Boycott Israeli Products/Companies in India - End Occupation of Palestine | Kobad Ghandy

Israel has a huge manufacturing base in India together with massive import/export trade. India is one of Israel’s largest trading partners. We need to call on the people of our country to boycott all Israeli products and companies to lend support to the Palestinians and counter Zionist fascism.

The following are some products either owned by Israel or with a strong Israeli connection which should be boycotted: Pepsico, Coca Cola, Sprite, Milo, Oral B, Energiser, Maggie, Kit Kat, Barbie, Hewlett Packard, Berger King, McDonalds, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Nokia, Motorola, Colgate Palmolive, Carrefour, Nike, Gillette, IBM, L’Ordeal, Timberton, intel, Citibank, Ford, Chevrolet, CNN ……. [1]

. Some of their companies operating in India that should be thrown out are:
1) WaterGen, an Israeli company, specializes in manufacturing equipment that extracts drinking water from the air, known as Atmospheric Water Generators. 2) Teva, the largest Israeli business in India, is part of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. 3) Dan Hotels Bengaluru, a luxury hotel chain 4) Avgol Nonwovens, a market leader in the production of high-performance spin melt nonwoven fabric solutions, has its manufacturing facility in Bhopal 5) NeoLync, a PLI (Production Linked Incentive) for large-scale electronics manufacturing, 6) Rivulis, a pioneer in micro-irrigation technologies globally, is a top supplier of drip irrigation systems - Rivulis Irrigation India Pvt. Ltd.

Then there are others like Ecoppia, Naa’n Dan Jain, Aqwise, Polemix, Eli Hajaj, Alumayer, Plasson, Huliot, Metzerplas, IDE, and Netafim, among others.

The following are Indian companies in the business of supplying arms-related hardware to Israel and so bear the mark of responsibility for the deaths, among others, of thousands of children:

Adani Group; ADTL– Elbit; Reliance Defense; Mahindra Defense; Mahindra Shachaf; Ashok Leyland – Elbit; TCS – Project Nimbus; TATA – IAI HELA sys; Infosys Labs;Wipro Givon; L&T; Kalyani Rafael KRAS; Bharath Forge – Elbit – IAI; Punj Lloyd – IWI; BEL – IAI; HAL – IAI; Premier Explosives – IAI; Garuda Aerospace – Elbit; Cyient – Bluebird; Dynamatic Tech - IAI; Taneja TAAL – IAI Golan; Tonbo Imaging; Bharath Dynamics; DCX – IAI; HBL Power Sys; Astra Microwave – Rafael; Rangsons Schuster Tech; Hajaj–Defsys; Garware Wall Ropes - Aero T.

India is also the largest importer of weapons from Israel, and accounts for 46% of Israel’s overall weapons exports. In the last five years India imported $ 1.2 bn of arms from Israel, this was greater than the next five biggest importers put together of Azerbaijan, Philippines, US, Vietnam and Canada, whose cumulative total was $ 1.1 bn over the past five years.

Indian people and its governments at both the central and state-level needs to boycott all Israeli products and not allow their companies or those connected to them (foreign of Indian) to operate on Indian soil. Zionism, octopus-like, have their tentacles far and wide, and it is pointless talking against it unless concrete steps are taken by the citizens and governments of our countries/state governments to counter it. The people of India need to pressurise the centre and state governments to stop licences to these companies and should mobilise the masses to boycott Israeli products.

With this call to action let us turn to the issue itself and the reason behind this call:.

The European races and their rulers are at it again – this time led by the US and British (backed by most European rulers) using their stooge the Zionists to exterminate an entire people. This genocide of a people is not the first – they did it to the indigenous populations of both North and South America, Australia & New Zealand, South Africa, and in countries like India, colonial rule took a minimum of 30 million lives (just famines and massacres). They use local elites to promote their policies of extermination, who fall prey to their enticements, flattery and petty gifts. Earlier exterminations were of ‘Indians’, aboriginaris, blacks, and now it could be Muslims or anyone not prone to licking their feet. How dare the Palestinians stand up for their rights, nay existence.

Kick them in their face and we are expected to say ‘ji hazoor, a little more’, or get termed a terrorist and exterminated. And if one doesn’t bow to their dictates, let alone strike back or assert one’s self-respect, ‘toba, toba’ – you are asking for it. I still cannot forget the face of the judge in the London Court when, half a century back, rather than cow before them, I made a mere statement from the witness box : “of how the British rulers had looted our country and turned one of the richest nations in the world to the poorest, and that we will no longer sit quiet and tolerate their racism today” – He first turned pink, then red, then he yelled ‘lock him up immediately, a dangerous criminal cannot be left out for a day, I will announce my judgement after two days’. While the other two (whites) on trial were dealt with differently, I was marched off to prison by racist cops.

So long as one is servile, one is tolerated, even pampered; but if one dares raise one’s (or nation’s) voice for one’s self-respect, their blood-filled fangs are out. That is why Brahminism is so loved by all foreign (and local) robbers – as it (the ideology) induces us to bow before our rulers/powerful, while riding rough-shod over the weak and oppressed. Brahminism and Zionism have many a similarity.

And on this occasion the Palestinians made more than a mere statement of assertion of their self-respect. One can imagine the Zionist/Imperialist wrath when on Oct 7th 2023 Hamas from the Gaza Strip, in a lightning strike, killed 1,200 Israelis and took over 230 hostages. The attack shocked the world as also the Israelis. No one dreamt that a nationality that has been stabbed in the back by even their own Arab rulers, for nearly a century, and have earlier fought futile battles with rocks and stones (idealised as the intifada) could imagine they would so effectively hit the most sophisticated war machine in the world with rockets and bombs.

First the entire western media and their faithfuls in the third world made out, with fake visuals, of scenes of brutality against women and even children. Photos of 40 children beheaded and women raped, gave legitimacy to the Israeli retaliation which had in the two months after the attack, taken the lives of some 20,000 Palestinians in the Gaza, (of which over 6,000 were children), injured over 50,000 and displaced nearly 2 million people, over 80% of the population. On average Israeli attacks have killed 320 people every day in Gaza since Oct 7th in retaliation, with western countries and even India, applauding from the sidelines.

In fact, it was none other than Biden himself who repeated the false story of the Hamas attack time and again to justify US support to Israeli genocide in Gaza. The same US fascists have exterminated lakhs in Central America, Indo-China and even countries like Chile and other Latina American countries, Indonesia, etc. Ironically the Biden administration has brought back the butcher of the El Salvador, Guatemala and numerous other Central American countries, Elliot Abrams, as Special Representative in the State Dept. Though serving under extreme right-wing Republicans earlier, he fits neatly into the ‘Democratic’ govt of Biden.

Like the lie of the weapons of mass destruction regarding Iraq, justifying the US massacre; here too exaggerations gave legitimacy for the Israeli genocide in Gaza. But, the truth of the Hamas attack is out as reported by the journalist, George Galloway:

“The foul allegations of rape have been dropped by the Israeli government. The forty beheaded babies have been downscaled to one dead baby, not beheaded, and killed by persons unknown. Two thirds of Israelis killed on Oct 7th were military personnel. The killers of the remaining one third are definitively revealed to have been, in part, the Israeli armed forces themselves. Those with influence who spread the propaganda to the contrary stand exposed as War Criminals and now much blood stains their character for ever. It is a spot which will not out.”  [2]

Yet, even today, the lie continues to be repeated in Gobellian style of supposed civilians being the main victim of the Hamas attack.

Yet it is the massive peoples’ support for the Palestinians from these very same countries as also the resilient resistance of the Hamas that is forcing a new agenda on the world. Later, it has been accepted that the media handouts of the first attack were all false and part of a media blitzkrieg by the Zionists to justify their vengeful attack as ‘retaliation’. The Zionists have never sought legitimacy, they have been brazen given the blind support from the US/UK rulers and the Jewish billionaire club.

Two days after the Hamas attack, on Oct 9th,, Israel imposed a blockade the type of which no country has ever witnessed virtually choking Gaza’s 2.3 million people, including women and children, and devastating large swathes of Gaza with 10,000 sorties of bombing, reducing the area to rubble. A "total blockade” stopped the entry of food, water, medicine, fuel and electricity.

Israel has said that the Gaza blockade would not be lifted until the hostages, who were abducted by Hamas, are safely returned to their homes. Hamas had announced that it would release all Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of all Palestinian prisoners by Israel. This Israel has refused. Later Hamas offered the release of 50 hostages to 100 Palestinian prisoners. Even to this there has been little response and the situation has reached a stalemate.

In fact, the Hamas Oct 7 attack, is not aggression, but comes as a retaliation against the inhumanities and injustices faced by the Palestinians over decades by the British/US axis and their client state, Israel and the Zionists. It was in fact an action of self-defence in response to decades of atrocities against them as we shall see later. While the US and other western imperialists and their hangers on in India (and elsewhere) repeats ad nauseum that Israel has the right to self-defence, but denies the same right to the Palestinians.

In this article we shall first see who are the Zionists and their history. Then we shall see the history of the Palestinian cause, particularly since WWI. Next, we shall view India’s approach to the issue/conflict. Finally, we shall recount the worldwide protests in support of the Palestinians and the path towards a solution.

The Zionists

Modern Israel has its origins in the Zionist movement, established in the late 19th century by Jews in the Russian Empire. In 1896, Jewish-Austrian journalist Theodor Herzl published an influential political pamphlet called The Jewish State, which argued that the establishment of a Jewish state as the only way of protecting Jews from anti-Semitism. Herzl became the leader of Zionism, convening the first Zionist Congress in Switzerland in 1897.

Zionism is a movement to create a Jewish nation in Israel. The name comes from the word “Zion,” which is a Hebrew term that refers to Jerusalem.

Throughout history, Jews have considered certain areas in Israel sacred—as do Christians and Muslims. Theodor Herzl advocated a Jewish state in Palestine. After World War I the movement picked up momentum with the issuing of the Balfour Declaration (a letter to Rothschild - Jew). At British behest the Jewish population in Palestine increased from 90,000 in 1914 to 238,000 in 1933. The Arab people resisted the Zionist influx, but the British instigated Jews from all over to flock to the Israel region (like even in Iraq they were provoked thus). Zionism achieved its goal with the creation of Israel in 1948. The British rulers celebrated, the then UN gave its stamp of approval!

The main promoters of Zionism are the billionaire Jews of the world led by the Rothschild (said to have a wealth of $ 20 trillion) and Rockefeller ($ 340 billion) families – the world’s richest two individuals. Not only these we have the likes of George Soros and other the top billionaires of the world. Ironically both Rothschild and Rockefeller are not listed in the billionaire club, nor Soros! According to the Forbes 2022 report of the billionaires of the world, the Jews comprise 10 of the top 50 billionaires, which includes the Google founders as also Mark Zukerberg (Facebook). In addition, the major financiers of the world like Goldman Sachs are also Jews. Israel’s 71 billionaires are themselves thought to collectively be worth some $ 380 billion in 2021.

Given the small size of their population the Zionists wield excessive power in the world. According to a Pew Research data for 2020, Judaism was estimated to have 14.7 million followers worldwide, which is just over one-tenth of the population of West Bengal and far less than the population of Delhi (which is 21 million).

Yet it is these billionaire Jews who dominate the world and are behind the Zionist project in Israel and it is they who are defacto responsible for the continuing atrocities on Palestinians. They are the real criminals whose face are the fascist rulers of Israel. As it is, it is they who call the shots. It is not surprising that the US gifts Israel $3.8 billion each year for its existence and survival, and it is US bombs and guns that are murdering the Palestinians today. Just one word from the US could reign in the terror that has been taking place in Palestine for the past 45 days.

Forget reigning in the occupation things are only going from bad to worse. On Nov 18th it was reported, that over and above the blockade of Gaza, a communication blackout has been imposed since the past two days according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees who said that this “largely cuts off Gaza’s 2.3 million population from one another and the outside world” “an extended blackout means an` extended suspension of humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip”. [3]

But all Jews are not Zionists. There is a distinction between the two as brought out in the article Exploring the difference between Judaism and Zionism by Nasif Tanjim in the Nov 7th 2023 issue of Panorama [4]. In this he says: “Judaism is a religion and cultural identity that has evolved over millennia, while Zionism is a political ideology centred on the establishment and preservation of a Jewish state in Israel. Following the establishment of Israel, Zionism became an ideology that continues to support the development and protection of the State of Israel

Zionism, at its core, can be understood as a manifestation of Jewish nationalism and is more taking on a fascist tone. Zionism is characterised by its exclusive emphasis on Israel as the designated homeland for the Jewish people. In contrast, Judaism is an inclusive identity, with Jews living in many countries and embracing a variety of practices and beliefs.

There was no justification for Jews to have a separate country just because they faced antisemitism by the rulers of these same countries, particularly the then British rulers. The question was for these same rulers to stop promoting antisemitism and if at all the British and US desired to give the Jews a separate country why in Palestinian and not their own?

Short History of Palestine

Palestine has been the playing field of the imperialists, particularly the British and US who floated the Zionist state in Palestinian territory, with most of the reactionary Arab states playing a dubious role. The victims have been the Palestine people. It has been a continuous state of war and oppression with the US/British outpost, Israel. There are extensive documented details of this history; here we shall give only a summary.

Ironically the British rulers and church have the longest history of antisemitism and it is they who, rather than keep Jews or accept those hounded out of East Europe and Russia, created the Zionist project on Palestinian land, handed over to them by the League of Nations.

Antisemitism has been present in Great Britain for almost a thousand years of recorded history. In the twelfth century, Catholic medieval Britain was a persecutory society, particularly when it came to Jews.

Britain was not only the first country in medieval Europe to expel Jews but also one of the last to take them back. Also, British literature has many examples of stereotypical depictions of Jews and writings of Dickens, HG Wells, Galsworthy and T S Eliot have been seen as flawed and guilty of racist bias. However, we also have complex portraits such as those of Shylock, who is seen sympathetically in the play Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare.

And inspite of having such a notorious record it was primarily the British rulers who created the present mess in the middle east by setting up the Zionist project in Palestine. But then, the British have played this weapon of divide and rule wherever they went creating havoc and mayhem everywhere.
First, a brief chronology of the Palestinian events post World War I which will help give better insight into the issue:

1916: Britian and France secretly sign the Sykes Picot Agreement to divide the huge land mass of the Ottoman Empire between them. This meeting took place in the presence of the Tsar of Russia. But after the Russian Revolution the secrecy was blown by Lenin who exposed it. In this agreement, there is no thought, let alone mention, of a Jewish state.

1917: British troops capture Jerusalem from the Ottomans. It was during WWI that knowledge of huge oil reserves existed in Arabia. This probably encouraged the major imperial powers to set up their outpost in the region.

During World War I New Zealand mining engineer, Major Frank Holmes. had been to Gallipoli and then Ethiopia, where he first heard rumours of the oil seeps of the Persian Gulf region. He was convinced that much oil would be found throughout the region. After the war, Holmes helped to set up the Eastern and General Syndicate Ltd in order, among other things, to seek oil concessions in the region. And so began the Oil Rush.

Nov 2 1917: Balfour Declaration (British Minister’s secret letter to Rothschilds) declares it is in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people. Strange that one year earlier this was not even on the agenda; what changed to suddenly consider the Zionist project. Not surprisingly the Rothschilds had huge interests in oil. In 1907, the Rothschilds subsidized and then established control over many oil companies through the Russian-Asian Bank. The Rothschild brothers, co-owners of the Rothschild Brothers Banking House in Paris, began taking an interest in Russian oil fields in the late 1870s. The brothers chose to focus mainly on the foreign market and by the end of the 1880s had already become the leading exporters of Russian kerosene. They, later, sought expansion of their oil interests in the Arab world.

1922: League of Nations places Palestine, amongst other Ottoman territories, under the administration of the British. Over the next 15 years the British encouraged thousands of Jews to settle in Palestine.

With the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire following World War I, the victorious European states divided many of its component regions into newly created states under League of Nations Mandates according to deals that had been struck with other interested parties. In West Asia, Syria (including the Ottoman autonomous Christian Lebanon and the surrounding areas that became the Republic of Lebanon) came under French control, while Mesopotamia and Palestine were allotted to the British. In 1917 the British Government, as already mentioned, issued the Balfour Declaration which declared British support for the creation in Palestine of a "national home for the Jewish people". And with this started all the problems of the Palestinian people.

Through the 1920s and 1930s there was much turmoil in the Arab world as the imperialists sought to settle Jews on Palestinian land. Besides the Hitler pogroms pushed many Jews out of the country; as no other country was prepared to receive them, most landed up in Palestine.

1936: Palestinian Arabs launch an uprising against the British and its support for Jewish settler colonialism, popularly called the Arab Revolt. The British crushed the revolt in 1939.

Feb 1947: the UK turns the Palestine problem over to the UN. With more soldiers there, than on the Indian subcontinent and increasing British casualties, the UK wanted to run away. Conveniently, the British gave the job to the UN to implement their imperial project of Israel.

Nov 1947: The UN, through Resolution 181 (B), playing the British/US card, proposes terminating the Mandate for Palestine and recommends creation of two independent states - Palestinian Arab and Jewish, with Jerusalem placed under international control

On May 14, 1948, in Tel Aviv, Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion arbitrarily proclaims the State of Israel. At midnight the British walk out and the State of Israel comes into being. The UN is nowhere to be seen and their resolutions for twin states and Jerusalem is conveniently ignored. So, its very establishment is illegitimate. Yet the United States grants de facto recognition to the State of Israel, eleven minutes after it comes into existence, becoming the first country to recognize the Jewish state. The then Soviet Union strangely grants de jure recognition to the State of Israel on May 17th followed by a number of small countries close to the US. Even the Soviet Union did not raise the question of the UN resolution while giving recognition nor demand as to why it had been carved out of Palestinian land and not anywhere else in the world – the Soviet Union had a huge land mass and the bulk of the Jews were migrants from its region. Soviet support was due to a misreading of Zionism, thinking that Great Britain was also hated by Jewish settlers. In 1946, Zionist militants bombed Jerusalem’s King David Hotel, where the British administration was housed, killing 91 people. The hotel was the site of the central offices of the British Mandatory authorities of Palestine, principally the Secretariat of the Government of Palestine and the Headquarters of the British Armed Forces in Palestine and Transjordan. While it was the Labour Party that was in power, the earlier PM, Winston Churchill was openly pro-Zionist. This gave Stalin the wrong impression that the Zionists were anti British, while it was evident that it was primarily the British (as also the US) who were responsible for the State of Israel.

Following the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948, the Arab League decided to intervene on behalf of Palestinian Arabs, marching their forces into former British Palestine, beginning the main phase of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The overall fighting, leading to around 15,000 casualties, resulted in a cease-fire and armistice agreements of 1949, with Israel holding much of the former Mandate territory, Jordan occupying and later annexing the West Bank and Egypt taking over the Gaza Strip. Later, Israel gained military control of the West Bank from Jordan and the Gaza Strip from Egypt. Palestine was defacto under Israeli occupation with the world, including the then Soviet Union, quietly looking on. In addition to the diplomatic support, arms from Czechoslovakia, part of the Soviet bloc, were crucial to Israel in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

1948, May 15: The day commemorates the Nakba or “catastrophe” referring to the large=scale displacement (over 7 lakhs) of Palestinians following the Arab-Israel war. More than half the people of Gaza lost their homes. The foundational events of the Nakba took place during and shortly after the 1948 Palestine war: with 78% of Mandatory Palestine being declared as Israel, the expulsion and flight of 700,000 Palestinians, the related depopulation and destruction of over 500 Palestinian villages by Zionist militias (and later the Israeli army), the denial of the Palestinian right of return, the creation of permanent Palestinian refugees, and the "shattering of Palestinian society".

At the same time, a significant proportion of those Palestinians who remained in Israel became internally displaced. In 1950, UNRWA estimated that 46,000 of the 156,000 Palestinians who remained inside the borders demarcated as Israel by the 1949 Armistice Agreements were internally displaced refugees. As of 2003, some 274,000 Arab citizens of Israel – or one in four in Israel – were internally displaced from the events of 1948. Yet the Soviet Union continued to grant recognition.

The 1948 war ended with Israeli forces controlling approximately 78 percent of historical Palestine. The remaining 22 percent fell under the administration of Egypt and Jordan. In 1967, Israel absorbed the whole of historical Palestine, as well as additional territory from Egypt and Syria. By the end of the 6-day war Israel gained territory that was three and a half times its size.

1964: The PLO formed. The first Arab summit, attended by 14 member states, including Palestine, held in Egypt. Al-Ard, a Palestinian political movement made up of Arab citizens of Israel, was outlawed.

June 5–10, 1967: The Six Day War and its aftermath. It was the third of the Arab-Israeli wars. Israel’s decisive victory included the capture of the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip, West Bank, Old City of Jerusalem, and Golan Heights; the status of these territories subsequently became a major point of contention in the Arab-Israeli conflict. After Israel had ruthlessly destroyed all the Arab forces the UN Security Council conveniently called for a cease-fire on June 7 that was immediately accepted by Israel and Jordan followed by the other Arab countries whose losses in the conflict were disastrous. Egypt’s casualties numbered more than 11,000, with 6,000 for Jordan and 1,000 for Syria, compared with only 700 for Israel. The Arab armies also suffered crippling losses of weaponry and equipment.

Months after the war, in November, the United Nations passed UN Resolution 242, which called for Israel’s withdrawal from the territories it had captured in the war in exchange for a lasting peace. That resolution became the basis for diplomatic efforts between Israel and its neighbours, including the Camp David Accords with Egypt; and the push for a two-state solution with the Palestinians. But peace was evasive with the Zionists continuously flexing their muscle, backed by the major imperialist powers and the UN. The UN played a dubious role throughout defacto giving recognition to all Israeli conquests.

Oct 3 1973: Another Arab-Israeli war, known as the Yom Kippur War, is fought when Egypt and Syria attempt to retake the Israeli-occupied Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights. Cold War tensions spike as the Soviet Union aids Egypt and Syria and the United States aids Israel. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries begins an oil embargo on countries that support Israel, and the price of oil skyrockets. The fighting ends after a UN-sponsored cease-fire (negotiated by the United States and the Soviet Union) takes hold.

Sept 1 1978: The US-brokered Camp David Accord. Israel and Egypt sign the Camp David Accords, which establish a basis for a peace treaty between the two countries. The accords also commit the Israeli and Egyptian governments, along with other parties, to negotiate the disposition of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This, without Palestinian participation!!!!

 March 26 1979: Egypt and Israel sign a peace treaty, the first between Israel and one of its Arab neighbours. The treaty commits Israel to withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula and evacuate its settlements there. The termination of the state of war between Egypt and Israel leads to the normalization of diplomatic and commercial relations between the two countries.

1982: In typical Zionist treachery, Israel pulls out of Sinai but the West Bank remains occupied. The UN and big powers look on!

1987: The first Intifada (shaking off) erupts in Gaza’s refugee camps in the Occupied Territories. Some 400 refugees are killed and tens of thousands injured by the Israeli army. Over the next six years, roughly 200 Israelis and 1,300 Palestinians are killed.

1988: PLO issued a statement from its Algerian exile, proclaiming the establishment of an independent Palestinian State. The PLO accepted the UN partition plan, indirectly accepting Israel’s right to exist. But Israel refuses to hand over the Occupied Territories to Palestine. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian imam, set up Hamas as an off shoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. In its charter, Hamas calls for the “destruction of Israel”. In 2006 it drops the call.

1993: The first Intifada ends with the signing of the Oslo Accords between Arafat and Israel’s Yizhak Rabin to create an independent Palestine in the Occupied Territories. Israel and the PLO agree to the creation of the Palestinian Authority to temporarily administer the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Israel also agrees to begin withdrawing from parts of the West Bank, though large swaths of land and Israeli settlements remain under the Israeli military’s exclusive control. The Oslo Accords envisioned a peace agreement by 1999.

1995: Rabin assassinated by right-wing Israeli extremists. More attempts at peace between Israel and Arabs.

July 2000: The Camp David Summit hosted by Bill Clinton between Israel and Palestinians. Inconclusive and no agreement

Sept 2000: The US calls for peace, but Ariel Sharon, the Israeli opposition leader, provocatively visits Haram al-Sharif, the holiest Islamic shrine in Palestine. The violent confrontations that follow, sparks the Second Intifada, which spills into Israel.

2002: Israel starts constructing the controversial separation wall around the West Bank. It’s been 15 years since the International Court of Justice said Israel’s building of a barrier in the occupied Palestinian territory was illegal - demanding the construction stop immediately and the state pay reparations to those affected. A decade and a half on from the request, delivered on 9 July 2004, the wall is still standing. It is more than 700km long (440 miles), is as tall as 8 metres (26ft) in places, 3 metres thick (10ft) and sometimes cuts 18 miles into land Palestinians call home. It is controversial because in places it cuts deep into West Bank territory to protect settlements. The Palestinians are cut off from Jerusalem, some Palestinian villages are sliced in half, and some Palestinians are unable to get to work or school as a result of the security barrier’s path.

Apr 30 2003 : The Quartet, an informal group created to pursue West Asia peace comprising the United States, Russia, the United Nations, and the European Union, puts forth a Road Map for Peace based on the outline President George W. Bush offered in his 2002 speech. The road map lays out a plan for peace based on Palestinian reforms and a cessation of terrorism in return for an end to Israeli settlements and a new Palestinian state.

2004: Hamas leader, Yassin, is assassinated by the Israeli military in the al-Sabra region of Gaza. The international Court of Justice in The Hague, declares Israel’s security wall in occupied Palestine as illegal.

2005: Israel unilaterally withdraws around 2,500 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip. Gaza has been under a partial blockade by both Israel and Egypt since 2005.

2006: Hamas wins the elections and forms the government in Gaza, opposed by Israel. Fatah and Hamas clash.

2007 Hamas takes over Gaza, while Fatah continues to govern the West Bank. Israel intensifies movement restriction, isolates Gaza, and creates increasing settlements on the West Bank to split up the Palestinians.

Blockades, checkpoints, and intrusions by settlers become common. Hamas retaliates with stone-throwing and rocket attacks; Israel responds with air strikes.

2012: Palestine granted non-member status in the UN. But the Palestinian Authority becomes a mere sub-contractor of the Israelis and British. Its security is outsourced to British company Adam Smith Intervention and the heads are manned by British and Israeli Officers. Even other structures of the PA are outsourced in a similar way. The PA has no land army nor any navy, The Palestinian Security Service (PSS) are not allowed heavy weapons and advanced military equipment like tanks. Israel troops are stationed there to maintain control of Palestinian air space and to dictate what weapons could and could not be purchased. At most they have been allowed to form a strong police force – basically to control their own people at the behest of the Israelis. With such humiliating conditions it is no wonder that the people of Gaza turned to the Hamas.

2014: Israel launches Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip, which lasts 50 days and kills 2,251 Palestinians. Its stated objective was stopping the rocket attacks by Hamas and destroying its capabilities to conduct operations against Israel. The operation began during Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting. After an initial phase focused on airstrikes, on 17 July 2014, Israel launched a ground operation, which it declared sought to degrade “terror organisations’ military infrastructure, and [… neutralize] their network of cross-border assault tunnels”. A third phase began on 5 August and was characterized by alternating ceasefires and on-going air strikes. The operation concluded on 26 August when both Israel and Palestinian armed groups adhered to an unconditional ceasefire

Oct 2017: Hamas and Fatah sign a reconciliation deal.

Dec 2017: In a provocative move, US President Trump formally recognises Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and shifts the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

May 2021: Israeli forces raid Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramzan, injuring hundreds of Palestinians. (The Aqsa Mosque is the main congregational mosque or prayer hall in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem). The site fell under Israeli control on 7 June 1967, during the Six Day War. Israeli police entered Al-Aqsa for the first time since capturing Jerusalem in 1967. In April 2021, during both Passover and Ramadan, the site was a focus of tension between Israeli settlers and Palestinians. Jewish settlers broke an agreement between Israel and Jordan and performed prayers and read from the Torah inside the compound, an area normally off limits to non-Muslims. On 14 April, Israeli police entered the area and forcibly cut wires to speakers in minarets around the mosque, silencing the call to prayer, claiming the sound was interfering with an event by the Israeli president at the Western Wall. On 16 April, seventy thousand Muslims prayed in the compound around the mosque, the largest gathering since the beginning of the COVID pandemic; police barred most from entering the structure itself. In May 2021, hundreds of Palestinians were injured following clashes in the compound after reports of Israel’s intention to proceed to evict Palestinians from land claimed by Israeli settlers.

On 15 April 2022, Israeli forces entered the Temple Mount and used tear gas shells and sound bombs to disperse Palestinians who, they said, were throwing stones at policemen. Some Palestinians barricaded themselves inside the Al-Aqsa mosque, where they were detained by Israeli police. Over 150 people ended up injured and 400 arrested. The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism, the third holiest site in Islam, and a revered site to Christians.

On April 5, 2023, Israeli police raided the temple, saying "agitators" who had thrown stones and fired fireworks at the police, had barricaded themselves and worshippers inside. Following the incident, militants fired rockets from Gaza into southern Israel.

Oct 7, 2023 : Hamas launches attack on Israel from Gaza.

Today, 75 years later, despite countless UN resolutions, the rights of the Palestinians continue to be denied. Israel ignores all these resolutions, yet continues its membership of the UN. According to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) more than 5 million Palestine refugees are scattered throughout West Asia. Palestinians continued to be dispossessed and displaced by Israeli settlements, evictions, land confiscation and home demolitions - according to Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA.

Sixty years since their displacement, millions of Palestinians continue to share the condition of a stateless people deprived of their basic human rights. Today, over four million registered refugees live beyond historic Palestine and nearly two million remain within ‘temporary’ refugee camps throughout West Asia. The displaced Palestinians in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere faced discrimination by the rulers of these Arab countries as well. Palestinians felt unwelcome everywhere.

The first Palestinian uprising began in 1987 as a response to escalating attacks and the endless occupation. By the early 1990s, international efforts to settle the conflict had begun, in the light of the success of the Egyptian–Israeli peace treaty of 1982. Eventually, the Israeli–Palestinian peace process led to the Oslo Accords of 1993. With the PLO taking control of the West Bank and with the dilution of its policies against Israel, the more militant sections turned to Hamas which had established control of the Gaza Strip around 2008. Continuous conflict took place between the Hamas and Israel and then Israel imposed the 16-year blockade of the Gaza strip with the assistance of Egypt. Then in 2021 for the fourth time in 13 years, Israel launched a major military offensive on the Gaza Strip. In that assault that began on May 10, at least 220 Palestinians, including 63 children, were killed.

State of Palestine today

Today, based on population estimates prepared by PCBs (a scientific method of estimation), there are about 14.3 million Palestinians in the world in mid-2022, of whom about 5.35 million are in the State of Palestine. The estimated population of the West Bank was 3.19 million. While the estimated population of Gaza Strip was 2.17 million in the same year. [5]

Prior to the current crisis, the decades-long blockade hollowed Gaza’s economy, leaving 80% of population dependent on international aid.

Inflation, a shrinking fiscal space, a decline in foreign aid and the build-up of debt kept the economy of the Occupied Palestinian Territory below its 2019 pre-pandemic level. Unemployment remained high at 24% across the Occupied Palestinian Territory, 13% in the West Bank and 45% in Gaza – with women and youth hit hardest.

Rather than following the internationally recognised 1967 boundary, known as the Green Line, 85 percent of the wall constructed by the Israelis falls within the West Bank. The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli sea and air blockade since 2007. Since 2008, Israel has waged four wars on the Palestinian territory, killing thousands of people, mostly civilians. Between 2008 and 2021, at least 5,739 Palestinians and 251 Israelis were killed. The conflict has killed 23 Palestinians for each Israeli, according to the United Nations. Over the same time period at least 121,438 Palestinians and 5,682 Israelis were injured. From 1947 to 1950, during the Nakba or “catastrophe”, Zionist military forces expelled at least 750,000 Palestinians and captured 78 percent of historic Palestine. The remaining 22 percent was divided into the West Bank and Gaza Strip. During the 1967 war, Israeli forces occupied all of historic Palestine and expelled a further 300,000 Palestinians from their homes. Today, Israel continues to force Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank from their homes and lands, which are often taken over by Jewish Israeli settlers. Despite holding Israeli citizenship, rights groups have documented several dozen Israeli laws that discriminate against Palestinian citizens across a wide spectrum of issues, including education, housing, political participation and due process.

They are treated as second and third-class citizens. Even of the West Bank 18% is controlled by Palestinians, 22% is controlled jointly by Palestinians and Israelis and 60% is controlled by Israelis. Israeli settlements are Jewish communities built illegally on Palestinian land. Today there are between 600,000 and 750,000 Israeli settlers living in at least 250 illegal settlements (130 official, 120 unofficial) in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

While talking of the Oct 7th action all these atrocities against the people of Gaza are calmly forgotten. For their survival the Hamas was forced to build a gigantic network of tunnels and used simple methods (avoiding technology) to counter the sophisticated surveillance methods of the Mossad and its Pegasus spyware.

One just has to listen to the Zionists of today to understand the level of their ferocity against Palestinians; and the extent to which they can go in the extermination of Palestinians could well be imagined. The NAZIs would look mild compared to these demons:

The very PM, Netanyahu quotes the bible saying: You must remember what Amalek has done for you says the holy bible. We do remember. We are fighting. “Now go and smite Amalek, utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass”.

President Herzog delivers a statement on the war:
It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible. It’s not true this rhetoric that civilians were not aware, not involved; it is absolutely not true. There will be no electricity, no water no food. No fuel. We are fighting against human animals and we are acting accordingly. I’m very puzzled by the constant concern which the world is showing for the Palestinian people. and is actually showing for these horrible inhuman animals. who have done the worst atrocities that this century has seen.

Israeli Defense Minister (Yoav Gallant) stated: Gaza won’t return to what it was before; we will eliminate everything. Human beasts are dealt with accordingly. Israel has imposed a total blockade on Gaza. There are Israelis who described people in Gaza as animals or less than animals. I do not equate them with animals because that is an insult to animals.

Galit Distel Atbaryan, Israel Knesset Member, former Information Minister said: “Invest this energy in one thing: Erasing all of Gaza from the surface of the earth. Gazan monsters will fly to the southern fence and try to enter Egypt or they will die. Gaza should be erased”

A Far right Minister said: Nuking Gaza is an option, population should go to Ireland or deserts’

One Dr.Mordechai stated: Yes this is my opinion Finish them off quickly and leave no memory of them. Erase their families, their mothers and children. These animals can no longer live. If you have an Arab neighbour don’t wait until he comes into your house. Enter his house and shoot.

And behind these fascist Zionists responsible for perpetuating these inhuman atrocities are the big Jewish billionaires who run much of the world and infact most governments of the West. These ‘gentlemen’ mask their fangs through sophistry, polish, good manners and double speak.

One cannot blame all Jews for the Zionist agenda creating a holocaust in Palestine (in fact thousands of Jews have participated in the pro-Palestinian demonstrations throughout the world). If one sees the above history the Palestinians have probably been the most displaced people in the world denied their own historical homeland and victimised by the Zionists on a scale no decent civilisation would even dream of. Imagine the life of the ordinary Palestinian in the West Bank and even worse Gaza (under a blockade for over 16 years with regular attacks by the Zionists); not to mention the floating Palestinian population continuously displaced from one country to the next in West Asia. The real culprits are the British/US rulers, the Zionist Billionaire club and their stooges in Israel.

India and the State of Israel

India has traditionally supported Palestine, but that changed in the last decade. Just a few hours after Hamas launched its assault on Israel, India’s prime minister was among the first world leaders to respond. In a strongly worded statement, Narendra Modi condemned the “terrorist attacks” and said India “stands in solidarity with Israel at this difficult hour”. On Friday, Oct 13th India was among the countries that did not back a UN resolution for a “humanitarian truce” in Gaza, instead choosing to abstain.

In the aftermath, the Indian internet factcheckers, AltNews and Boom, began to observe a flood of disinformation targeting Palestine pushed out by Indian social media accounts, which included fake stories about atrocities committed by Palestinians and Hamas that were shared sometimes millions of times, and often using the conflict to push the same Islamophobic narrative that has been used regularly to demonise India’s Muslim population since the BJP came to power.

The same narrative also made its way on to some of India’s most inflammatory news channels, with Arnab Goswami, on India’s Republic TV, telling viewers: “The same radical jihadist Islamist terrorist thinking that Israel is a victim of, we are a victim of as well … Israel is fighting this war on behalf of all of us.”

Historically, India had a very different relationship with Israel. Its first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi had opposed the creation of an Israeli state, fearing it would disfranchise Palestinians, and India voted against it at the UN.

India was the first non-Arab country to recognise the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as the legitimate representative of Palestine in the 1970s, giving the group full diplomatic status in the 1980s and inviting PLO’s long-serving leader Yasser Arafat to visit several times, and consistently maintained a pro-Palestine position at the UN. It was only after the PLO began a dialogue with Israel, and as US pressure began to build, that India finally established diplomatic ties with Israel in 1992.

A turning point came in 1999 when India went to war with Pakistan and Israel proved willing to provide arms and ammunition. It was the beginning of a defence relationship that has grown exponentially. India buys about $2bn-worth of arms from Israel every year – its largest arms supplier after Russia.

In typical government doublespeak, while blindly supporting Israel, at the same time India has been sending humanitarian assistance to Gaza. India sent nearly 6.5 tonnes of medical aid and 32 tonnes of disaster relief material for the people of Palestine. India has dispatched nearly 40 tonnes of humanitarian aid to the people of Palestine, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Nov 5th.

Further, in a bid not to antagonise the oil producing Arab countries in less than two weeks after it abstained on a Jordanian-drafted resolution on the Israel-Hamas conflict, India did a complete about turn, and was among 145 countries which voted in favour of a United Nations resolution that condemned Israeli settlement activities in “the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan”. The UN draft resolution, titled “Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan”, was passed with overwhelming majority on November 9th . While seven countries — United States, Canada, Hungary, Israel, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia and Nauru — voted against the resolution, 18 abstained from voting.

Not only has our government supported Israel, but much of the Indian public too, due to their upper-caste/anti-Islamic stand, has not strongly opposed; in fact, many blatantly support Israel. What is even worse in some states like UP, protests were not even allowed as also in Delhi. In a report from UP the author was informed “different forces tried to organise the protest on Palestine issue but the UP govt. is instructed the police to not let the any programme held on this issue. They are making arrests and registering cases. Even then some small protests organised locally.”

In fact, the Central government has gone so far as to offer Israel one lakh Indian labourers to replace the Palestinian labour force in Israel. The issue has raised a storm in India, with ten central Trade Unions asserting that nothing could be more immoral and disastrous for India than “exporting” workers to Israel. They additionally called for a boycott of Israeli products by India and urged Indian workers to refuse to handle Israeli cargo. In fact, this boycott call needs to be seriously taken up by all Indian citizens and some products and companies have been outlined at the start of the article.

The International Labor Organization cites that 61 percent of employment (equivalent to 182,000 jobs) has been lost in Gaza since the war started, with a further 24 percent, or 208,000 jobs, being lost in the West Bank. It notes that the cumulative job losses translate into daily labour income losses of USD $16 million. Let the Israelis do the menial work instead of getting Indians to replace Palestinians

But the war also impacts the Indian rulers’ plans in the region. India recently signed the India-West Asia-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) as an ambitious infrastructure project aimed at connecting India, West Asia, and Europe through various transportation modes, including shipping and rail networks.
Obviously, a counter to China’s BRI. Now, instability in the region can create security challenges, and affect the smooth operation of the IMEC. Today, there is no longer any reference to the IMEC.

In India protests have been low-key and even banned. For example the Delhi Police have restricted Imams from praying for Palestine, a report by an Urdu Daily, Inqilab, stated. The police issued a warning to Imams against mentioning Palestine or the current aggression by Israeli forces in Gaza during prayers or sermons. “If failed to comply, the religious leaders will face consequences,” the notice issued on November 14 states.

Yet, throughout the world the protests have been massive in support of Palestinians though some countries in Europe (like Germany and France) also sought to impose restriction.

Protests Worldwide in Support of the Palestinians

On Oct 16th it was reported that protests were taking place throughout the world with lakhs participating. And as time passed the size of the protests only grew. On Nov 4th it was reported that tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in cities across the world for a weekend of demonstrations demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Pro-Palestine demonstrations took place on Saturday (Nov 19th) in various cities including Washington, DC; London; Paris; Berlin; Milan and Dhaka. In Turkey, a convoy of Palestine supporters headed to a US military base in the south of the country for a protest to coincide with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken‘s arrival to the country on Sunday. In UK Large crowds held sit-down protests in London blocking Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus before marching to and gathering in Trafalgar Square.

But the biggest ever rallies took place the following weekend, Nov 11th. And as we go to the press the size and numbers have become historic. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators have staged protests in London, Berlin, Paris, Ankara, Istanbul and Washington in the past weeks, calling for a ceasefire after Israel’s intense bombing and ground invasion. 63 journalists have so far been killed and even their families have not been spared. Aljazeera chief of Bureau saw his wife and children killed and another senior journalist lost 42 members of his family.

London witnessed its largest rally ever. Over 8 lakhs gathered in London, in its “One Million March for Palestine”. This included thousands of Jews and their organisations, like ‘Jewish Voice for Labour’, ‘Jews Against Genocide’, etc. People from all spectrums of society participated (including labour unions, education and health organisation). They also called for a boycott of McDonalds and Starbucks. Police arrested over 120 people, when a handful of right-wing hoodlums were let loose on the demonstration.

Pro-Palestinian marches in Washington have been among the biggest for any cause in recent years. At U.S. universities, duelling groups of student protestors have faced each other in tense standoffs when pro-Palestinian groups sprouted in universities throughout the country. Leftwing Jewish activists campaigned against Israel’s bombardment and blockade of Gaza in Washington, culminating in protests that have seen hundreds arrested for civil disobedience outside the White House and Congress. Police detained about 400 demonstrators on Wednesday after they staged a sit-down protest on Capitol Hill inside the Cannon Building, the oldest congressional office building, demanding an immediate ceasefire in the latest hostilities between Israelis and Palestinians.

In Berlin, ACLED reported hundreds of demonstrators were arrested during multiple protests during October, as pro-Palestinian protestors clashed with police. In central Paris, thousands marched on Nov. 4 to call for a ceasefire with placards reading “Stop the cycle of violence” and “To do nothing, to say nothing is to be complicit.” Demonstrations have been especially frequent in Yemen, Iran, Turkey and Morocco with massive turnouts.

Solution: Single Democratic state of Palestine

The two aspects of the divide are sharpening. Geo-political with the West on one side and the China/Russia Axis on the other. Internally too, while there is a huge pro-Palestine peoples upsurge most western governments continue to support Israel. Yet for the first time many Arab countries and even Tukey have had to bow to mass sentiment and stand up to Israel. Even the EU is divided on the issue though the Commissioner is rabidly pro-Israel and Germany and France has banned some pro-Palestine demonstrations. Here too in the midst of this West Asia conflict the EU sought a major provocation calling for Ukraine to start the process of membership. The US and EU are continuously seeking to fish in troubled waters. But the massive peoples upsurge in their countries have put on hold many of their dubious intentions.

We have already reported on the people’s upsurge, let us now look at the geo-politics of the war. The divide between the West and the China-Russia Axis is getting sharper by the day as the US economy continues its decline while China is fast overtaking the US and other western countries. China, as a rising imperial power is more interested in protecting its economic turf than in a principled promotion of the Palestinian cause. In the heat of this conflict, it was more interested in organising its major imperial project celebrating the 10th year of the Belt And Road Initiative in Beijing. Russia, ofcourse is more bogged down in Ukraine. In West Asia they have strongly aligned with Iran who is a major player in this region, with its links with many militant groups like Hezbollah. Houthis (Yemen) and others, including Hamas.

In fact, on November 19th the Houthis hijacked a cargo ship linked to Israel, and took 25 of its crew hostage. And the US is coming under increasing attack all over. Approximately seven mortar rounds landed in the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad during an attack early on Dec 8th, a U.S. military official told Reuters, in what appeared to be the largest attack of its kind in recent memory. U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria were also targeted with rockets and drones at least five more times on the same day.

Meanwhile clear lines of demarcation are getting drawn: Erdogan of Turkey called Israel a ‘terrorist state’ and cut off oil supplies, China has moved 6 warships to the region, the EU is slowly getting divided. Not only have China, Iran and Arab nations condemned Israel, but also has Spain and Ireland. As of 6 November 2023, Bolivia has severed diplomatic relations with Israel, while Bahrain, Chad, Chile,, Colombia, Honduras, Jordan,, South Africa and Turkey. have recalled their ambassadors from Israel, citing Israeli actions during the war. And as time passes and Hamas resistance increases even US and UK ministers condemn Israel; German Chancellor meets Erdogan; Russia attacks a US base near Gaza and says it is ready to send troops to Gaza (together with Turkey) – as reported in the You Tube video ‘Fact Checker’. But India is silent.

Meanwhile horror stories are coming through the tight media control over Gazan reporting. They have carpet bombed Gaza and told all their citizens to move to the South. Once they moved there Israel began bombing refugee camps in the south. They are seeking to push the entire 2 million Gaza inhabitants into a small 2km by 4 km area in the Khan Younis area (the size of Heathrow airport) with no electricity, running water, or housing. Winter is approaching and this region has one toilet to 500 people. The CEO of Oxfam says, children are already dying one every 10 minutes. Meanwhile the Washington Post reported that at the Nasser Hospital in the Khan Younis area in the south of Gaza, Israeli forces said “get out or be bombed”. Two weeks later during a ‘pause’ which allowed a journalist, Mohamad Balousha, to venture into the neo-natal intensive care unit he made the horrifying discovery of the decomposing bodies of four babies eaten by worms, blackened by mould and mauled by stray dogs.

. Fatah, who are the rulers of the West Bank, have refused to condemn Hamas in spite of much provocation by the western media seeking to create a divide. Even the Palestinian Ambassador to India, Adnan Abu Al-Hija, refused to condemn the Hamas attack on Israel. He instead questioned world leaders for not condemning the Israeli military’s actions in the West Bank. Fatah and Hamas are two wings of the Palestinian Authority, the first ruling the West Bank and the latter the Gaza Strip.

The trouble with many of the left in India they raise doubts and conspiracies about the genuine freedom fighters, but do not realise that people turn to organisations like Hamas when the left turn ineffective in resisting tyranny. One does realise the limitations of Islamic or other religious resistance movements, but today if one does not stand with the oppressed and their organisations, we defacto become apologists for the Zionists. It is easy to cook up conspiracy theories it is quite another matter to resist the terror of the US/UK imperialists and their terrorist client state in West Asia on the ground.

The Palestinians have suffered too long, and like the millions all over the world let us rally to their support and not get lost in the web of intrigues, conspiracy theories (mostly floated by the ultra-right in the west), or the passivity of much of the ‘left’ (and their Vishwa gurus like China). No doubt the US/EU ruling elite will continue fishing in troubled water due to their declining economic clout, particularly vis-a-vis China ….. but more on the international situation later.

What then should be the solution to the conflict. It can only be to right a historical wrong done to the Palestinians over the past century. All are suggesting a two-state solution; but it is precisely this that resulted in the existence of Zionist Israel on Palestine land and denial of any Palestinian state. If at all there has to be a correction to the historic wrong there should be a single Palestine state which accommodates all those Palestinians pushed out and where Arabs, Jews and any other community live in harmony electing their government by democratic means. Meanwhile let us intensify the boycott campaign against Israeli companies and products in India.

December 14 2023