Words Are Not Enough

When, on August 10, rockets fired from the sky by Israel blasted into bits Anas Al-Sharif and three other Palestinian journalists while they were observing, from a tent clearly marked “PRESS,” the life surviving in Gaza City, a new milestone of ruthlessness was erected in Israel’s mindless journey. 

That international reporters must not enter Gaza has been Israel’s policy for some time. The latest message, from the targeted murder of the four newsmen, the oldest of whom was 33, is that if local journalists engaged by Al Jazeera – or anyone else -- try to report, they may be crushed into powder. 

The nature of Israel’s journey was underscored two days later when, responding in New Delhi to the charge of genocide leveled by parliamentarian Priyanka Vadra, Israel’s envoy Reuven Azar angrily countered: “What is shameful is your deceit. Israel killed 25,000 Hamas terrorists.” 

Provided you give them the “terrorist” label, you may, it seems, kill individuals in the thousands and still hope to get away as upholders of “the rule of law.” Gaza’s ongoing devastation – the destruction of its homes, schools, hospitals, and more -- could well be followed by the expulsion of the entirety of its starved population. Even then some leaders in the world’s most powerful country, and their allies elsewhere, will probably justify the inhumanity as an unavoidable response to “terrorism.” 

“CALL IT CLEANSING” 

Where would the Palestinians go if driven out of Gaza and the West Bank? More than a year ago, an Israeli woman who had “settled” on Palestinian land said this to the BBC’s Orla Guerin: 

"The world is wide. Africa is big. Canada is big. The world will absorb the people of Gaza... Palestinians in Gaza, the good ones, will be enabled. I'm not saying forced, I say enabled because they want to go." 

When Guerin suggested that the settler’s comments sounded “like a plan for ethnic cleansing,” the reply was: “You can call it ethnic cleansing. If you want to call it cleansing, if you want to call it apartheid, you choose your definition. I choose the way to protect the state of Israel.” 

However, a world that for years has allowed a steadily expanding seizure of Palestinian land may now be changing a little. Israel’s policies were sharply criticized at a UN Security Council meeting summoned on Sunday April 10 by Britain, France, Denmark, Greece, Slovenia, and a slew of non-European nations. At this UNSC meeting, the U.S. was left as Israel’s solitary defender. The Chinese ambassador’s objection to the “collective punishment” of all Palestinians for Hamas’s misdeeds of October 7, 2023, was plainly shared by most delegates.

As I type these lines, I see an announcement by Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, that his country will recognize Palestine in September. Britain, France, and Canada have said the same thing. That would leave only a tiny number of countries, led by the U.S., unwilling to recognize the maimed and mutilated nation.

Extremely powerful though the US is, will it manage to overrule the world over the Gaza inhumanity? Analyzing, on August 11, a different situation -- the one in Ukraine -- Tim Lister quoted on CNN an unnamed European diplomat as saying: 

“There is no sense in Paris, Berlin or London that seizing someone else’s territory matters to this US administration, and the (Europeans) find that deeply disturbing.” 

In a joint statement issued on August 9, the UK, France, Germany, Italy and the EU had said: “We remain committed to the principle that international borders must not be changed by force.” Poland and Finland also signed the statement. 

ONLY FOR EUROPE? 

Does the objection to changing borders by force -- the objection to annexing another nation’s territory and forcing populations to leave their homeland -- apply only to Europe? Gaza-linked demonstrations in different European countries and in Israel as well suggest that this racial/imperial hangover from earlier centuries may be on its way out, sluggishly.

Some movement may be seen even in the U.S. As the month of July was ending, 27 Senate Democrats, a majority of the party’s caucus, voted in favor of a resolution introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders to block weapons transfers to Israel. The resolution was of course defeated, but in April only 15 Democrats had supported similar resolutions. 

Which means that we are witnessing slow – painfully slow – progress. Will we see UN-led action to halt and reverse the forcible takeover of Palestinian land? Isn’t that demanded by the principle invoked in the European statement of August 9? Or will pious words be the total response?

Let me recall, as an aside, that “terrorism” was not always a dirty word. The website of the UK’s National Army Museum tells us that in the early years of creating the state of Israel “the main terrorist groups were Irgun Zvai Leumi (National Military Organisation) - ultimately led by future Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin -- and an even more militant organisation, Lohamey Heruth Israel (Fighters for the Freedom of Israel) or LHI.”

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, “Irgun committed acts of terrorism and assassination against the British, whom it regarded as illegal occupiers, and it was also violently anti-Arab. Irgun participated in the organization of illegal immigration into Palestine after the publication of the British White Paper on Palestine (1939), which severely limited immigration. Irgun’s violent activities led to execution of many of its members by the British; in retaliation, Irgun executed British army hostages.” 

We will soon know how Netanyahu proceeds with his declared plan. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been instructed to dismantle the "two remaining Hamas strongholds" in Gaza City and a central area around al-Mawasi. Gaza is to be smashed again. Or it may have been hit again before this is published.

ARE WE HELPLESS? 

We will also find out how the world responds to this significant escalation which is unmistakably aimed at thinning and forcing out the Palestinian population in Gaza and the West Bank. A larger Israel, empty of Palestinians but made largely of Palestinian land, is the objective. Will the world do nothing?

On August 12 members of an international group of former heads of government known as "The Elders" called the war in Gaza an "unfolding genocide" and blamed Israel for causing famine among its population. Following a visit to the Gaza border, Helen Clark and Mary Robinson, a former prime minister of New Zealand and a former president of Ireland, said in a joint statement: "What we saw and heard underlines our personal conviction that there is not only an unfolding, human-caused famine in Gaza. There is an unfolding genocide."

BOOKS BANNED IN KASHMIR 

In India, the Modi government is facing two major challenges. One is external: Trump is currently cold towards India. He sees India as a country hostile to imports from the U.S., not as a counter to China, which for years has been Washington’s picture. 

The other big challenge for Modi is internal, with the opposition more or less cornering his government and the supposedly autonomous election commission over allegedly manipulated electoral rolls. In this column I merely note the two challenges. What I highlight is something else: the banning of 25 books by the New Delhi-appointed lieutenant governor of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, Manoj Sinha. 

Book stores across Kashmir were raided by the police on August 7 following the ban announced by Sinha, who had inaugurated a nine-day book festival in Srinagar, the J & K capital, a few days before the ban. On August 7, policemen were seen searching Srinagar’s bookshops. Raids also took place at the book festival for which Sinha had cut the ribbon, where around 200 stalls had been set up. 

The LG’s ban order said that "the identified 25 books have been found to excite secessionism and endangering sovereignty and integrity of India.” 

Most of the banned books were written years ago by acclaimed writers and historians. Among them is one titled "Confronting Terrorism," edited by Maroof Raza, a retired Indian army officer. 

The other authors affected include Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy, constitutional lawyer A.G. Noorani (who died last year), reputed Kashmiri journalist Anuradha Bhasin, Jamaat-i-Islami founder Maulana Maududi (died in 1979), British scholar Victoria Schofield, Pakistani scholar Ayesha Jalal, and two respected professors, Sugata Bose and Sumantra Bose. 

The two mentioned last are brothers whose grandfather was the famous Sarat Chandra Bose, older brother of the even more famous Subhas Chandra Bose, whose statue today stands under the India Gate canopy which once shielded an image of the king of England. The Subhas Bose statue was inaugurated in 2022 by Modi. 

J & K was a state until 2019, when it was demoted to the rank of a union territory. It has an elected legislature with limited powers. Imposed by New Delhi through the LG, the book ban confirms the Modi government’s unease with democracy.