Joint Letter to Opposition parties - Parliament for Palestine

Dec 01, 2024
By Human Rights Organisations

To,
Members of Parliament from Opposition Parties,

Subject: Indian Parliament must take action to demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinian people in the upcoming Winter Session 2024

Dear Members of Parliament and Leaders of Opposition Parties,

We, the people of India, are writing to call on you to represent our voices of solidarity with Palestine in the upcoming Winter Session 2024 of the Indian Parliament. We are deeply shocked at India’s tacit role in the ruthless Israeli apartheid regime.

Context

For more than one year, Israel has aggravated its brutal onslaught against Palestinians, through air-strikes, murders, carpet-bombing, and targeted destruction of essential infrastructure in the Gaza strip. They have expanded this terror into the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Yemen too, igniting what could be a regional war.

More than 44,000 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes, bombs and bullets in Gaza, out of whom 16,765 are children. More than 10,000 people are reportedly missing and thousands are languishing in Israeli prisons, being starved and tortured. 3,189 people in Lebanon have been killed by Israeli airstrikes with more than 14,000 people injured. It is estimated by a report by Lancet, that the violence has claimed the lives of almost 1,86,000 Palestinians.

This year, the United Nations General Assembly has adopted 17 resolutions to declare that Israeli settlements and occupation of Palestinian territories are illegal under international law, and to uphold the human rights of Palestinians, Palestinian refugees, including the right to self-determination and sovereignty. They have also called for the lifting of impediments and restrictions against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency working for Palestinian refugees. Israeli airstrikes have also claimed the lives of the greatest number of UN staff, workers and peacekeepers than any armed conflict. Reports submitted by the UN Special Rapporteur as well as different UN bodies have termed Israel’s assault as ‘genocide’.

Yet, the Israeli state has continuously aggravated its onslaught against Palestinians and their allies, with complete impunity as well as the political and economic support of global leadership, aid, fuel, weapons and diplomatic support of various countries.

India’s historical support for Palestine

India has historically opposed the colonial project of Israel and has stood for the liberation of Palestinians. Jawaharlal Nehru, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, PV Narasimha Rao, and Dr. Manmohan Singh have all demonstrated unflinching solidarity with the Palestinian movements for liberation. We were the first non-Arab country to recognise the State of Palestine in 1988.

However, since Mr. Narendra Modi took oath as our Prime Minister in 2014, our foreign policy is being gradually reduced to mere words. He became the first Indian PM to visit Tel Aviv in 2017, and has only deepened ties with Israel ever since. India is the world’s largest buyer of weapons from Israel. India has also abstained from voting in significant resolutions calling for a ceasefire and arms embargo against Israel in the UN General Assembly. Several Indian companies including Tata and Adani have profited off the joint ventures with the Israeli state, directly producing military equipment and defence technology that is used in the genocide against the Palestinian people. It is pertinent to note that the same corporate-state nexus has been built and strengthened on the graves of Kashmiris, Adivasis in Bastar, farmers who were met with drone-tear gas and other oppressed communities in India.

The INDIA alliance was formed with the objective of fighting authoritarian policies and fascism. Such a fight for the protection of our constitutional values will forever remain incomplete without the fight for Palestinian liberation. Recently, leaders of several Indian political parties including the Congress, the Janata Dal (United) which is part of the ruling coalition, the Samajwadi Party (SP), and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have unequivocally condemned the ongoing “Zionist aggression” and the “heinous genocide of the Palestinian people by Israel”. In a statement released on August 25, 2024, the leaders demanded that the Indian government work to “ensure peace and justice” in the region.

These words of solidarity, while crucial to build global support for the Palestinian people, remain empty if accompanied without action. In different states ruled by opposition parties in India, there have been crackdowns on demonstrations and activities held in solidarity with Palestine.

At least seven Indian states have filed criminal cases against pro-Palestine protesters. As per the reportage of Article 14, 17 FIRs—nine in states run by the BJP or in a BJP coalition or directly from Delhi; eight by the Congress or a Congress coalition—in which 51 people have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, the newly introduced Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 for organising pro-Palestine rallies and for posting pro-Palestine content on social media since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas on 7 Oct 2023. The hoisting and unfurling of Palestinian flags at protests or events, has also been met with police action.

Demands from the People of India

This duplicitous nature of politics is unacceptable to ‘We the People’ of India, where on one hand you make public statements of solidarity with Palestine, while on the other hand you criminalize the people’s expression of solidarity with Palestine.

We are writing to urge you to use your positions of power as political leaders in India, and take a firm stand against the Israel-led genocide of Palestinians, and the BJP’s tacit role in making India complicit. The Directive Principles of State Policy which under Article 51(c) oblige India to: ‘foster respect for international law’ and under 51(a) require the State to ‘promote international peace and security’

Additionally, India was integral to the formulation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 1948 and ratified it on August 27, 1959. As per Article 2 of this Convention, all countries have the responsibility to prevent it when genocide is being incited or attempted. South Africa filed a case in the International Court of Justice, which held Israel liable for committing plausible genocide and held Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories to be unlawful.

Under these circumstances, India must emerge as a leading voice of the global South, which will not tolerate such violations of international laws. It is our moral and constitutional obligation today, both towards our own legacy of anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggles as well as towards the Palestinian people to take immediate action and end our complicit role in their genocide.

The Lok Sabha Election that took place this year showed that the people of India want more opposition party voices represented in the Parliament. Therefore, it is your duty to represent our voices, and not just the interests of the corporate giants. In the upcoming winter session of the Parliament, we call on you to speak up against the ruling party’s pro-Israel policies and take the following actions:

  • India is the largest buyer of weapons from Israel in the world, and has also begun to supply military equipment through joint ventures with Israeli companies. The Indian Parliament must pass a resolution to enforce an arms embargo immediately, cancel export licences of such companies exporting military equipment to Israel and ban all sales and exports of fuel and military equipment to Israel.
  • More than 1,00,000 Indian workers have been sent to Israel to replace the Palestinian workers who have been displaced or ethnically cleansed. This is at a time when unemployment is an all-time high and Indian workers are forced to risk their lives in a war zone, in the desperate attempts to seek employment. Our workers must not be sent to Israel to contribute to their settler-colonial project of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Most importantly, in the middle of what can only be seen as the beginning of a regional war, the safety of our workers must be of paramount importance to the Indian government. The Parliament must facilitate their immediate return to their homes safely.
  • India’s diplomatic relationships must reflect our compliance with international laws. We must therefore demonstrate our intolerance for the serious violation of internationally agreed upon norms and laws regarding rules of war and human rights. Indian Parliament must resolve to suspend diplomatic, academic, cultural and economic ties with Israel, impose a trade embargo on Israel, withdraw Indian diplomats and shut down the Israeli embassy offices in India immediately. At least eleven countries, including Jordan, Bahrain, Turkey, Bolivia, Colombia, Honduras, Chile, Belize, Brazil, South Africa and Chad have withdrawn their ambassadors from Israel or severed ties altogether.
  • The Indian Parliament must pass a law to define and criminalise ‘genocide’, to give life to and operationalise the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 1948. Though we ratified it in 1959, we have no laws defining and criminalising intent to commit violence against a collective of people.
  • The Indian Parliament must pass a resolution in solidarity with the people of Palestine to reiterate our commitment towards human rights and against colonisation. We must state that India welcomes South Africa’s initiative to file a case in the International Court of Justice accusing Israel genocide in the Gaza strip, in which fourteen other countries have intervened. The Parliament must also resolve to ensure that India intervenes in the ICJ case. This must also reflect in our foreign policy, and effectively not allowing our representative in the UN to abstain from voting on calling for a ceasefire, access for Palestinians to humanitarian aid or an arms embargo against Israel.
  • All Members of the Parliament, including the Oppositional Members of Parliament must urge the State Government in all States to stop all police action, unlawful detentions and criminalisation of activism and protests in solidarity with Palestine. Protests and peaceful democratic means of mobilising solidarity with Palestine and educating ourselves about the US-Israel led genocide are completely within our constitutional rights, and strive to continue the Indian anti-colonial legacy.

These are the actions that will demonstrate our solidarity towards the Palestinian people. These are the actions that will prove we are still a democracy, alive and vibrant.

Yours sincerely,
The People of India