India’s Kashmir policies compared with Israeli settler-colonial model in Palestine
#IsraeliModelInKashmir
Srinagar: Srinagar-based civil society activists have said that the BJP-led Indian regime is increasingly replicating the Israeli model of occupation and settler colonialism in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir to suppress Kashmiris and alter the territory’s demographic identity.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the activists in a joint statement issued in Srinagar said Hindutva India and Zionist Israel are pursuing similar policies of repression, apartheid and demographic engineering against Muslims in Kashmir and Palestine. They said Narendra Modi is following the path of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by intensifying military occupation, land confiscation and discriminatory laws in the occupied territory.
The activists said India is using Israeli techniques of surveillance, collective punishment, arbitrary detentions, home demolitions and economic strangulation to crush the Kashmiris’ just struggle for self-determination. They maintained that the Modi regime’s domicile law introduced after August 5, 2019 reflects the same settler-colonial strategy adopted by Israel in occupied Palestinian territories.
They said changing the Muslim-majority character of Jammu and Kashmir through demographic engineering is part of a deliberate plan inspired by Israeli policies. “The grabbing of Kashmiris’ land and properties, attachment of houses, and economic choking of local populations are straight out of Israel’s playbook,” the statement added.
The activists further said India and Israel are openly violating international laws and UN resolutions while enjoying political and military cooperation that strengthens systems of occupation and repression in Kashmir and Palestine. They added that both countries rank among the most condemned states globally for serious human rights violations, including unlawful killings, illegal settlements, restrictions on movement and suppression of political freedoms.
They urged the international community, the United Nations and global human rights organizations to break their silence and take practical steps to help the oppressed people of Kashmir and Palestine secure their internationally recognized right to self-determination.
The activists warned that continued military cooperation between India and Israel poses a grave threat to peace, justice and human rights in South Asia and the Middle East.
