The Malaysian In The Viral Pro-Israel Propaganda Video Is A Self-Proclaimed Zionist
The two-year-old interview went viral earlier this week.
By Sadho Ram — 07 Dec 2023, 10:08 AM — Updated 12 months ago
A viral video, in which a Malaysian, Victor Yong Jeng Ong, claimed that the country's anti-Israel policy is due to "radical Arab terror", has prompted people to call for the man's arrest
The video was originally uploaded on X by one Hananya Naftali on the morning of 4 December.
In the video, Yong is seemingly being interviewed by Naftali, reportedly a close aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Naftali opens the video by claiming that Israel and Malaysia can have a "great future together", despite the latter being a Muslim-majority country "with many radicals who spread hate against Israel".
He then poses a question to Yong, a resident of Johor Bahru, asking why Malaysians harbour animosity towards Israel when, as a far-off nation, Malaysia has no strategic interests in Israel.
"The hate comes because of misinformation," Yong says, claiming, "The hatred is developed by Fatah and Hamas organisations on the ground, working professional terror operations in the form of grassroots terror and cyber terror [...] to corrupt the Malaysian mindset and to turn Malaysians against the nation of Israel."
He goes on to say that Malaysians have been misled due to the 75-year-long active presence of "radical Arab terror" in the country. However, Yong provides no explanation to support the claim.
For context, while the video was uploaded on X with the caption "A brave Malaysian tells the truth about the anti-Israel lies in Malaysia" by Naftali on 4 December, it is not a new video
The original video, first uploaded on Naftali's Facebook and YouTube channel, is from December 2021, where it has fewer than 80,000 views combined. In contrast, the reupload on X has garnered over four million views.
It's not clear why Naftali reuploaded his two-year-old video interview with Yong, other than to use him to paint Malaysia in a negative light amidst the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
The video has created quite a stir online, with an individual filing a police report at the Dang Wangi police headquarters for trying to disrupt the harmony of religion and race in the country.
On X, many Malaysians expressed strong opposition to Yong, saying that he does not represent the voice of the Malaysian people, especially since Israel is the only territory not recognised by the Malaysian passport.
Who is this Yong?
A cursory check by SAYS found that Yong was born and raised in Malaysia.
At present, he appears to be operating an English coaching centre in Johor Bahru.
He claims to have studied global security and conflict at Harvard University and has been trying to break into the foreign policy space by writing for evangelical Christian and conservative news websites.
Additionally, he has published two pro-Israel books that are listed on Amazon.
Yong self-identifies as a "Zionist" and has written extensively in support of the state of Israel up until December 2021, around the same time he was interviewed by Naftali in the video.
However, following his interview with Naftali, Yong claims in several articles that he was a victim of "a financial scam" by an Israeli orphanage, and has since turned extremely resentful towards Naftali, and Israel by extension.
It's not clear if he's aware that his two-year-old interview with Naftali is being used to spread pro-Israeli propaganda, as his most recent online activity appears to be around July this year.
After he was allegedly scammed, Yong began expressing anti-Israel sentiments
On his X account, the Malaysian made several posts calling Israel a "genocidal state", whose leaders feel justified in massacring Palestinians. He also tagged his posts with #JewishCrimes.
For the record, Yong's remarks during the interview, as well as his posts on X, were made months before the ongoing genocide in Gaza that began on 7 October.
Meanwhile, Bukit Aman CID director Datuk Seri Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain said the 36-year-old man was detained earlier yesterday, 6 December
In a statement issued last night, Mohd Shuhaily said that the police have obtained a remand order for three days until 8 December at the Johor Baru Magistrate Court.
The case being handled by the Classified Criminal Investigation Unit, Law, and Prosecution Division of Bukit Aman CID, reported the New Straits Times.
Before his arrest, SAYS had reached out to Yong but did not receive a reply.
