Opinion Modi government’s silence on Gaza is deafening

There has, perhaps, been no other comparable act of human cruelty in modern times that has failed to generate outrage and condemnation, as the unchecked military campaign that Israel has unleashed on the people of Gaza. This is not a war; it is carnage. And the silence of the West, and India in particular (the land of the Mahatma), is deafening.

As someone who was brought up in Kuwait in the ’80s, the Israeli-Palestinian issue is close to my heart. I have grown up witnessing the trials and tribulations of displaced Palestinians up close. I had seen Palestinian refugees living in my apartment building, as well as attending public schools. I must say, the Kuwaiti government took good care of them by giving them jobs, free education and subsidised healthcare. This largesse ended when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990, and Yasser Arafat of the Palestine Liberation Organisation gave full support to Hussein.

The PLO is internationally recognised as the official representative of the Palestinian people. I was there along with my family on that ill-fated day when everything came to a standstill for us. Our carefree life became restricted, and our homes became our prison. Arafat’s support for Hussein perplexes me to this day, as Kuwait was more than generous to Palestinians and their cause.

The PLO was founded in 1964. It initially sought to establish a state over the entire territory of former Palestine. The first Oslo Accord signed in 1993 between Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin and Arafat put an end to that idea. The Accord was intended to lead to a mutually negotiated two-state solution, and the State of Israel would be recognised, as would the PLO. One of the notable outcomes was the creation of the Palestinian Authority, which was made responsible for limited self-governance in parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

How, when, and why did Hamas come into the picture?

Hamas was founded in 1987 by Palestinian Islamic scholar Sheikh Ahmed Yassin after the First Intifada. Initially, Hamas was discreetly supported by Israel to weaken the secular PLO and prevent the creation of an independent Palestinian state. In the late 2010s, to the early 2020s, Israeli officials under Benjamin Netanyahu approved the transfer of millions of dollars via Qatar to Hamas, which intelligence officials believe contributed to the October 7 attack. Israel calls Hamas a terrorist organisation but gave tacit support to it to discredit the PLO and the two-state solution.

The October 7, 2023, attacks were reprehensible. Around 1,200 Israelis were killed and over 250 Israeli citizens were abducted by Hamas. But what followed is more horrific and inhumane. More than 60,000 Palestinians have been massacred by Israel, over half of them women and children. Ninety per cent of all homes in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed, and a blockade on food, water, and medicine has been enforced. In addition, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank due to settler violence since October 7. If Israel has been adamant that their fight is against Hamas, how can it justify this unchecked violence in the West Bank?

It’s not as if this violence doesn’t have its share of critics within Israel. Ami Ayalon, former head of Israel’s security agency Shin Bet, former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, former IDF chief Matan Vilnai and former PM Ehud Barak, have signed an open letter to the US President on behalf of 550 former Israeli security officials, calling for an end to Israel’s military campaign in the besieged Palestinian enclave.

Nearly 1,500 Palestinians have been reportedly killed at aid distribution sites, more than 200 died of starvation, of which 93 are children. More than 270 journalists and media people have been killed, making this, by far, the deadliest war in history for journalists. More journalists have been killed in Gaza than in the US Civil War, both the world wars, the Korean war, the Vietnam war and all the wars in former Yugoslavia and Afghanistan combined!

It is time the West woke up and sanctioned Israel for the war in Gaza. This is a war like no other, where starvation is being used as a weapon. After decades of sympathising with the Palestinian cause, India under Narendra Modi is now silent on the genocide, which is completely against this nation’s ethos. The time to speak out has come and gone. If we stay silent any longer, even as time runs out for the people of Gaza, history will not forgive us.

The writer is national spokesperson, Indian National Congress