500 MPs to attend 3rd Annual Conference of The League of Parliamentarians For Al-Quds

PETALING JAYA, Feb 5 -- Some 500 backbenchers including speakers from various parts of the world will converge here to attend the 3rd Annual Conference of the League of Parliamentarians For Al-Quds (LP4Q) which will deliberate, among others, on the need to support the Palestinian cause and defend their legitimate rights.

Chairman of the organising committee of LP4Q Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh said the two-day conference, starting this Saturday at a leading hotel here, is important at a time when Malaysia and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) rejected the Israel-Palestine peace plan recently announced by United States.

 “We are glad to witness the third conference being held here in Malaysia and it would be a good platform to exchange views and experiences with regards to the necessary action that should be taken to defend and support the Palestinian cause and their legitimate rights.

“The presence of esteemed Parliamentarian experts and activists from across the world would definitely enrich our knowledge and experience besides enabling us all to adopt the relevant resolutions for the sake of Palestine. The Palestinian issue is a humanitarian issue and goes beyond religion,” he told a press conference, here, today.

The conference is organised by LP4Q under the patronage of the Malaysian parliament with the support of several civil society organisations including the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (ABIM) and the Palestinian Cultural Organisation Malaysia (PCOM).

Syed Ibrahim said LP4Q, themed “Towards a Strategy for Defending Al-Quds/Jerusalem’’, will see the attendance of around 500 Muslim and non-Muslim member of parliaments (MPs), both government and opposition, from various parts of the world.

He said Malaysia has been given the privilege to host the conference for the first time after the last two conferences held at Istanbul in Turkey in 2016 and 2018, and that the invitation has been extended to UMNO and PAS MPs to attend the conference.

 LP4Q, which has grown from 125 MPs from 25 countries in 2015 to 700 MPs from 70 countries in 2018, is a coalition of members of parliaments around the world in support of Al-Quds where one of the main initiatives is to form Palestine’s Caucuses and Committees. 

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is scheduled to deliver his opening keynote address this Saturday and followed by closing remarks by Port Dickson MP Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim the next day.

-- BERNAMA