on a daily basis to be sold for charity towards emergency relief for Gaza.

We were most touched by the kids from Rumah Solehah who requested to contribute 100 red velvet cupcakes for our charity booth. Fazilah Ahmad, a baker, baked the cupcakes and the kids from Rumah Solehah contributed their creative skills in creating the cupcake toppers.

The presentation of the final report on School Project in Gaza was held on 31 January 2013 @ 4.00pm to Y.Bhg Tan Sri Abdul Ghafar Mahmud the Director General of Education, Block E8, Complex E, Ministry of Education, Putrajaya,Malaysia.

The Project of Rehabilitation and Maintenance of Classrooms, Laboratories and Facilities of Eleven (11) Schools in Jabaliya, Gaza strip was funded by Ministry of Education Malaysia amounting to RM 1,728,381.39 equivalent to USD560,000.00

Viva Palestina Malaysia has successfully managed the project with the collaboration of Islamic Society Jabaliya Gaza, Palestine.The project was completed in December 2012.