PETALING JAYA, Aug 7 — Infuriated by Israel’s attacks against Palestine, Selangor Perkasa set fire to the Jewish nation’s flag as well as that of its ally, the United States last night.

Hundreds of the Malay rights group’s members gathered at Kampung Lindungan in Kelana Jaya here, where they openly torched copies of the flags and stomped on effigies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while the group’s anthem played in the background, to vent their outrage at the persecution of Muslims in Gaza.

“We put the two flags and their minister there for us to ‘roast’ them. Not to burn them, but to roast them tonight,” Selangor Perkasa chief Abu Bakar Yahya told the crowd, who was raring to light the bonfire.

“With help from our joined prayers, they will feel from there the heat of Muslims’ anger towards their behaviour,” he added, with five members clad in military camouflage pants and black balaclava over their heads standing behind him.

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Abu Bakar led the burning, witnessed by dozens of members in the black-and-red Perkasa T-shirt, many who took photos and shot videos of the event.

Flanking the effigies on the bonfire were two black-coloured banners, one accusing Israel of being the “real terrorists”, while the other accused the US of supporting terrorist Israel.

As flames licked at the effigies, a group of Perkasa members at the other end of the vacant field here stepped away on A4-sized prints of the Israeli flag to demonstrate their anger.

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The event emcee urged the crowd to join in the stomping. The paper prints of the flags were reduced to confetti.

“We start from small... We are confident in Islam, that God will help us,” Abu Bakar told Malay Mail Online, when asked about the visibility of its protest among their target, the Israelis.

“Now we see the public boycotting McDonald’s and other foods prepared by the Jews. Although the boycott was not done 100 per cent, it has its own impact.”

Following Abu Bakar’s speech and the burning, Perkasa national information chief Hassan Basri delivered a fiery speech, which included denunciation of the Jews and a mention of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

Hassan also alleged that Israel had to resort to accusing Malaysia of being a training ground for the militant Hamas movement because it was concerned with Malaysia’s role in criticising the Jewish state.

“Why did Israel make such remark? Ladies and gentlemen, because it realises how consistent Malaysia had been fighting for the rights of the Palestinians.

“They realise that among the strength of the Muslims worldwide is in Malaysia,” Hassan claimed.

Israeli daily Jerusalem Post reported last month that pro-Palestine Malaysia was used as a training ground for Hamas militants to carry out cross-border strikes ahead of the latest Gaza offensive that started July 8 with the death toll exceeding 1,000.

According to the report, Israel’s security agency Shin Bet claimed Hamas members had trained to use powered parachutes and kidnap a soldier in Malaysia as part of the group’s preparations against the Israel Defence Force (IDF).

The report however was short on details such as who provided the training and why Malaysia was chosen, citing only that the information was disclosed by a Hamas cell commander nabbed by Israeli forces on July 21 in Khan Younis, a city in the southern Gaza Strip.

Putrajaya has denied it allows any such exercise to take place on Malaysian soil.

Also present at the public torching last night was Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali and its secretary-general Syed Hassan Syed Ali.

Last Saturday, thousands of Malaysians gathered at the historic Dataran Merdeka in a show of solidarity to demand an end to the on-going Israeli assault on the Gaza strip.Protesters burn the Israeli and American flags during a protest against the violence in Palestine at Kampung Lindungan in Kelana Jaya, August 6, 2014. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa
Protesters burn the Israeli and American flags during a protest against the violence in Palestine at Kampung Lindungan in Kelana Jaya, August 6, 2014. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa