For more than 75 years Kashmiris and Palestinians have suffered at the hands of colonial powers – genocide, human rights abuses and denial of fundamental rights feature in their shared history. While the Kashmiri struggle for self-determination rarely makes the headlines it deserves to be not only supported but also understood in terms of the Indian Government’s policies and actions that result in death and suffering for Palestinians as well as Kashmiris.
India does not need to be taught by Israel how to oppress, exploit and silence Kashmiris, but the close relationship between these two nations on a range of political, military and economic projects has been to the detriment of people of both lands. For the Kashmiris, their hardship escalated with the 2014 election of the Modi Government.
Many of the weapons used by the Israeli Defence Forces in Palestine are now advertised and sold as “field tested”. This term means weapons the Indian Government buys to kill and threaten Kashmiris were first tested on Palestinians. More than 40% of Israel’s arms exports are sold to India. This makes India the largest buyer of Israeli military and surveillance equipment.
One of the armaments supplied by Israel to India is the Hermes 900 drone, manufactured by the Israeli company Elbit, which has manufacturing partnerships in Australia. Elbit recently received a $900 million grant from the Australian Government. Australia, through a network of armament sales and support for armaments companies, is complicit in the killing of innocent people in Palestine and Kashmir.
Hermes 900 drones were first tested on Palestinians during the Israeli 2014 war on Gaza. Each drone costs more than $US6.85 million. Israeli-supplied drones are used for surveillance in Kashmir and other mountainous regions.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has noted that drone production in India is “as important for India as it is for Israel”. Israel has a drone factory outside its own territory and India benefits from technology transfer.
There are worrying reports that Israeli intelligence officers worked with Indian intelligence to interrogate Kashmiris. Indian authorities have failed to adequately answer questions about Israeli involvement in such operations.
The trade in weapons is not just Israel to India. Al Jazeera has sighted shipping documents and statements issued by the Adani Defence and Aerospace that reveal India is supplying military assistance — explosives and drones — to Israel.
The level of co-operation between India and Israel is revealed by the fact that Adani Defence and Aerospace and Israel’s Elbit Systems have set up the Adani Elbit Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Complex in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad.
A New York Times investigation found that Modi’s government bought Pegasus spyware from Israel in 2017. Pegasus was developed by the NSO Group, an Israeli technology and cyber arms company. Top level weapons and surveillance equipment were part of a $US2 billion package India bought from Israel. Pegasus spyware is capable of reading text messages, monitoring phone calls, collecting passwords, tracking devices and accessing phone cameras.
In the early 2020s, research undertaken by Amnesty International and the Washington Post found that Pegasus spyware was being used to spy on many leading Indians. Political leaders, journalists, activists, judges and heads of the Indian Election Commission and the Central Bureau of Investigation have been targeted.
While the Indian-Israeli relationship has vastly expanded, it is not new. Back in 1968, when the Indian foreign intelligence agency, known as the Research and Analysis Wing, was formed, the then Prime Minister, Indra Gandhi, ordered that it cultivate links with Mossad.
Antony Loewenstein, writing in The Palestine Laboratory, describes the development of the relationship between India and Israel: “The growth of mutual respect went hand in hand as Hindu nationalism became dominant (in India).” Unfortunately for the world, the connection between these two nations has this common foundation in extremism. In Israel, it is Zionism. In India, it is Hindutva, a dangerous form of Hindu extremism. Both ideologies promote a far rightwing agenda that promotes domination by one race. Ethnic cleansing, land takeovers, the rewriting of history and suppression of legitimate struggle are the means to achieve this racist, often fascist agenda.
Illegal settlers are a key part of the subjugation of Kashmiris and Palestinians. It is fair to assume that Modi would look at Israel’s 700,000 illegal settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as representing a policy to be emulated. In 2019, after the Modi government had enforced Delhi rule on Kashmir, Indian settlers could readily move into Kashmir as a century old law that kept local property under the ownership of Kashmiris was abolished. Non-Kashmiris were allowed to purchase homes, land and businesses. This dramatic change was widely recognised as a means to change the demographics of Indian occupied Kashmir.
The Israeli connection with the Modi forces is a setback for the Kashmiri struggle for self-determination.
While Kashmir has not been given the Israeli treatment of being reduced to dust and rubble, India under the rule of Modi and his BJP party is every bit as ruthless as the Netanyahu regime. Both are using the country’s military might and attacks on civil society to advance ethno-extremism.
Although international law sets out the illegality of what India and Israel are doing, there is effectively no will or ability among a majority of nations to hold Israel and India to account for their crimes. This must change.
This article is based on a speech the author gave to mark Kashmir Solidarity Day, held annually on 5 February.
Lee Rhiannon
Lee Rhiannon, a former Senator, volunteers with communities in Western Sydney.