The Pro-Palestinian Transnational Advocacy Network in Malaysia: Cooperation and Underlying Motives of Hamas and UMNO

Abstract

A powerful pro-Palestinian transnational advocacy network has emerged in Malaysia since the Gaza war of 2008-09. Taking the cooperation between the Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia, the Islamist Hamas, and the United Malays National Organisation as an example, I analyze the network and argue that the three actors are engaging there to promote the Palestinian struggle for an independent state but at the same time, each actor is using the network to pursue its own interests.