Media: Minister, we understand that you have just met the students from the Palestinian Scholarship Initiative (PSI). Are you able to share with us more about that?
Minister: There was this initiative to bring Palestinian students. Four were identified. Eventually, only three were able to come. I was approached sometime ago by former Minister Yaacob Ibrahim and Mr Walid Jumblatt if the government would be supportive, and I said, of course.
We support free Palestine, and there are good students, we'll be happy to have them here and they can go back and contribute. We all want to see a free Palestinian state, and that's going to need administrators, that’s going to need people who can help run the place. So, I asked to meet with them because I knew they had come to Singapore.
They're young people, a lot of ideas. One is in NUS, one is in SIM, one is in SUSS. Two are post-graduate students, one is an undergraduate, very young man, 19 years old. I told them, imbibe as much as you can, study hard, and also absorb what Singapore has to offer. When they go back, they have a bridge between Singapore and Palestine. We wish them the best. Hopefully they can, when they go back, they are able to contribute back to their society in very significant ways. I said, we want good students who can come benefit, and also, we benefit from them, by them being here, by our students interacting with them, and understanding different cultures, we benefit as well.
Many of these are ground-led initiatives. If you look at the number of things that have been happening, people on the ground in Gaza, Singaporeans helping people there. There is this initiative to bring students, there is the initiative to raise money as well as items, material that would be useful for people in Gaza, often delivered by our Singapore Air Force. People on the ground working hard, constructively, government coming in - we’re all working together as a society. This is a very good initiative by the people who came together to bring the students.
Media: Minister, this morning, news broke about Israel and Hamas agreeing to the first phase of the Gaza peace plan. Do you have any comments on that?
Minister: Media reports, headlines are encouraging, but at the same time, many seasoned observers are urging caution, because you know , the Middle East situation, Israel, Palestine, it's never done until it's done. But we all hope that this will be done. The situation today, at least there is some hope, more hope than there was previously.
You have to say, this would not have been possible without President Trump. He has to be commended tremendously for pushing both sides and ultimately only the United States of America can influence Israel’s course of action. And he has done that. I think a lot of the credit, even for us to be here, has to go to him. From media reports, I see that he is taking a personal interest in trying to get it done. So, you know, every action of his, every statement of his, suggests that that is his specific desire. So, we hope that he achieves his stated goals, it will help the people of Palestine.
