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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element" dir="ltr"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/palestinians-denounce-indias-israeli-style-tactics-kashmir">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/palestinians-denounce-indias-israeli-style-tactics-kashmir</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Palestinians denounce India's
Israeli-style tactics in Kashmir</h1>
<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah">Ali
Abunimah</a></span> <span class="field field-blog">-</span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single"
content="2019-08-14T23:58:05+00:00">14 August 2019</span></span>
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<figure id="file-82566"><source media="(min-width:
72rem)"><figcaption><small><span></span></small></figcaption></figure>
<p>Palestinians are calling for solidarity with <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/kashmir">Kashmir</a>
following the Indian government’s move to revoke the
state’s autonomy while imposing an unprecedented
lockdown.</p>
<p>“As Palestinians, we deeply feel the suffering of the
people in Kashmir under military repression that in so
many cases is similar to Israeli forms of subjugation
and control,” the Palestinian BDS National Committee
(BNC) <a
href="https://bdsmovement.net/news/solidarity-and-unity-opposing-global-militarization-bnc-statement-kashmir">said
on Tuesday</a>.</p>
<p>The BNC is the steering group for the boycott,
divestment and sanctions campaign for Palestinian
rights.</p>
<p>The BNC notes that for years India has been
“borrowing Israel’s methodology and ideology and using
Israeli weapons in its control over Kashmir.”</p>
<p>“The Israeli weapons that India uses to oppress
Kashmiris have been ‘field-tested’ on Palestinian
bodies,” the BNC states.</p>
<p>“Our campaign for a comprehensive military embargo on
Israel, therefore, is directly linked to opposing
global militarization, including militarization of
Kashmir.”</p>
<p>India has in recent years been the <a
href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-s-largest-arms-clients-india-azerbaijan-and-vietnam-1.5909811">largest
customer</a> in the world for Israeli weapons.</p>
<h2>Eight million “incarcerated”</h2>
<p>Earlier this month, India’s Hindu nationalist prime
minister Narendra Modi unilaterally revoked Article
370 of the country’s constitution which granted the
Indian-ruled part of Kashmir a measure of autonomy.</p>
<p>Modi <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/23/the-guardian-view-on-narendra-modi-landslide-bad-for-india-soul">won
re-election</a> in a landslide last May.</p>
<p><a
href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-08-06/u-k-and-india-nationalists-will-regret-brexit-and-article-370">According</a>
to Indian writer Pankaj Mishra, the revocation of
Article 370 is “part of a revanchist fantasy of
‘Akhand Bharat,’ or Undivided India – a vision which
includes reclaiming the part of Kashmir ruled by
Pakistan.”</p>
<p>“The government prepared for its bombshell … with a
massive infusion of security forces into Kashmir,
which is already one of the most militarized places on
earth,” Mishra states.</p>
<p>“It ordered the house arrests of opposition leaders
and evacuation of Indian students and tourists, an
indefinite curfew, and the shutdown of all modes of
communications, including telephone landlines.”</p>
<p>Indian-ruled Kashmir remains <a
href="https://uk.news.yahoo.com/under-internet-blackout-kashmir-residents-152704193.html">cut
off from the world</a>, especially the populous
Kashmir Valley.</p>
<p>“You can say that the entire eight million population
has been incarcerated like never before,” <a
href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kashmir-experiencing-unprecedented-lockdown-8-million-people-incarcerated-shah-faesal/article28864611.ece">according</a>
to Shah Faesal, a former official in the Indian civil
service who now heads a Kashmiri political party.</p>
<p>Indian state media have <a
href="http://www.ddnews.gov.in/ground-report-jk-and-ladakh/130819jammu-and-kashmir-situation-normal-and-peaceful-kashmir-valley">tried
to claim</a> that the situation in Kashmir is
“normal and peaceful.”</p>
<p>The government hopes that by <a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/indian-activists-release-report-visiting-desolate-kashmir-190814120848149.html">isolating
Kashmir</a> it can prevent news of its repression of
protests from reaching the outside world.</p>
<p>But news has nonetheless come out on how Indian
forces are <a
href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/49306816/article-370-tear-gas-at-kashmir-rally-india-denies-happened">using
tear gas</a> and <a
href="https://thewire.in/video/watch-kashmir-srinagar-pellet-victims">pellet
guns</a> against protesters.</p>
<p>“The history of atrocities and human rights
violations are not new to Kashmir,” the BNC states.</p>
<p>“Human rights groups have recorded extrajudicial
killings, arbitrary detentions, torture, rape,
enforced disappearances, mass blindings and
suppression of protest and democratic expression,
along with legal immunity to armed forces for over 30
years.”</p>
<h2>Rule by force</h2>
<p>The status of Kashmir <a
href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-16069078">has
been in dispute</a> since British-ruled India was
partitioned in 1947 and gained independence as modern
India and Pakistan.</p>
<p>India controls more than half the territory of
Kashmir, including the Kashmir Valley. Pakistan
controls about a third of the territory, and China the
rest.</p>
<p>In 1947, Pakistani militias entered part of Kashmir.
Following this, the princely ruler of Kashmir, a
Hindu, chose to join his Muslim-majority state to
Hindu-dominated, but constitutionally secular, India.</p>
<p>India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, <a
href="https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/nehru1.htm">promised</a>
that the people of Kashmir would be given a referendum
on whether they wanted to remain part of India.</p>
<p>In 1948, the UN Security Council backed the
referendum.</p>
<p>However, the plebiscite has never been held and India
has ruled the territory by force rather than consent.</p>
<h2>Emulating Israel</h2>
<p>Modi’s move against Kashmir and its people looks a
lot like how Israel has unilaterally annexed Syria’s
occupied Golan Heights and Palestine’s occupied East
Jerusalem.</p>
<p>Israel now appears to be <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/michael-f-brown/us-envoy-green-lights-annexation-west-bank">moving
towards annexation</a> of the rest of occupied West
Bank.</p>
<figure id="file-82571"><source media="(min-width:
72rem)"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>
<p>Since the rise to power of Modi’s Hindu nationalist
BJP, India has increasingly <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/india-scraps-flagship-missile-deal-israel">turned
to Israel</a> as a model for its <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/dont-look-away-kashmirs-mass-graves-and-peoples-struggle">brutal
repression</a> of resistance to its rule in Kashmir.</p>
<p>“Today, the Modi government has literally taken
inspiration from Israel’s settlement project to enable
forced demographic changes on the ground,” according
to the BNC.</p>
<p>Indian government efforts to manipulate the
demographics of Kashmir by moving Hindus into the
state have previously been <a
href="http://www.jpost.com/International/India-sparks-anger-with-Israel-style-settlement-policy-in-disputed-Kashmir-396719">described</a>
even in Israeli media as “an Israel-style policy of
creating settlements in occupied territory.”</p>
<h2>Call for solidarity</h2>
<p>In addition to the unprecedented repression in
Kashmir, Modi’s move is escalating tensions with
Pakistan, which like India possesses nuclear weapons.</p>
<p>India and Pakistan have already fought three wars
over Kashmir.</p>
<p>“We call for international pressure on the government
of India to reverse its latest measures that violate
the rights of the people of Kashmir under
international law and to recognize and respect those
rights,” the BNC states.</p>
<p>It also appeals to “people of conscience in India” to
“work towards ending India’s military and security
alliance with Israel.”</p>
<p>This would “end India’s shameful complicity in
Israel’s suppression of Palestinian freedom, justice
and equality,” the BNC says.</p>
<p>It would “also benefit the struggle for the rights of
the people of Kashmir, as well as the social and
economic justice struggles of the people of India.”</p>
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