Media statement by Charles Santiago in Klang on Sunday, 6^th June 2010:

Cut ties with APCO to show seriousness over attacks on Pro-Palestinian activists

Despite growing international condemnation against Israel for its brutal attack on an aid flotilla, the Israeli forces have again seized the last Gaza-bound aid vessel. The Rachel Corrie is carrying eleven pro-Palestine activists, nine crew members and hundreds of tons of aid when it was hijacked in international waters, days after a similar attack turned bloody.

This shows that Israel is becoming dangerously erratic.

We need stern action taken against Israel, which has continuously demonstrated that it is a rogue state. The United Nations Security Council has condemned Isreal's attack but stopped short of calling for an independent investigation following US objections.

Touching on the blockaded Gaza strip, President Barack Obama has called the current restrictions "unsustainable". He has clearly chosen his words carefully.

Let's look at whom the Obama administration is protecting at all cost.

According to the Guardian newspaper, the autopsy results on the bodies of those killed on board the Mavi Marmara revealed they were repeatedly shot at with 9mm bullets, many fired at close range.

It also reported that nine Turkish men were shot a total of 30 times and five were killed by gunshot wounds to the head, according to the vice-chairman of the Turkish council of forensic medicine, which carried out the autopsies for the Turkish ministry of justice.

The results also revealed that a 60-year-old man, Ibrahim Bilgen, was shot four times in the temple, chest, hip and back. A 19-year-old, named as Fulkan Dogan, who also has US citizenship, was shot five times from less that 45cm, in the face, in the back of the head, twice in the leg and once in the back. Two other men were shot four times, and five of the victims were shot either in the back of the head or in the back, said Yalcin Buyuk, vice-chairman of the council of forensic medicine.

The Guardian also quoted Ismail Patel, the chairman of Leicester-based pro-Palestinian group Friends of al-Aqsa, who returned to Britain, who has claimed that Israel had operated a "shoot to kill policy" after witnessing some of the fatal shootings. According to him, apart from the fatally wounded, 48 others were suffering from gunshot wounds and six activists remained missing, suggesting the death toll may increase.

The Rachel Corrie, named in the honor of the American activist who was crushed under an Israeli bulldozer driven by the Israeli Defense Forces in 2003, was hoping to end the three-year blockade imposed on the Gaza strip as it has plunged 1.5 million people into abject poverty.

Reporters and eye-witness accounts have revealed children scavenging for food on the streets and hospitals turning away the terminally ill for lack of medical supplies and hospital beds. The Israeli government has only allowed a trickle of food, medicine and fuel to keep the civilian population hungry and suppressed.

We have heard governments mounting pressure on Israel to lift the restrictions, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has justified the blockade by saying it prevents the militants groups from getting weapons.

The Israeli government has not just shown complete disdain for international law but also cares two hoots about diplomatic niceties. And uses clever spin-doctoring to twist the truth.

Therefore mounting pressure on Israel is not enough. The United Nations Security Council must start an independent inquiry into the attacks on the aid flotilla. Obama's government, on the other hand, must immediately suspend all military and economic aid to Israel.

On the home front, I urge the Malaysian government to sever ties with APCO Worldwide which has clear links with Israel before we convene an urgent sitting in Parliament on Monday to discuss on the recent attacks.

It would certainly be shameful to discuss the Israeli aggression, while APCO Worldwide remains the public relations company for the government.

We had a Parliamentary sitting during the recent Gaza invasion under the leadership of then Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Nothing came out of the meeting.

Let's hope that Monday's sitting would not be another public-relations exercise.

* Charles Santiago, MP for Klang