Leading Palestinians have called upon India to end its defence ties with Israel. Israel is not only selling India arms being used against Palestinians, but also off-loading big-ticket military hardware which did not work during its aggression on Lebanon, said noted Israeli scholar Ilan Pappe and Jamal Zahalka, an Arab member of the Knesset on September 24.
“India should end its defence ties with Israel because it is buying equipment that failed during Israel’s aggression on Lebanon. The tanks were vulnerable and the anti-missile system was caught napping when the Hezbollah hit them. The war was actually the failure of Israeli weapons,” said Zahalka, who was in New Delhi along with Professor Pappe to attend a conference on Palestine.
Expressing on recent Palestine-Israel talks, Prof. Pappe said, “Not inviting Hamas smacks of double standards. Israel has massacred people but no one questions its participation in the talks. But Hamas, which is democratically elected and resists the policy of Israel to strangulate the Palestinians, is not called. This will not contribute to the chances of peace. It is up to the Palestinians to decide who will represent them at talks.”
He was of the opinion that there was American pressure to come for the talks because the PNA was totally dependent on international aid, especially from Europe and the US.
Speaking during the open session of the conference, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat criticised the Government of India for deepening defence and security ties with Israel. The government deliberately did not name Israel in a statement issued by the MEA after the Israeli attack on a Gaza flotilla. There was an impression among ordinary Kashmiris that India was seeking advice from Israel on handling the situation there, he said.
All this was happening because the voice in solidarity with the Palestinian people in India had weakened within Parliament.
Palestinian leader Mustafa Barghouti said the arms that Israel was supplying to India were tested on the Palestinian people in Gaza. India was the largest buyer of Israeli arms and the international campaign for Palestine would not succeed unless a strong people’s movement was launched in India to change the Government of India’s pro-Israel shift.