ISRAEL - PALESTINE CONFLICT AND INDIAN SYMPATHY

The Church of Nativity (where Jesus was born) in Bethlehem in

Palestine 

The people of India, especially those from Kerala, representing different religions are supporting one side or the other from the Israel Palestine conflict.While one community openly supports Palestine most others support Israel. While the dead ones on either side remain to be same and those bodies do not bear any faith and the departed soul is not known to have any faith too, it is not faith that matter but human life that matters. When we go through the history of Palestine, we may come to know that the whole region was under the control of Israel and Judah. Then the Assyrians conquered the region in the 8th century BCE and then the Babylonians in 601 BCE and subsequently by the Persians, followed by Alexander the Great. Later it went to the hands of Romans. And when Rome became Christian in the 4th century Palestine became the centre of Christianity. Consequent upon the conquest of Levant by Muslims in 636 - 641, Palestine gradually brought into Muslim territory. In 1099 Crusaders established the Kingdom of Jerusalem in Palestine. In the 12th century the Egyptian Mamluks reunited Palestine under their control. Finally in 1516 the Ottoman Empire conquered the whole region and mercilessly converted the people into Islam. During World War I the British Government issued the Balfour Declaration, favouring the establishment of National Home for the Jewish people in Palestine. The British captured Palestine from the Ottomans shortly thereafter. Britain had mandatory power over Palestine in 1922. Afterwards, Arab efforts to prevent migration of Jews into Palestine grew sectarian violence in the region. Consequent upon the termination of the Mandate by the British in 1947, the United Nations General Assembly recommended partitioning Palestine into two states; one Arabs and one Jews. The situation then developed into a civil war between the Arabs and the Jews. While the Arabs rejected the partition plan, the Jews accepted it and their portion of the partitioned land was declared as an independent nation 'Israel' in 1948.

Now, coming back to the present situation, on 7th October 2023, Palestine

militants, without any provocation had sent  over 5,000 rockets over Israel and over 3,000 Hamas militants trespassed into Israeli territory from Gaza region and went into the nearby houses and made most heinous killings in one after the other house. They beheaded the young children in front of the parents. They did countless number of such cruelties within Israel. And it was a holiday for the whole Israel. Even their TV were shut. On the whole, undoubtedly, it was the Hamas from the Palestine triggered the war.

We Indians, sitting comfortably at a distance, evaluating the grounds of the war, through religious outlook is absolutely wrong. As far as India is concerned, during the Kargil war against Pakistan, our Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpai sought help from all friendly nations. Since India faced sanction from United States and other countries in light of the 1998 Pokhran nuclear test no one came up for our assistance. At this crucial hour Israel provided us with laser-guided missiles for our fighter jets, apart from mortar ammunition. Israel's support during the Kargil conflict was pivotal. India cannot turn our face against that trusted country on any grounds.

On the other hand, if it is about human killings, plenty of people have been died on both sides. And human killings are nothing new arround us. In the recent times, over 50,000 people were killed in different countries in African continent by Boko Haram Islamic militants while attempting to establish Muslim States in those poor countries. None of our people, who are involving themselves in Palestine war, raised protests or expressed sorrow for such immense loss of human lives. May be because the victims belonged to other communities. Such one should be competent enough to withstand the Israel Palestine killings too. Therefore, life is life wherever it may be, and should not be seen from religious angles. And, if seen through political angle, Communists have no right to sympathize on such deaths as they themselves have killed crores of people across the world in this century.

K V George