SHOCKING videos emerged when Israeli soldiers confessed to targeting Palestinian children in Gaza. The world noticed that murdering children and even infants is what Israel does best so far. But here is another dimension to the genocide photos of the two soldiers posing in the Palestinian child’s bed, after killing him, are of Indian origin soldiers. This is one of the photos of hundreds of Indian migrants to Israel participating in the extermination of Palestinian people. This is again shocking news that the very first Israeli soldier to be killed during the current invasion was from India. This brings me to question why the mainstream media has completely ignored such an insidious act while covering the Gaza genocide. Israeli soldiers of Indian origin are not only responsible for some of the worst massacres to occur in the Palestinian territory during the past few months but also they are feeding information about Israel’s ethnic cleansing operations to India’s security agencies.
The Indian media openly accept that members of the Indian community are taking harsh measures against Hamas. Israeli genocide operations are supported by Indian military intelligence-gathering efforts – it is a byproduct of the close intelligence-sharing relationship India enjoys with Israel. This partnership was recently revealed by the former National Security Adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu. He stated that there has been intelligence cooperation between Israel and India over the years. He further mentioned that I had the privilege to carry this cooperation between India and Israel, heading delegations and talking with Indian counterparts. In December 2023, the Israeli ambassador to India boasted that he could create an entire Israeli army with the number of volunteers he had received from Hindu nationalists in India who were just itching to kill Muslims wherever they could find them. S Chakravorty (an Indian diplomat’ said I don’t know why we don’t follow the Israeli model. If Israel can follow in the Middle East, we can also do it.
But if we focus on the hundreds of Indian Jewish soldiers who are currently in Gaza, killing Palestinians and blowing up schools and mosques, while also sharing information about Israel’s genocide methods with Indian military officials, information and intelligence. All of that helped the Modi regime develop its blueprint for genocide in India and Kashmir. This leads me to question Israel’s brutality in stoking the imagination of India’s far-right groups.
It has already been reported that Israel’s barbarity in Gaza has become a source of inspiration for the Modi regime and the world is aware of the fact that the Indian government is closely studying the tactics and strategies deployed by the Israeli military in Gaza along with the propaganda narratives used by the Israeli government. This led many experts to conclude that the Muslims in Kashmir are now in great danger of ethnic cleansing in the name of Indian ‘self-defence’ as misused by the Israelis in the current war. Where they are killing each and everyone irrespective of their beliefs or identity under the name of ‘self-defence’.
Now India is watching that the international community has failed to punish Israel, stop Israel from ending this war or stop the genocide in Gaza, Kashmiri leaders are now sounding the alarm, as a warning sign that was given added emphasis last week when Indian soldiers tortured three civilians to death, in the Muslim majority territory in Indian Occupied Kashmir. The Modi regime figures that if Israel can get away with murder in territory it illegally occupies, then so can India. But here it is also important to understand that whereas the Gaza genocide has mobilised millions of Europeans and Americans into joining the boycott Israel movement, the same genocide has inspired millions of Hindu nationalists to dream about mass murdering Muslims in India, Kashmir and Palestine.
India’s genocidal plans for Kashmir were accidentally made public in 2019 when an Israeli diplomat in the US let slip that India would adopt the ‘Israeli model’ to ethnically cleanse the Muslim population and resettle Indian Hindus. ‘The Indian priest appealed to Israel to let his followers in India join the fight because whatever cancer they are fighting with India has been suffering from it for decades.’
The Indian government, Hindu nationalist leaders and the Indian news media are working together to use Hamas resistance operations against Israel as a means to stoke Hindu victimhood. They are using the Israel-Hamas war to their advantage by claiming India and Israel share a common enemy and a common cultural threat – Islam and Muslims. This stance or position is openly evident in Indian media where the anchors/hosts claim that Israel is a victim of what India is suffering from. They also claim that Israel is fighting this war on behalf of all of us. As millions of Hindus are becoming radicals by pro-Israel propaganda at home, hundreds of Indian Jews are migrating to Israel to join the Zionist Army to hunt and kill Palestinians.
While these massacres are taking place, the Indian Government is using its online troll army to help Israel with its propaganda efforts by producing and amplifying fake stories about Palestinians. Synchronicity between India and Israel also extends to the economic realm, with the Modi and Netanyahu relationship helping secure deals that will funnel billions of dollars into Israeli start-ups and other businesses at a time when Israel faces growing economic isolation stemming from the growing boycott movement. India’s Adani says to keep investing in Israel after Haifa port takeover while TCS expands in Israel’s public sector and hosts the Minister of Economy at the Mumbai Campus. A new report shows that the Israeli regime plans to permanently replace Palestinian workers with 81,000 foreign workers this year with a majority coming from India.
Hence it is important to understand what is happening between India and Israel in the background because the genocide taking place in Gaza will continue long after the bombs stop falling on the Palestinian territory, particularly given Israel has telegraphed its intent to forcibly expel survivors to Egypt, a move that will bring further economic and diplomatic isolation to the Zionist state. This indicates Israel will need powerful friends like the US and allies like India to keep its economy afloat.
According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, India is at the edge of genocide against Muslims where most Muslim states face communal attacks. Dr Stantan, who calls genocide a process rather than an event, has also given early warning signs of genocide in India where India currently has ticked 9/10 warning signs, already. It’s time that along with Israeli products we also boycott products, partnerships and any sort of alliances with India and all others who are equally responsible for genocide in Gaza. This will not only help people in Gaza but millions of Muslims in India and Kashmir. It is high time to call it out loud and clear that we need peace and equality in the world and say no to injustice based on religious and ethnic discrimination.
—The writer is Assistant Professor, Department of Government and Public Policy, National University of Sciences and Technology.
Email: farahnaz@s3h.nust.edu.pk
views expressed are writer’s own.
