Delhi: Genocide by Israel Not Acceptable, Says Big Gathering in Solidarity with Palestine

New Delhi: Hundreds of students, workers, teachers, women and youth gathered at Jantar Mantar in the national capital on Monday to express their anguish and protest against Israeli aggression in West Asia and the subsequent killing of thousands of civilians in Palestine and Lebanon.

The protest was organised in coordination with civil society groups like Indians for Palestinians, Indo -Palestine Solidarity Network and Indo-Palestine Solidarity forum. The protesters waved red flags of different unions and Palestinian flags, as well as black and white Kaffiyeh to express their solidarity. Slogans like ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ and ‘Israeli aggression down-down’ rent the air.

Commenting on an overall “silence’ on the issue in India, Sohan Yadav, a student of B.A (Hons) in Zakir Hussain College of Delhi University, told NewsClick that “civil society in the country was enraged and dismayed at the genocide of Palestinian people. But, overall, there is silence on the issue. The doctors who served in Gaza wrote a letter to US President Joe Biden and underscored that the casualties are way more than estimated. Yet, no global power is backing Palestine.”

“When the Ukraine war began, the US jumped in, arguing that there must be peace between the two countries. However, there is no activism when Israel is decimating Gaza and Lebanon,” he added.

When asked why protests across the globe matter, Yadav said, “So many protests across the world shows that the people of different countries think differently from their governments.”

Aishe Ghosh, former president, Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union, donning a kaffiyeh in solidarity said students had come to the protest in large numbers because Palestinian students have no university now.

“Israel has destroyed many universities in Palestine, including Al Aqsa University, Al Azhar University, Al Israa University, Al Quds Open University, Palestine Technical College, University of Palestine and University College of Technical Sciences among others,” she pointed out.

Ghosh, who is a Students’ Federation of India leader, said: “We cannot see the attack on Palestine in isolation. It is result of the imperialist project of the US and the latest victims are Palestine and Lebanon. We have seen how in other West Asian countries peace and democracy were destroyed. It is the responsibility of the student community to remind people of history. What an irony that a country proclaiming to be oldest democracy is helping destroy the universities and youth of Palestine.

Ghosh pointed out how solidarity protests were taking place across the world, as people, especially the youth, were enraged. “The companies operating out of occupied territories in Palestine are reporting losses because people boycotted them. It is one of the ways common people telling Israel that they do not support this genocide,” she added.

Among the protesters, Ashok Tiwari, a teacher and cultural activist, felt that teachers should tell their students that what is happening in Palestine is unjustified and inhuman.

“Israel is conducting itself with impunity and does not even care for the United Nations. It banned the UN General Secretary from entering its territory,” he said.

Tiwari recalled that as part of theatre group, Jan Natya Manch, he had visited Palestine in 2016. “I was shocked to see that people were determined to oppose the (Israeli) occupation despite their lives having been turned upside down. They were emotional about their loss but were steadfast. They did not raise slogans alone. They resisted through their poetry, art and paintings. They made huge portraits on Israeli settlements,” he added.

Abhishek Kumar from AICCTU, a central trade union, the destruction of Palestine had also affected Indian workers who were recruited to reconstruct public infrastructure in occupied territories. He said the Centre failed to address the unemployment crisis in the country and chose to send its workers in war-torn region.

“It is the government’s policy that has resulted in such massive unemployment. The situation is so bad that youth have even flocked to work in Ukraine and Russia. We are receiving reports that 10,000 more workers will be sent to Israel to expedite construction work. It is unacceptable to us that workers are being sent to work in such dangerous conditions,” he added.

Addressing the gathering, Prakash Karat, former general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said the genocide orchestrated by Israel had claimed over 42,000 lives, of which 16,890 victims were children alone. Women and the elderly too constitute a large majority of the deceased.

“It is nothing but a genocide which is aimed at annihilating an entire generation. Even the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its ruling last year said that the assault on Palestinian people is leading towards a genocide. However, Israel has not stopped till Gaza. It is bombarding Lebanon since the past three weeks. This crisis is only expanding because the US is backing Israel with funds and weapons,” he said.

Karat highlighted that a resolution was passed in the UN General Assembly condemning the acts of Israel, and the ICJ too passed a judgement ordering the war to be stopped. “What is the position of Indian government. The Centre, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is supporting Israel in a full-fledged manner. It is exporting weapons and drones to Israel produced by a joint venture of Adani and an Israeli firm. India always supported the formation of an independent state of Palestine from the Independence movement. The Modi government has erased this history,” he said.

The CPI(M) leader pointed out that this “first time that India had abstained from a resolution in the UN General Assembly demanding Israel to vacate the illegally occupied territories of Palestine including Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem. Consistent pressure on the allies of the US in the NATO, like Spain, Belgium and the UK, too made them pledged that they will not sell weapons to Israel. Yet, India is supporting it (Israel). This makes India an accomplice in the war crimes,” he said, adding “it is our responsibility to not only support the Palestinian people but also expose the government among the masses, and tell them that the export of weapons to Israel is not accepted.”