Human Rights: India and Palestine

Solidarity continued after independence and the British inspired division of this great country.

Courtesy: Palestinian Return Centre

(BETHLEHEM) - We had a packed and busy press conference in Mumbai (Bombay) on the International day of solidarity with the Palestinian people and the day that India voted with a vast majority of the world governments to support admitting Palestine as non-member state of the United Nations. I am here on my first visit to India to attend and give talks at conference organized by the India Palestine Solidarity Forum (see report on press conference here http://ipsf.org.in/).

It is the first of its kind in India and gathering hundreds of activists diverse in geographic origin (including many states in India and many countries), in religious background, in community origin etc. I and the other Palestinians attending had to jump through many hoops to get here. I was told on the way out through Jordan that I will be questioned by Jordanian security on the way back which could delay my return and thus teaching. I wondered whether this is another instance of Israeli “security” being outsourced to other countries. We will find out.

In the meantime, I am happy to be with the wonderful Indian people who showed solidarity with Palestine even before the state of Israel was created by destruction of Palestine. Mahatma Gandhi spoke out against the Balfour declaration from within South Africa and inn the 1930s Gandhi and AbdulGafar Khan were leaders of the resistance to the same British colonial rule that we were resisting in Palestine. It is thus no wonder that Gandhi had stated: “Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs... Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home”

The solidarity continued after independence and the British inspired division of this great country. Gamal Abdel Naassr’s Egypt and Nehru’s India were founders and leaders of the nonaligned movement during the cold war.
Unfortunately, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fake peace process that initiated in 1989-1993 gave the pretext for Apartheid Israel to break its isolation around the world. Israel established diplomatic ties with India in 1992. The war criminal Ariel Sharon was the first Israeli prime minister to go to India on a state visit in 2003. Israel is now the second largest military supplier to India adding billions of dollars to the Apartheid economy. But the Israeli “business” with India has developed in other areas. For example, over $1 billion in Israeli real estate “development” in India was announced in 2008. Grotesquely, bilateral trade with Israel is twice the bilateral trade with Pakistan!

As is expected right wing politicians in India and other countries are in bed with right wing Israelis to further increase the gap between rich and poor in the world. The fact that Indians of all backgrounds and religions have joined hands to fight against this injustice is a) testament to the fact that Palestine is not a humanitarian issue but a political and human rights issue, b) that Indians will return to their true nature as champions of the struggle against colonialism and imperialism, and c) that India and Palestine are partners in the struggle to maintain multicultural and multi-religious societies against forces of monolithic hegemony. The conference over the next two days at the Mumbai University club house promises to be monumental in grassroot organizing in India.

My article in a famous Indian magazine: Who are they fooling? The Israeli attacks on Gaza are insupportable — even as an act of self-defense By Mazin Qumsiyeh Professor, Bethlehem & Birzeit Universities, Occupied Palestine
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main54.asp?filename=Op011212WHO.asp
Amazing Video: Global solidarity with Palestine during the Israeli attack on Gaza, Palestine
http://youtu.be/CQJ0UnfWR8M

Christians call on the European Countries to support the UN bid for the State of Palestine http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/national/3069-statement-from-100-christian-community-leaders-in-the-holy-land-to-european-countries-support-palestines-membership-in-the-united-nations

Israel's War on Truth | Brainwash Update
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMFAfQJKlAM The suffering of Sderot: how its true inhabitants were wiped from Israel's maps and memories

The people of Huj - now almost forgotten - had helped the Jewish Haganah army escape the British. The thanks they got was to be sent into Gaza as refugees http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-suffering-of-sderot-how-its-true-inhabitants-were-wiped-from-israels-maps-and-memories-8348734.html

When It Comes to Gaza, Don’t Let Obama Speak for Black Americans: ‘Like an olive tree planted by the water, we shall not be moved’ by Jesse Hagopian http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/11/24-1
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
http://qumsiyeh.org

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD - Popular Committee to Defend Ush Ghrab (PCDUG) "A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home. Mazin has been an Associate Professor of Genetics; Director, Cytogenetics Laboratory at Yale University School of Medicine since 1999. He previously held a similar position at Duke University. Professor Qumsiyeh has authored over 110 scientific papers in areas of mammalogy, biology, and medicine including mammalian biology and evolution, clinical genetics, and cancer research. He has published over 100 letters to the editor and 30 op-ed pieces in International, national, regional and local papers on issues ranging from politics to environmental issues. His appearances in national media included the Washington Post, New York Times, Boston Globe, CNBC, C-Span, and ABC, among others. He is the founder and president of the Holy Land Conservation Foundation and ex-President of the Middle East Genetics Association, and Prof. Qumsiyeh won the Jallow activism award from the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee in 1998. He is author of “Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human rights and the Israeli/Palestinian Struggle” and just published “Popular Resistance in Palestine: A history of Hope and Empowerment.” Visit Mazin Qumsiyeh's amazing and informative Website to learn more: qumsiyeh.org.