We, the People of India, stand utterly shocked at the depravity & barbarism of the Israeli regime. The missile attack by the Israeli forces on the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza, which has killed more than a thousand innocent civilians, is more evidence of the genocidal intent of the fascist Neo-Nazi Zionist Netanyahu regime. Moreover, Israel has threatened the 1.1 Gazan population in the North with dire consequences if they do not move towards the South, even as they prepare to invade Gaza yet again. Sections of the Jewish Zionist radical leadership have further threatened the entire population if they do not move out to the Sinai desert in Egypt. The Palestinians know that once they leave their land, they will never be allowed to return back to their homeland and will be reduced to refugees.
This clearly constitutes a war crime by international law. The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,1948 states:
Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Clearly, the Israeli political & military leadership is guilty of all of the above.
The agenda is to ethnically cleanse the entire Palestinian population from the Occupied territories of Gaza, the West Bank & East Jerusalem. This is a continuation of “The Nakba” in 1948, “The Catastrophe” that befell the Palestinian nation, when Israel ethnically cleansed 7,50,000 Palestinians, constituting half of the population and reduced them to refugees.
Israel, a creation of British & US imperialism, was imposed upon historic Palestine as a European Settler Colonial Apartheid state, built on the ideology of Zionism, racism & supremacism, a supposed Chosen People, a highly racist & supremacist belief system, which the other nations would have to be subservient to. The entire ethno-religious radical extremist and violent character is there for all the world to see.
At the root cause of the current phase of the violence is the continuous series of genocidal wars over a period of 106 years, ever since the British, in 1917, issued the Balfour Declaration and decided to give away Palestine to create a Jewish homeland, at the human cost of the original people of the land. Thus the root cause is the “Occupation of Palestine by Israel”. This burning issue, right at the very centre of global geopolitics, needs to be addressed and resolved on the basis of all UN Resolutions 181(11) (1947), 242 (1967) & 338 (1973) and others, as well as other relevant dictums of International Law.
Gaza, which lies at the very epicenter of this crisis, continues to be an Open-Air-Prison-Cum-Concentration-Camp. Just as 4 lakh Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto rose up against the German Nazis in 1944, so have the 25 lakh Palestinian Gazan population against the Israeli Neo-Nazis in 2023. The Israeli siege of Gaza is also being compared to the German Nazi siege of Leningrad during WWII. The lessons of history are exceedingly clear.
The Palestinian Gazan population imprisoned for over 16 years have finally broken out of the Israeli prison. Thus, the powderkeg finally erupted on the 7th of October 2023, when the Palestinian resistance & the population said, enough is enough.
Clearly, Israel is an Apartheid State based on racial and ethno-religious inequality, affirmed by B’Tselem, the leading Israeli human rights organization, as well as Amnesty International in detailed well documented reports.
We indeed condemn any civilian loss of life, be it Palestinian or Israeli. We also condemn the killing of civilians both by the Israeli regime or by Hamas. It must be noted here that the mass murders of Palestinian civilians are on an industrial scale, especially that of women and children, and are far greater in number than that of Israeli civilians. Only since 2008 the Israelis have either killed or injured more than 1,50,000 Palestinians, of which 33,000 are children. This asymmetry must be noted, as the facts are stark and obvious.
The world sits on a precipice, even as we witness Jewish radical fanatics that are committed to destroying the Al Aqsa Masjid & the rebuilding of the Third Temple of Solomon. This is a time bomb waiting to erupt, with grave consequences for all the nations and people’s of the world.
On a daily basis, the Palestinians are subjected to, the destruction of their farms and homes, the growing Jewish Settlements that takeaway their land, the total control over their water, with their wells destroyed, the Check-Points, the Apartheid Wall all across the West Bank, the siege & inhumane blockade of Gaza, the regular murder & brutalisation of Palestinian civilians, the long history of violent provocations – all the decades of frustration and anger erupted on the 7th of October.
Certainly, war is not the solution, ending the occupation is. Thus the international community must immediately step in and call for and establish a cease fire, create a humanitarian corridor to ensure the safety of the Gazan population, and supplies of all essentials, food, water, medicines and electricity to be immediately reinstated. Shamefully, this, too, the US has vetoed in the UNSC. One of the reasons for Israeli brazeness is the political protection of the US veto, the blind support of the Western corporate media, the annual sum of $3.3 Billion & the advanced weaponary that the US provides to Israel. Thus, the US & other Western nations are clearly culpable & complicit in the Israeli war crimes.
In the context of India and our rich anti-colonial history, our rich legacy of our freedom movement from British colonialism & occupation, it was shocking to witness the outright support that PM Modi offered to Israel. This position is both ahistoric, as well as a betrayal of the ideals & principles of our Independence movement led by Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, Bhagat Singh, Maulana Azad, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Capt. Laxmi Sehgal, Yusuf Meherally, Aruna Asaf Ali, Ashfaqullah, among many other legendary leaders. We continued to stand with all the anti-colonial freedom movements, but support for the Israeli colonial settler state, is clearly in conflict with those principles.
Later, the Ministry of External Affairs corrected the gross strategic error and issued a statement in favour of a Two-State Solution, based on UN resolutions and international consensus.
All that PM Modi required to do was issue a statement along the lines that of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. But he has grievously erred. Even as we witness many nations engaging in serious dialogue and discussions, PM Modi stands sidelined, as the majority of the nations that constitute the Global South see him as a pro-Western US/UK/Israeli ally, with no further role to play. PM Modi has indeed gravely damaged India’s international standing and respect.
We are also perturbed at the Hindutva troll factories, which have now begun to export their hatred and fake news to target the Palestinian nation. The Godi media is now embedded with the Israeli army & promoting a one-sided narrative based on Israeli propaganda, but that again is their dubious role in our country as well. This is the precise reason that the Godi media lacks any sense of credibility.
This meeting demands the following:
1. An immediate ceasefire & an end to the war.
2. End the Israeli siege of Gaza where 2.5 million people reside of which 40% are children.
3. Ensure humanitarian aid, food, water, medicines, electricity, and the rebuilding of houses, hospitals, universities, schools, colleges, roads, all the civilian infrastructure that has been devastated in the indiscriminate Israeli bombings.
4. Dismantle the Apartheid Wall that imprisons 3 million Palestinians in Bantustans in the West Bank.
5. Dismantle all the Illegal Israeli Settlements across the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza District.
6. Immediately move towards a political solution based on all relevant UN resolutions and international law, thereby constituting Two States, namely Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital and Israel, peacefully co-existing side by side.
7. Set up a war crimes tribunal in the International Criminal Court (ICC), and investigate and try all those political & military leaders responsible for the deaths of civilians and other war crimes.
This is also an appeal to all Indian democratic forces to come together & unite in support of Palestine and strengthen the global solidarity movement by taking to the streets and raising our voices against this barbaric genocidal Israeli occupation.
It is only then that peace shall be achieved, a peace based on equality, justice, respect for human dignity and freedom.
Com. Prakash Reddy presided over the meeting, and the speakers included, Kumar Ketkar, MP, Rajya Sabha, Congress Party, Veteran Editor, Feroze Mithiborwala, Expert on West Asian Affairs, IPSF, Prof. K Theckedath, AIPSO, Com. Dr. Rege, Mumbai Secretary, CPM, Meraj Siddiqui, SP, State Secretary, Com. Milind Ranade, Mumbai Secretary, CPI, Com. Ajit Patil, CPI-ML (Liberation), Dr. Salim Khan, Veteran Journalist, Sayeed Khan, Educationist, Compered by Com. Shraddha Mehta.
The public meeting was held at Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh on 18th of October 2023.
ALL INDIA PEACE AND SOLIDARITY ORGANISATION (AIPSO, Mumbai) &
INDIA PALESTINE SOLIDARITY FORUM (IPSF)
For further information contact:
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