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“The victory march will continue
until the Palestinian flag flies in Jerusalem and in all of
Palestine”- Yasser Arafat.
30th March is a historic day in the Palestinian history because
this day commemorates the Land Day: The first widespread struggle
of Palestinians against the Israel. After the establishment of the
state of Israel, it was the first common struggle by the
Palestinians. Since1976 it is celebrated as the Land Day. On this
day Palestinians had organized a general strike and march from
Galilee, and the protest spread to the occupied west bank, Gaza
and refugee camps in Lebanon to condemn the Israeli plan to
confiscate the Palestinian land in order to create a Jewish
National Home. In the confrontations with the Israeli army and
police, six Palestinian were killed, about 100 wounded, and 100
arrested. Later confidential document called Koenig Memorandum
written by Yisrael Koeing (then a member of the ruling party) was
leaked in the media which recommended to “ensure the long-term
Jewish national interests” it stressed the need to "examine the
possibility of diluting existing Arab population concentration".
This year the land day was marked by Global March to Jerusalem (GMJ).
A distinguished group of 400 advisers, including Archbishop
Desmond Tutu; Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire and Swami Agnivesh,
former member of Indian Parliament promoted the GMJ. The objective
of GMJ was to call attention to continuing Judaisation of the
Palestinian land, demanding freedom for Jerusalem, its people, and
to put an end to the apartheid regime and ethnic cleansing. GMJ
had been a courageous and marvelous endeavor to encourage the
world’s conscience on Palestine. It was a first time in the World
history, people from all over the world came together against such
a powerful oppressor. It was a unique effort by the citizens of
different nations for the people of Palestine. Individuals from
different religions, regions, language, race even Jewish
organizations (like Jews for Justice for Palestinians and
Independent Jewish Voices) came out to support the campaign. GMJ
was an initiative to unite the Arabs, Asians, Europeans,
Christians, Muslims, Jews and all peace loving citizens of the
world to put an end to the Killing Machine (Israel).
Israel has proved that International
Laws are not meant for them because of their close alliance with
US as they can get away with any war crime. Israel is a living
example monarchic system of UN. Keep aside other laws they are not
even bound by International Humanitarian Laws. No need to
investigate the history to prove Israeli atrocities as Gaza was
recently under attack. On 3rd and 4th June 2012 night Israel
carried out a series of air raids hitting several areas in the
Gaza Strip. One house was struck by four missiles (1) .
Governments and Institutions are bounded by their national or
vested interests and they cannot afford Israeli rivalry. As
ex-prime minister of Israel Ariel Sharon rightly said “We, the
Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it ”.(2)
Since UN, US and other governments were tongue-tied subsequently
ordinary citizens took charge to lend a hand to Jerusalem and to
demonstrate to the Israel that peace loving people of the world
are against it.
All over the world different initiatives have been taken by civil
societies and public in general against the Israeli state. The GMJ
marched as close to the Jerusalem as they could, at the border of
Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, at the checkpoint of Gaza and in the
west bank, also in 32 countries and 54 cities at the Israeli
embassies around the world. It was the first time in history that
so many people gathered around the Palestine. All the protests
were peaceful, keeping in mind Israel’s atrocious reaction on Al
Nakba day 2011, when 13 refugees were killed.
GMJ was initiated by Asian People’s Solidarity for Palestine (APSP);
nearly 150 representatives from 14 Asian countries namely,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan,
Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Turkey
and Palestine participated in the convoy. 37 Indian delegates
represented the vast diversity of the country and participated in
the caravan. The caravan left on 9th March 2012 after a send-off
ceremony at Raj Ghat by Zuhair Hamadallah Zaid, Minister/Deputy
Chief of Mission (Palestinian Embassy, Delhi) and Ram Vilas Paswan.
Indian delegates joined the Pakistani, Indonesian, Filipinos and
Malaysian delegation in Karachi.
Caravan faced several difficulties in terms of the Asian land
route because of the increasing political intricacy in Syria.
Therefore the Asian convoys detoured Syria which generated several
problems in terms of the land route and the finance. Caravan
covered nearly 15000 kms of distance by bus and ferry in 25 days
and more than 30 programs took place in 20 cities of 3 countries
in which 10,000 people participated.
No doubt this march was interesting with lot of learning
experience but it was not that painless and entertaining as it
seemed. Caravan dealt with several troubles ranging from visa
problems to lack of sleep and harsh weather. The major problem
which caravan confronted with was the detention of 37 Indian, 3
Filipinos and 1 Iraqi delegate for 36 hours in a 426-seater small
ship on 28th March at the Beirut port after travelling for more
than 10 hours from Tusucu, Turkey. Nobody was allowed to step out
from the ship by immigration authorities. There was no supply of
drinking water, food and proper sanitation. The food which
delegates and ship’s kitchen was carrying got finished. After
protesting, authorities provided some food and drinking water and
the next day Indian Embassy delivered some fresh food. Lebanese
immigration authorities collected all the passports and were not
giving any information about the visa procedure. While the Caravan
was leaving Turkey for Lebanon, GMJ media group got the
information on 23rd March that “Israel issued a warning to the
nearby Arab states (Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan , Hamas’ in the
West Bank and to the Palestinian authority) if they allowed the
global march to take place next Friday 30th March. Israel also
stated that if anyone neared their borders, they would be accused
of trespassing .(3)” But this news did not deter the morale of the
delegates.
Indonesian delegates got their visas after their embassy’s
intervention. Iranians, Malaysian and Turkish do not need visa to
enter in Lebanon. It was assured that delegates would be issued
visa on arrival as per norm. But Indians couldn’t get visas until
the intervention of Indian Embassy.
Several political leaders intervened in the matter. N. Kiran K.
Reddy, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh asked the State Congress
Members of Parliament to discuss the issue in Rajya Sabha.
Afterwards, MPs of Telugu Desam Party demanded India’s
intervention on the issue in Lok Sabha. Mani Shankar Aiyar,
Congress MP called the Indian ambassador Ravi Thapar in Lebanon.
Somehow Indian government and Ambassador were able to get the visa
for Iraqi and Filipinos along with Indians at 12:30 am on 30th
March. At last, the delegates from Europe and Asia gathered at the
La Opera Suites in Beirut to give the loud and energetic welcome
to the Indian, Iraqi and Filipino delegates. It was a happy
reunion.
Eventually, on 30th March morning Caravan joined the hundred of
Palestinian refugees and Lebanese gathered for demonstration at
Al-Shqeif Castle in Southern Lebanon, overlooking the borders with
Palestine. People were very enthusiastic and vigorous. Everybody
was waving the Palestinian flag, showing photos of their martyrs
and wearing Arafat’s Kufiyyah. Old women were crying and hugging
us as if we were the warriors, young ladies wanted us to click
photos with them and children were trying to touch us. The
atmosphere was very moving and poignant. To avoid occurrence of
violence, Lebanese and Israeli security were present on both sides
of the border. Highlights of the demonstration were the children
who sung Palestinian patriotic songs and four Rabbis from anti
Zionist group called Neturei Karta like Yisroel David Weiss said
“We want the world to know that the Jewish religion does not
accept the occupation and the oppression of the Palestinian
people. It is against the Torah, the Jewish teaching. It is
against the views of Jews around the world who are true to the
Torah.” Feroze Mithiborwala from India represented the Asian
Caravan.
Similar demonstrations also took place in Syria, Jordon and
Palestine on the same day. In Palestine, a 20 years old boy was
killed in Beit Hanun by Israeli troops and more than 100
protesters were injured at Qalandiya checkpoint during the
protest. The march successfully came to an end and was followed up
by felicitation programmes in several participating countries
including cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow and Jaipur in India.
No doubt that Indian Embassy and political leaders helped the
delegation during its hard times. But from the beginning it was
very evident that Indian delegation was not as supported by the
Indian government as it should have been because Indo-Israel ties
are getting stronger. India has forgotten the Gandhi’s statement
“Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England
belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and
inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs.”
Our Caravan was a small effort to show Gandhi’s stand on Palestine
to the Israel. In the entire Caravan, Indian delegation was the
only delegation representing vast diversities. All over the world
Palestine issue is considered as a Muslim issue but people were
impressed to see that Hindus, Atheists and Seculars are also
pro-Palestine. Indian delegation presented a good image of Indian
Unity in Diversity but only the wearer knows where the shoe
pinches. Now I am revealing the hard realities, why India took a
180 degree turn on Palestine matter; how Israel is sowing seeds of
hatred between Hindus and Muslims and how the celebrated slogan
unity in diversity has been continuously bombarded with Hindutva’s
one nation ideology.
Needless to say that since the year 1948, India is playing a game
with Palestine, Indian Muslims and its national unity. In 1988
(and in Sept 2011 as well) India was the first non-Arab country to
support Palestinian bid for statehood at the UN. Not only this,
India also gifted a piece of land to establish the Palestinian
Embassy in Delhi in 1980. At the same time it was also carrying
out Pro-Israeli policies from 1950s.
In the beginning, India was keeping Israel at bay and relationship
with Palestine was flourishing because of the following reasons:
it wanted to secure an access to Arab oil; it relied on money
being sent back by Indian migrants working in Arab during the
economic crisis in 90s; it wanted to maintain a strong relation
with Muslim world so that they would not side Pakistan on Kashmir
matter; it had a good relation with the erstwhile American enemy
i.e. USSR; and because Israel was a creation of Westerners
especially Britain. Automatically it also helped Indian government
to gain the trust of Muslim minority. These reasons clogged the
open Indo-Israel relations from 1948 to 1992.
Another position from which India was backing Palestine was the
fact that its greatest enemy also established its state on the
basis of religion and Israel was following its footstep. But
contrary to this, in 1971 war with Pakistan, India sought for
Israel’s secret weaponry aid which was materialized by Mossad who
was maintaining secret relation of exchanging military and
intelligence without risking economics and political boycotts and
protests by Arab world and Indian Muslims, respectively.
In 1992 India formally established the diplomatic relation with
Israel by sacrificing the unity and harmony of the nation. Itzhak
Gerberg argues (4) that “Both countries (India and Israel) have
adopted similar positions on arms control issues and Islamic
radicalism (5). No doubt, particularly in dealing with minorities
as they have adopted similar strategies. First and foremost
similarity is calling them terrorists. One can easily state that
India has provided a testing ground to Israel to experiment their
bigger agendas like demolition of Masjid-e-Aqsa. By some scholars
destruction of Babri Masjid in 1992 was viewed as the trial of
demolition of Masjid-e-Aqsa, but no one paid any attention to it
as this type of news were published in Urdu media. Israel is
repeating its heinous crime of so called “state cleansing” in
alliance with some Indian fanatical organization. The way Israel
hauled Palestinians from their houses and set them on fire, killed
women, children and elderly and same pogrom was repeated in
Gujarat in 2002.
Their alliance is based on the ideology of ‘Hindutva Nation’ just
like the Zionist concept of ‘Jewish Nation’. Bajrang Dal, Vishva
Hindu Parishad and Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) are close allies of
Israel because they both see Islam as their mutual enemy (6) . 12
years ago, an article was published in Indian Express written by
Sharad Gupta stating that “Desi Mossad is getting ready at Bajrang
Dal’s Ayodhya camp. In that article, when an activist was asked
what he did at the camp, he said “I am from the secret service of
Bajrang Dal. Israel's Mossad is my inspiration. I can't tell you
more”(7) . Now, Bajrang Dal has opened a training camp at the
Saraswati Bal Mandir School in West Delhi also. On 19th March
2012, The Hindu reported that Bajrang Dal activists allegedly
bullying Christian Fraternity in South Delhi Slum.
Narasimha Rao’s led Congress party government with Manmohan
Singh, then the Finance Minister granted full diplomatic relation
to Israel to commence the economic reforms and liberalization,
which demanded the changes in foreign policy. Although it was
during the BJP rule, Indo-Israel relations reached to its peak.
There are people present in Congress and other parties who shares
and supports the Hindutva ideology, but Congress always plays on a
safe side. On the other hand Right Wing is very open about it.
Another trick of Israel which is being played here is the negative
portrayal of Muslims in media. Mossad has a full fledge department
called ‘LAP (Lohamah Psichlogit)’ (8) to carry out this task of
psychological warfare. Under the banner of Exchange of Counter
Terrorism Strategies, this is also one of the important skills
India is learning. India’s strong anti Muslim attitude has failed
to acknowledge the danger posed by Hindu fundamentalists. Media
loudly screams on its first page that “Muslim terrorist arrested”.
But not a single newspaper called Seemananada a ‘Hindu Terrorist’
or mentioned violence against Christians and Muslims as ‘Hindu
Terrorism’. Media intentionally forgets that terrorist is a
terrorist, neither a Muslim nor a Hindu.
Now the question arises, why Israel chooses India for all its
dreadful activities, it could have chosen western countries which
supported (and still supporting) them to establish and expand an
illegitimate state. Answer is: apart from strategic and
geo-political reasons, one of the vital factor is that no matter
how much galaxy of western countries supports Israel in
establishing the Jewish state, but Israel is very conscious that
western countries has their own vested interests in creation of
non-Muslim country at the centre of West Asia. Another factor is,
they have not forgotten the hostility and discrimination they
faced of being Semitic origin in the western land.
On the other hand, India is the only country where Jews not only
enjoyed all equal rights but dominated the commercial life from
the beginning and never known to anti-Semitism. This was the
fabric of real India; tolerance, cooperation, co-existence and
harmony which is now at stake. Jews and Muslim communities lived
together peacefully in the same colonies for years. Let alone the
present times, even they never confronted with any biasness at the
time of Mughals. India is India because of its diversity,
different religions, languages, customs, and traditions. As
vegetables and fruits keep their identity distinctive, at the same
time gets mixed into one bowl and makes a good salad. Just like
that India cannot be India by following the ideology of Hindutva.
On the Indian flag, if Green would be over-painted by Saffron then
it would look like a stain.
It is ridiculous that at international platform lunatic
organizations and individuals display themselves as the citizens
of the most diverse and tolerant country but at the same time they
are trying to paint all India in one color. Indian unity and
harmony is on the edge of devastation because of the alliance of
Israel and extremist organizations. To save India from Israel is
as essential as to save India from neighboring terrorist
organization’s infiltration.
1. http://warisacrime.org/content/israeli-attack-gaza-june-3-4-2012
2. Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, October 3, 2001, to
Shimon Peres, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio.
3. http://www.aljazeerah.info/News/2012/March/24%20n/March%2030,%202012,%20The%
20Global%20March%20to%20Jerusalem%20for%20Freedom%20from%20Zionist%
20Israeli%20Occupation.htm
4. Itzhak Gerberg is a former Consul-General of the State of
Israel in Bombay (Mumbai) and former Ambassador to Zimbabwe. He is
presently the Ambassador of Israel to Georgia. He holds a PhD in
International Politics from the University of South Africa, and
his doctoral research focused on India-Israel relations. He was an
instructor at the Israel National Defense College (INDC).
5. Gerberg, Itzhak, India-Israel Relations: Strategic Interests,
Politics and Diplomatic Pragmatism, Israel National Defense
College, IDF, University of Haifa, Israel, Pub. Feb 2010.pp. 54
6. As stated by Gerberg, Itzhak in India-Israel Relations:
Strategic Interests, Politics and Diplomatic Pragmatism, Israel
National Defense College, IDF, University of Haifa, Israel, Pub.
Feb 2010
7. Accessed on 19th June 2012 http://www.expressindia.com/news/ie/daily/20000630/ifr30005.html
8. http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/mossad.html
Iman Tyagi is Advocacy and Communication Officer of Social Watch
India and was One of the participants of Global March to Jerusalem
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