Palestine and Kashmir are seen as dangerous places in the world and arouse passions among Muslims. Iftikhar Gilani reports the striking similarities and distinctive uniqueness attached to the two conflicts.
Kashmir and Palestine touch raw nerves of Muslims across the globe. Though it is hard to draw parallels between the two issues, the Muslims globally see both lands as occupied, and have been an inspiration for extremism and anti-West rhetoric.
The Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem is a scene directly taken out from Srinagar Jamia Masjid with chants of Allah-o-Akbar punctuating the prayers to Allah to end the occupation and restore the glory of Muslims. Upon knowing my Kashmiri identity, Palestine youth grouped around me, curious to know events unfolding in Kashmir, currently replicating Intifada-I of 1988-93, when Palestinians used stones to force Israelis to return to the table. A young bearded Palestinian wearing ‘kifayah’ introducing himself an office bearer of Hamas, empathizes with hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani. He has been keeping track of Kashmir uprising and Geelani’s discourse much diligently.
Pursuant to Oslo accord, four million people in Palestine are divided into the West Bank and Gaza. While the former is under the jurisdiction of Palestinian National Authority led by secular Al-Fatah, the Gaza Strip bordering Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea is ruled by Islamist Hamas. As of July 2009, approximately 305,000 Israelis also live in the 121 officially-recognised settlements in the West Bank. Like moderate Hurriyat Conference, Al-Fatah is engaged in direct talks with Israel.
Though, Hamas and Al-Fatah are baying for each other’s blood, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, through back channels, have struck a deal between them. According to the deal, the Hamas has agreed not to rock the direct negotiations between Tel Aviv and Al-Fatah, provided the outcome of talks is put to a referendum. An ideal way out to strike a deal between hardline and moderate factions of Hurriyat Conference in Kashmir. But, who shall play the role of Egypt and Saudi Arabia is a big question.
A cursory look at the West Bank, stretching from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea, the borders of Jordan, shows the territory bubbling with economic activities against its peer in Gaza strip. A big casino has come up in the town of Jericho, new theatres are opening across Bethlehem, Hebron and Ramallah, with droves of Palestinians thronging to watch latest Hollywood movies. But it does not need an expert eye to judge a volcano brewing beneath the deceptive calm, threatening to consume the Muslim world. Neither Palestinians nor Israelis have much faith in the ‘direct talks’ between the two governments engineered by the United States. As Israelis celebrate President Barrack Obama’s predicament, Palestinians blame him for backing out of promises he made before polls.
Besides the high-walls built by Israelis to restrict movements of Palestinians, the hate between two communities Jews and Muslims has also grown to the point of no return. To avoid eye contacts with Palestinians, in the old city of Jerusalem, some hardcore Jews even walk to their homes using roofs rather covered alleys full of Arab shops. Israelis are slowly evicting Arab occupants of old Jerusalem ostensibly to change the demography of city. Last month, when the Karsh family returned from a wedding, they found, the door of their house locked and young Jewish men inside. They had been evicted from their possession in the heart of Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem in an effort to expand the Jewish presence in old city.
An influential section within Israeli government and Palestine Authority (PA) do recognizes a two-state formula based on pre-1967 positions leaving the control of Jerusalem open for negotiations, the trust deficit between the two communities, PA’s declining political clout, Israelis attempts of colonization and practicing a form of apartheid adds roadblocks towards a peaceful resolution. “There is a total divorce (disconnect) between Jewish and Muslim communities. They don’t want to live together. Earlier majority of Jews were not in favour of a Palestine state. But now all opinion polls suggest an overwhelming majority supports separate Jewish and Palestine states,” says Khalid Abu Tomeh, the only Arab journalist working for The Jerusalem Post, a Jewish right-wing newspaper.
International director of American Jewish Council Rabbi David Rosen also agrees that over 70 percent Israelis were favouring a separate and an independent Palestine as they were threatened by the growth rate of Muslims in the Arab world. “The birth rate of Arab World and Muslim World is way beyond us. We will be eliminated relatively in a short period of time. So we have an urgency to have peaceful resolution than anyone else,” he told a group of visiting Indian journalists. He maintains that resolution of this conflict would impact Muslim countries’ relations with the West thereby having a salutary effect in Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan as well. But his poser is, whether Israelis can trust Palestinians who are “baying for each other’s blood”.
“If Israeli security forces would not part them (keep them apart), the Al-Fatah and Hamas would bomb each other first than Tel Aviv,” agrees Abu Tomeh.
On the ticklish issue of Jewish settlements, Rabbi says, their extraction from Palestine territory was necessary. “We have to get out of West Bank. There you are in a situation that between river Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea we will be in a minority. The idea of a Jewish state is not going to be viable unless we establish a separate Palestine state,” he said.
A top Israeli official also told Indian journalists that in 2000, Israel had offered to divide Al-Aqsa compound with Jews praying below the ground and rest of all vested to Muslims. “We had offered to give its trusteeship to Saudi Arabia, European Union or to the United Nations,” the official at the Israeli Foreign Office said.
Leading Jewish analyst Amotz Asa-El says Israel’s attempts to re-engineer and manoeuvre Middle East history have been humbled. Making a difference between Muslim world rulers and streets, he calls for a “chemical” dialogue before a “physical” one, believing that idea of the annihilation of Israel and hate for Jews amongst Muslims was unbearable. Taking a different line from the Rabbi, he calls for waiting for an identical situation that changed Eastern Europe following the collapse of Soviet Union. That may happen to the Muslim world as well, where human development index was abysmal. He says democracy was more important than preventing fundamentalists from coming to power, which complicates the situation. “In a democratic election let them rule.
If they don’t’ come to the expectations of people, who want better lives, they will have to face people. We let Hamas to win elections and they are ruling Gaza. But for last five years, they are hardly able to deliver to people,” maintains Asa-El, who is also Middle East commentator for The Wall Street Journal.
Palestinians, however, express doubts at the political ability of Benjamin Netanyahu heading a fragile coalition in Tel Aviv. He is facing a no-confidence motion almost every Monday, devoting most of this time to save his government. Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Advisor in Negotiations Affairs Department Xavier Abu Eid recounts concessions his alliance had made in 1988. “We relinquished claim to all of historic Palestine and agreed to settle for just 22 percent of original homeland. We recognized Israel on the remaining 78 percent and also decided to engage Israel in direct negotiations. But we want Netanyahu to say, 1967 borders and he will not,” says Abu Eid, a Christian Palestinian.
On the tiffs with rival radical groups, he maintains that Hamas was not a problem, but the occupation was an issue. “In Cairo, we have agreed with Hamas to put any agreement with Israel to referendum and we stand by it,” he said. Seeking urgency of the resolution of this conflict, he believes that over 237,000 American forces were engaged from Iraq to Kabul just because of this conflict.
Many Palestinians on the streets of West Bank, however, have loads of complaints against their rulers. Though remembering Yasir Arafat for his dedication for their cause, little sympathy is left for the PLO. A Palestine journalist confided that Arafat used 10 billion dollars of international aid for building casinos instead of people’s welfare. He gave his wife 100,000 dollars a month to shop in Paris. Tracing the events that led to the rise of Hamas, Abu Tomeh says the non-deliverance of Arafat led people to go in the lap of radicalization. He said even Christians and core secularists voted for Hamas in 2006 elections, held under the suggestion of George Bush ignoring warnings from Israel and PLO that Hamas will win polls.
The irony, however, is while the US allowed the Hamas to contest polls without any conditions; they went to losing party, the PLO, with money to bring down the democratically elected government of Hamas, creating two Palestine states. “PLO is ruling West Bank with the help of Israeli Defence Forces. They will collapse if the forces withdraw,” he maintains. But the popularity of the Hamas is mostly linked to the sanctions being imposed by the West. They draw sympathy and don’t get blamed for non-deliverance.
Not only Palestinians, but Israelis are also closely watching current uprising in Kashmir. At an official briefing, Indian journalists were in for a shock, when a top Israeli diplomat compared “sufferings in Darfur and Kashmir”. Support to Kashmir and Pakistan’s efforts to contain terrorism, coming from unexpected quarters, in Tel Aviv may be indicative of a possibility of the two ideological nations, Israel and Pakistan warming up to each other. Facing heat from Turkey and Iran, coupled with the death of Arab nationalism and rising extremism in the region, Israeli strategists seem to look for an alternate ally in the Muslim world.
At another interaction, legal advisor of Israeli prime minister and its defence forces, David Risner almost taunted India for using lethal force against unarmed civilians in Kashmir. He said his forces used firing only as last resort for self-defence during first Palestine uprising Intifada-I between 1987-1993 that forced Tel Aviv to start secret talks with Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), which led to Oslo accord. He, however, made a distinction between Israeli responses to Intifada-I and Intifada-II of 2000, which unlike the former was a militant uprising.
Reisner who also served as a senior member of Israel’s peace delegations with Jordan and the Palestinians said firing directly at unarmed stone-throwers was spiteful and be avoided at all costs.
“During the 1987 intifada, we actually invented quite a bit of riot-control equipment. We invented a stone-throwing vehicle, and we invented a helicopter-dropped net,” he said.
Israel also sent groups of experts to tour every single country in the world which has such capabilities – 26 different countries and military organisations. And there are no non-lethal weapons systems on this planet which are effective over 100 meters. “We developed new systems to meet the new threat, which means they were effective at longer ranges, to keep the people away and therefore also prevent them coming near us into effective ranges of live-fire weapons,” he told a group of Indian journalists, who wanted to know Israeli response to unarmed civilian protesters.
“We also used a device that emits penetrating bursts of sound that leaves targets reeling with dizziness and nausea,” he said. Protesters covered their ears and grabbed their heads, overcome by dizziness and nausea after the vehicle-mounted device began sending out bursts of audible, but not loud, sound at intervals of about 10 seconds. The device emits a special frequency that targets the inner ear. Exposure for several minutes at close range could cause auditory damage, but the noise is too intolerable for people to remain in the area for that long, he said.
He conceded that some non-lethal weapons like rubber-coated steel bullets have caused dozens of Palestinian fatalities. Israel forces had come out with tranquiliser bullets as well. But they were not approved as they would have proved fatal for children.
Further, again the Israeli law officer says, the forces were also advised to identify instigators and fire only on their feet. And if it was not possible, simply retreat unless mob becomes life-threatening to lives. Agreeing that technology was a solution to control crowds, Reisner revealed induction of sticky pellets as well. He claims that Israel changed its anti-terrorism laws only after Intifada-II in 2000 when the forces had to confront suicide bombers, rocket and missile, and sniper attacks.
STRIKING RESEMBLANCE
The current Kashmir uprising and first Palestine 
Intifada has striking resemblances. Palestinian civilians protested Israeli occupation in loosely organized confrontations in which Palestinian youths burned automobiles and pelted Israeli troops with rocks. The uprising wrested an important political concession from a nation which had previously proven its military dominance of the region in a series of conventional conflicts (wars). It also resulted in Egypt withdrawing claims on Gaza Strip and Jordan recognising West Bank as Palestine territory.
The Intifada was not initiated by any single individual or organization, with the PLO, comprising Fatah, the Popular Front, the Democratic Front and the Palestine Communist Party having little control.
The intifada was not a military endeavour neither a conventional war. The PLO – which had limited control of the situation – never expected the uprising to make any direct gains against the Israeli state, as it was a grassroots mass movement and not their venture. However, the Intifada did produce a number of results the Palestinians considered positive.
David Risner was even more scathing when he narrated his interactions with Indian generals having served in Kashmir. Recounting a formal interaction with a visiting Indian general, Reisner said, he (Indian general) shocked us by telling that every door in Kashmir that is suspected of hiding weapons behind them ought to be kicked open and if weapons are found, those occupying the houses should be “treated as terrorists” engaged in or aiding the insurgency.
Risner claimed that he told the Indian general that, they (Israelis) though bad in the world eyes, could not take this recourse. He has been a senior member of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s delegation to the failed Camp David talks in July 2000, brokered by President Bill Clinton on a “final status settlement” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Amongst his key current responsibilities is the investigation or prosecution of Israeli soldiers for civil and human rights violations during the Palestinian intifada in the occupied territories.
Shocking, while on one hand, Indian government has been officially asking Israel to observe restraint, on the other its military is teaching Israeli forces to deal harshly with Palestinians, even telling them to break their (Palestinians) doors and homes, advocating unrestrained and irrational operations. Israel is now the second biggest source of arms for India and may soon overtake Russia as its number one arms supplier. Both the militaries have an intense exchange programme off late.
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) recently in Delhi issued a spate of statements criticising Israel for the use of force against Palestinians. An MEA release stated: “It is disappointing to note that the use of disproportionate force (by Israel) is resulting in a large number of civilian casualties (in Gaza) on the one hand and the escalating violence on the other. This continued use of indiscriminate force is unwarranted and condemnable. The government of India urges utmost restraint (by Israel) so as to give peace a chance as the peace process may well get derailed irreversibly.”
Either it seems Foreign Office in South Block has little knowledge what their forces are doing in Kashmir or do not know what steps their generals are teaching Israel to take against Palestinians. Reisner’s revelations between Indian and Israeli generals surprised Indian journalists.
Reisner, who continues to be a key adviser to the Israeli government on the Arab-Israeli peace process indicated that the Israelis, from their experience, told the Indian generals that their army’s policies in Kashmir will not work unless they wanted to cut off their civilian adversaries altogether as Israel has now done in the Gaza Strip following the ascent of Hamas to power.
Reisner did not identify the general, although he made it clear that their idea of breaking down every door in Kashmir which is suspected of hiding weapons with impunity was not an isolated view and that it represented the collective approach of the Indian security forces.
At the Israeli Foreign Office building in the outskirts of West Jerusalem, a very senior official at a special briefing is at rage against the UN and the Muslim World. “The UN is biased against Israel because two-thirds of the countries are Arab and/or Muslim countries. Too much attention is given to Israel and too little time spent on debating and bringing out investigative reports on the real sufferings in Darfour and Kashmir,” he maintains. He was even more enraged at Muslim World ignoring daily deaths in Kashmir and focusing on “few incidents” in Palestine.
Earlier, Col Miri Eisin, former spokesman of Israeli Prime Minister in a plain speak told Indian group that Pakistan is not an enemy state (for Israel). “We are distant from it. It is not a threat to us. We don’t care about Pakistan,” she said, replying to a volley of questions on if Tel Aviv shares Indian concerns and threats from Pakistan. Pestered further on nuclear issues, she admitted that nuclear assets falling in wrong hands was a fear in Israel but hastily added that the United States was already seized of this and Tel Aviv has no issue with Pakistan. At another briefing, when Israel’s director-general of foreign trade Dan Catrivas was quizzed about the possibility of trade relations with Pakistan, he quipped that Israel has a presence in Gulf, without these counties even knowing it.
“In Eritrea (North Africa) we grow watermelon and mangos and supply it to Saudi Arabia, without them knowing they are grown by Israelis. Gulf and many others are also coming here,” he said. It is difficult for the world to ignore Israel as the country has the highest per capita rate of patents filed and produces more scientific papers per capita than any other country.
One of Israel’s top strategists Prof. Eyal Zisser, Director of Moshe Dayan Centre reminds Indian delegation that unlike Kashmir, his country accepts Palestine an international problem and seeks a solution on the basis of 1967 borders, with Jerusalem open for negotiations. He also laments that “more people are getting killed in Kashmir and world does not attend to it”.
Supporting Pakistan’s efforts to contain terrorism, he calls for full support to governments in Pakistan. “In Pakistan, it is better to have a government in control of affairs. If Pakistan government collapses, what is the alternative? Better have a government than Taliban taking over as your neighbour,” he suggests to Indian delegation.
Far from Tel Aviv near the northern most tip of Israel, bordering Lebanon around Zarit village, spokesman of Israeli’s northern command Captain Mitch Pilcer also refuses to draw parallels between Israel and India in terms of strategic regional environment. Captain praises Islamabad for having an established military unlike the neighbours of Israel, pointing towards the hilltop, where Hizbulllah outposts were watching the group through binoculars.
“Pakistan is a different case. It has established a military. There is government whom you can talk to. There is a circle of people. In Syria, not less than 10 people make a decision. And in Lebanon, where our main threat is Hezbollah, there is none to talk with,” he maintains. In 2004, Hezbollah snipers had crossed this border to kidnap two Israeli soldiers, leading to a full-fledged Lebanon war.
International director of American Jewish Council Rabbi David Rosen argues that an early resolution of Palestinian problem would help Pakistan as well – to stabilize as well as fight terrorists. He believes that it would have salutary effects on situations in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq as well. “It would impact Islamic (Muslim world’s) relations with the West, thereby having salutary effects in Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan as well,” he adds.
Chaim Choshen, Director South and South East Asia Division in the Israeli Foreign Ministry, however, says that official relations with Pakistan have not moved beyond the handshake between former president Pervez Musharraf and former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon in September 2005 in New York.
“He is not now in power. We don’t have further communication (with Pakistan),” said the foreign ministry official. Israeli officials believe since they have no real direct conflict with Pakistan, there was no reason not to have diplomatic relations. They believe that Islamabad could be amongst countries ‘on the fringe’ waiting to establish relations with Tel Aviv. “There are countries who are waiting on the fringe to establish relations with Israel, and Pakistan could easily be one of them, along with a number of Arab nations…they are looking for the right moment,” they maintained.
Officials in Tel Aviv exuded confidence that the upcoming direct talks with the Palestinians could encourage most of countries like Pakistan to set up diplomatic relations. While a section believes that Islamabad’s choice of maintaining diplomatic contacts would ‘encourage’ Israel and the Palestinians to move towards the two-state solution faster, others believe such relations were possible only after the establishment of a full-fledged independent Palestine State.
