Socialist Party of Malaysia demands Trump invitation be withdrawn, calls him a genocide enabler
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has been vocal against Israeli war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza and even demanded Israel’s expulsion from the UN.
Prime Minister Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim receives a courtesy call from the United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, at the Parliament Building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. July 10, 2025. Photo: Izzuddin Abd Radzak/Office of the Prime Minister
The Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) condemned Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim for inviting US President Donald Trump to the country, calling it a betrayal to the Palestinian people who have faced the US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza for almost two years now.
The statement, released by Choo Chon Kai, a central committee member of the PSM on Tuesday, July 15, claims that Trump’s invitation undermines all efforts by the government and the Malaysian people to express solidarity with Palestine.
PSM claimed that the Israeli massacre of Palestinians in Gaza would not have been possible without the active support of the US, both in terms of political backing and military supplies, and therefore Malaysia must not play host to the genocide enablers.
“There shall be no business as usual with the US administration until the world has put an end to the genocide against the Palestinian people,” PSM demanded.
“Genocide enablers”
Over 57,000 Palestinians, mostly children and women, have been killed and hundreds of thousands wounded in the Israeli war on Gaza which began on October 7, 2023. Israel has continuously bombed the besieged Palestinian territory, indiscriminately targeting houses, hospitals, schools, and other civilian infrastructure, displacing almost all of the pre-war Gaza population. It has also imposed a blockade on the supply of humanitarian aid into the territory, starving people and causing further deaths due to lack of medicine and other essential supplies.
Recently, the US and Israel co-launched an aid program in Gaza, after blocking the UN and other aid agencies. The US-Israeli aid program has been accused of facilitating fresh killings of hundreds of Palestinians while they seek aid at these distribution sites.
The US has blocked various ceasefire resolutions in the UN Security Council and suppressed countries, movements, and even individuals from expressing their disapproval of the Israeli actions in Gaza.
The US continues to supply billions of dollars worth of weapons to Israel to carry out its military operations in Gaza and several other neighboring countries, such as Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen.
The US, under the Trump administration, has also cracked down on the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which declared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and some other officials war criminals for carrying out systemic violations of human rights in the Palestinian territory.
Trump has threatened to depopulate Gaza and has arrested students leading protests against Israel’s crimes. It has recently sanctioned UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese for her documentation of Israel’s war crimes and atrocities.
Hypocrisy of Malaysian government
Malaysia has been a vocal critic of the Israeli war and has even officially supported South Africa’s genocide case against Israel in the ICJ. Ibrahim has repeatedly called for Israel’s expulsion from the UN over its repeated violations of resolutions and war crimes in Gaza.
Malaysia is also a member of the Hague group which is hosting a summit in Bogotá, Colombia, on July 15-16, seeking an urgent end to the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The Hague group was formed in January to follow and implement ICJ verdicts on the war in Gaza.
PSM notes that “the Trump administration has shown its unwavering support for Israel’s expansionism and recently joined Israel’s war against Iran” by directly bombing its nuclear facilities in complete violations of international laws.
“A top government leader who enabled and supported genocide, like Donald Trump, should be treated as a persona non grata rather than invited as a guest for a money-wasting diplomatic show,” PSM asserted.
Trump was invited by Ibrahim himself, who made the invitation to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week. Trump was also invited to join the ASEAN-US summit in October.
“It is also a sheer hypocrisy for a government to express solidarity with the Palestinian people while posing friendly gestures to the accomplice of the genocidal crime against the Palestinian people,” PSM underlined in the statement.
“We urge the government of Malaysia to retract the invitation to Donald Trump to visit Malaysia. We also called upon the government of Malaysia, as the chair of ASEAN this year, to cancel the ASEAN-US Summit as a symbolic protest against the US complicity in the genocide against Palestinian people.”