Israel & India: Partners in Occupation

The secret relationship between Israel and India is rarely discussed. But here on this blog, no secret will remain buried. It's time to unravel this sinister relationship between these two terror states that inflict pain and suffering on Palestinians and Kashmiris, respectively.

Only 2 years after Israel declared its independence, 2 years after the Nakba, India recognized Israel as a sovereign state. It was years later, much later, that India first established a relationship with Israel in 1992. India only waited so long to recognize Israel because, at first, it was sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. Considering that India was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) which was supportive of anti-colonial struggles around the world, it only made sense that India also recognized and supported the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). So this begs the question: if India is so sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, why did it establish a strong relationship with Israel?


India had an ulterior movement for initially being pro-Palestine and anti-Israel. India had its own worry of Pakistan’s influence in the Arab world, in addition to safeguarding its oil supplies from Arab countries. It also ensured jobs for thousands of Indians in the Gulf, helping India to keep its foreign exchange reserves afloat. India and Israel however were on opposite sides during the Cold War, with Israel supporting the US and India sympathizing with the Soviet Union.


The Congress Party in India, which was the dominant force in Indian politics since India’s independence in 1947, opposed Israel because it viewed it as being similar to Pakistan—a state based on religion. This hampered growth of Indo-Israeli ties in the immediate aftermath of India’s independence.


Regardless of that, there was a close relationship between Israel’s Mossad and India’s intelligence agency RAW (Research and Analysis Wing). Israel never hesitated to come to India’s defense, publicly and strongly, in most of India’s major conflicts.


Here comes a shocker: former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon paid a visit to India in September 2003. This step showed that the relationship between the two states became stronger. Their relationship was mainly driven by the threats of terrorism that both countries felt threatened their sovereignty. After the 9/11 attacks, both nations realized the importance of co-operating on a larger scale to counter terrorism.


Both countries face have a large Muslim population that both countries consider a threat. Calls for the liberation of Palestine and Kashmir within their states have pushed both countries closer to one another.


The declaration signed during Sharon’s visit to India condemned individuals and states that aid terrorism across borders and give refuge to terrorists. India views Israel as a source for providing training to its personnel in the fight against terrorism and Israel is more than willing to offer India both material and moral support in this regard. [1]


In 2009, Israel became India’s biggest defense supplier.

In a deal completed in 2009, Delhi had signed a US$1.4 billion deal with Israel to purchase a 70 kilometer shore-based and sea borne anti-missile air defense system. According to an official, the total value of the deal was over $2 billion, with one portion valued at $600 million being hived off to the state-controlled Defense Research and Development Organization. This deal pushed Israel to be India’s biggest defense supplier ahead of Russia. [2]


Even more recently, February 21, 2011, it was reported that The Indian Air Force and the Israeli weapons manufacturer Rafael Advanced Defense Systems are set to sign a major contract in March 2011. [3]

What else will these two countries exchange next.. Torture tactics? Occupation 101?


Both India and Israel face criticisms in their occupations of Kashmir and Palestine. Both countries also see the resistance from Kashmiris and Palestinians as being “illegitimate” & the tools of a foreign aggressor (Pakistan for Kashmir and Iran or Syria for Palestine). Not only that, but both countries also have widespread abuses of human rights, and the Israeli public's general apathy about or hostility towards Palestinian self-determination is surpassed by the domestic discussion in India, where Kashmiri self-determination isn't even an issue, though pacifying Kashmir and securing the border with Pakistan is. [4] 

FREE PALESTINE FREE KASHMIR FREE PALESTINE FREE KASHMIR


For more information on Israel-India's increasing relationship, watch this video:
http://bit.ly/ijwOnz


For a more in-depth analysis of India & Israel's relationship in Occupation, read the link below:
http://bit.ly/914Bse




Footnotes:
[1] http://bit.ly/kOcxZE
[2] http://bit.ly/lQps5m 
[3] http://bit.ly/gixsV6 
[4] http://bit.ly/9AHdjT

Kashmir: Most militarized zone in the world

Srinagar, May 18 (KMS): In occupied Kashmir, veteran Kashmiri Hurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilani has said that Kashmir is the most militarized zone in the world and nothing is secure in the presence of forces in the occupied territory.

Syed Ali Gilani during his meeting with prominent social activist of India, Swami Agnivesh at his residence in Srinagar said, “killers of 118 youth in last year’s mass uprising are roaming free and even they were rewarded with promotions and awards. But youth who participated in peaceful protests are still languishing in jails.” he pointed out that Indian paramilitary forces and police were not in favour of peace as they were taking advantage of this uncertainty. “The forces are getting different allowances and looting green gold, while police is extorting money,” he added.

The veteran Hurriyet leader deplored that New Delhi was victimising the Kashmiris for raising voice for right to self-determination.

Indian Social activist, Swami Agnivesh who was in Srinagar to attend a conference also supported repeal of black law, Armed Forces Special Powers Act, and bringing to book the killers of 118 people martyred in 2010 in the occupied territory.



Source: http://bit.ly/m7IiGw

Another Day, Another Struggle

It was 2AM in this morning. As I tried to fall asleep, the attempt failed. I had too many thoughts whirling around in my head so I grabbed a pen and paper and started to write....

63 years. 63 years of longing. 63 years since you've been uprooted from your homeland, 63 years... and still waiting to go back home.

"Israel" claims it came to a land without a people for a people without a land. Palestinians though have been living in their homeland years before 1948. Plenty of photographs and videos prove this. But those aren't needed when all the proof you need is to see the hundreds of thousands Palestinian refugees who  still hold on to the keys to their homes.

"Israel" claims that the land known as Palestine is their God-given land. I say that God would condemn any action that expels hundreds of thousands from their homes without just case.

And not only that, but thousands- hundreds of thousands- being killed just because they happen to be Palestinian.

How does someone try to justify expelling so many people, killing so many people & oppressing so many people? Simple: "God gave me this land."

All someone has to do is open & read any religious book, whether its the Torah, Psalms, Bible or Qur'an and that argument can be refuted it.

It is not the land that makes anyone holy, but one's deeds.- Salman al-Farsi

There needs to be better enforcement of International Law. The UN needs to be made more effective and a few rules need to be changed. First of all, no country can be given veto power status. Everything the UN claims it stands for becomes useless if one country is given much more power than all the rest.

"Israel" cannot be shown any more favouritism. The US must stop given "Israel" $3 billion/year in aid- more than that of the whole continent of Africa.

"Israel" must stop feeding the world lies of Iran's nuclear enrichment- especially considering that its own nuclear has never been inspected by world bodies. The pot should stop calling the kettle black

"Israel" must stop repeating the same old-broken record of "we have the right to defend ourself". If it has the right to defend itself- and receiving $3B/year in aid to build checkpoints, walls, fences & an Iron Dome to fend off Hamas "home-made bombs/rockets"- then shouldn't Palestinians- who have been terrorized, oppressed, placed under a blockade & stripped of basic fundamental human rights- have the right to do the same?

"Israel" must stop attacking AID SHIPS on International waters & then later claiming that the aid activists are terrorists.

More importantly, world leaders must stop being so blind to the tryst and injustice of the Palestinians. 63 years is far too long. Silence is synonymous with betrayal and indifference to injustice.

Nakba- 63 years and still on going. The world must not let it go on for 64.

Never Forgive, Never Forget </3

Save Hasna Ali

Hasna Ali- a Yemeni mother of 3- will be hanged on May 10th, 2011 by the Iraqi government. One would assume that for someone to be given such a harsh punishment, they would have had to commit a horrendous crime. That is not the case here. Her guilt, according to the Iraqi military, is that she is the wife of a late Yemeni Mujahid (an Islamic freedom fighter) who was killed in combat after be involved in acts of resistance against American soldiers in 2007. How is this a justified punishment?

Her 3 children, Ayoub, 11, Maryam, 6, and Hamza, 3, will be orphaned if their mother is hanged.

Save Hasna from the Death Penalty: http://on.fb.me/l6W7ln (Contains more info about her biography and strife)

Please sign the petition: http://bit.ly/l7ZYIw

Please spread this to all your friends & contacts. Contact the Iraqi embassy in your country. Do whatever you can to speak out against this great injustice.

The Forgotten Holocausts

Today's date, Monday, May 2nd, 2011, marks Holocaust Remembrance Day. In Hebrew: Yom Hashoah Ve-Hagevurah. It marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (April 19-May 19, 1943). 


The Holocaust took place from 1933 when Hitler came to power until 1945 when the Allied Forces defeated Hitler and the Nazis. Between this time frame, it is believed that more than 6 million Jews have been killed. According to many, the Holocaust is the worst human genocide to have ever taken place.


The killing of a single human life is a deplorable act, regardless of race, gender, religion or on any other basis.


There have been many more Holocausts that many people are unaware of: Bosnia, Rwanda, Sudan, Palestine, Kashmir, Kurdistan, Hiroshima & Nagasaki, Iraq, Afghanistan and plenty of others.


If the world remembers one Holocaust, in exclusion to all others, then what has humanity learned about the sanctity of human life? The life of one Jew is not, and should not be, considered superior over a non-Jew. If the world remembers the Jewish Holocaust, then it cannot be blind to the many other Holocausts that have occurred.


The Holocaust should not be used as justification to label any individual who speaks out against Israeli Occupation as an Anti-Semit. Individuals who claim to be Jewish, of all people, should know and understand that using the injustice, harm & suffering experienced in WWII is not justification to do the same to the Palestinians. Rather, Jews should understand that the suffering of Palestinians is the same as their own and should speak out against the ethnic cleansing and the illegal occupation of Palestine.

"Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shall not be a bystander"- Holocaust Museum