News Analysis India

Tag: Palestine

  • BSP MP Danish Ali, other opposition leaders express solidarity with people of Palestine

    By ANI

    NEW DELHI: Bahujan Samaj Party MP Danish Ali who came to meet Palestine ambassador Adnan Abu al Haija in the national capital on Monday said that the group of opposition MPs and other politicians want to express their solidarity with the people of Palestine.

    “We have come to express our solidarity for the Palestinian people. We want to tell them through their Ambassador that we are with them. We want to convey that the Parliamentarians from India are in opposition to the violence that is ongoing in Palestine,” Danish Ali said while speaking to ANI.

    Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, Janata Dal (United) leader KC Tyagi, Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Shahid Siddiqui, Samajwadi Party leader Javed Ali Khan and other political leaders paid a visit to the Palestine ambassador to show their support for the Palestinian cause.

    Rajya Sabha MP Javed Ali Khan said that India has been sharing good ties with Palestinians traditionally.

    “We have come to meet Palestine ambassador to express solidarity with the Palestinians. India has been sharing good ties with Palestinians traditionally. We are friends with Palestine. In this time of difficulty when imperialist forces and Israel are oppressing them, we are standing with them,” Javed Ali Khan said speaking to ANI.

    Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leader Shahid Siddiqui said that the traditional position on Israel was that of Mahatma Gandhi, Ram Manohar Lohia, Jayprakash Narayan and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

    “The policy of India, which was that of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr Lohia, Jayprakash Narayan, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, that we believe in the rights of Palestine. We recognise Israel but Palestine should get right to its own nation. The attack on them in Gaza is against the rules of the United Nations and international law,” Siddiqui said.

    CPI (ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said that the ongoing violence in Gaza is nothing short of an “openly declared genocide”.

    “We came here to express our solidarity on behalf of Indian people. Right now, we all know whatever happened on the 7th of October but it has not stopped there. Right now what is happening in Gaza is nothing short of a very openly declared genocide. We cannot allow this to go on like this,” Bhattacharya said.

    ALSO READ | Operation Ajay: SpiceJet plane faces tech issue in Tel Aviv; aircraft taken to Jordan to fix problem

    Following the meeting, Adnan Abu al Haija, the Ambassador of Palestine in India expressed hope that India will play a role in stopping the siege on Palestinians in Gaza.

    “We discussed the situation in Gaza and in Palestine in general and they presented their solidarity with the Palestinian people… We hope India will play a good role in stopping the siege on our people of Gaza and putting pressure on the Israeli government for humanitarian aid to our people in Gaza,” he said.

    The Hamas-run health ministry said on Monday that some 2,329 Palestinians have been killed and another 9,042 have been wounded in Israeli retaliatory airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Forces has said it has killed some 1,500 Palestinian terrorists in Israeli territory after they breached the border fence and rampaged murderously in southern Israel, killing over 1,300 people, mostly civilians.  Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp

    NEW DELHI: Bahujan Samaj Party MP Danish Ali who came to meet Palestine ambassador Adnan Abu al Haija in the national capital on Monday said that the group of opposition MPs and other politicians want to express their solidarity with the people of Palestine.

    “We have come to express our solidarity for the Palestinian people. We want to tell them through their Ambassador that we are with them. We want to convey that the Parliamentarians from India are in opposition to the violence that is ongoing in Palestine,” Danish Ali said while speaking to ANI.

    Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, Janata Dal (United) leader KC Tyagi, Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Shahid Siddiqui, Samajwadi Party leader Javed Ali Khan and other political leaders paid a visit to the Palestine ambassador to show their support for the Palestinian cause.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Rajya Sabha MP Javed Ali Khan said that India has been sharing good ties with Palestinians traditionally.

    “We have come to meet Palestine ambassador to express solidarity with the Palestinians. India has been sharing good ties with Palestinians traditionally. We are friends with Palestine. In this time of difficulty when imperialist forces and Israel are oppressing them, we are standing with them,” Javed Ali Khan said speaking to ANI.

    Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leader Shahid Siddiqui said that the traditional position on Israel was that of Mahatma Gandhi, Ram Manohar Lohia, Jayprakash Narayan and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

    “The policy of India, which was that of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr Lohia, Jayprakash Narayan, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, that we believe in the rights of Palestine. We recognise Israel but Palestine should get right to its own nation. The attack on them in Gaza is against the rules of the United Nations and international law,” Siddiqui said.

    CPI (ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said that the ongoing violence in Gaza is nothing short of an “openly declared genocide”.

    “We came here to express our solidarity on behalf of Indian people. Right now, we all know whatever happened on the 7th of October but it has not stopped there. Right now what is happening in Gaza is nothing short of a very openly declared genocide. We cannot allow this to go on like this,” Bhattacharya said.

    ALSO READ | Operation Ajay: SpiceJet plane faces tech issue in Tel Aviv; aircraft taken to Jordan to fix problem

    Following the meeting, Adnan Abu al Haija, the Ambassador of Palestine in India expressed hope that India will play a role in stopping the siege on Palestinians in Gaza.

    “We discussed the situation in Gaza and in Palestine in general and they presented their solidarity with the Palestinian people… We hope India will play a good role in stopping the siege on our people of Gaza and putting pressure on the Israeli government for humanitarian aid to our people in Gaza,” he said.

    The Hamas-run health ministry said on Monday that some 2,329 Palestinians have been killed and another 9,042 have been wounded in Israeli retaliatory airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Forces has said it has killed some 1,500 Palestinian terrorists in Israeli territory after they breached the border fence and rampaged murderously in southern Israel, killing over 1,300 people, mostly civilians.  Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp

  • Jamie Lee Curtis removes post supporting Israel following backlash

    By IANS

    LOS ANGELES: Oscar-winning actress Jamie Lee Curtis has quietly responded to backlash over her post which saw her showing support for Israel following the Hamas attack.

    The actress has deleted the controversial post as it’s no longer on her Instagram page, reports aceshowbiz.com.

    In the Saturday post, Jamie shared a picture of several children looking terrified while staring missiles in the sky.

    “Terror from the skies,” the ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ actress wrote alongside an Israel flag.

    The actress also tagged Samar Abu Elouf, the photographer behind the image.

    Samar, however, clarified that the picture actually featured Palestinian children in Gaza.

    They were running from bombs being counter-launched by Israel.

    “Palestinian families seek refuge with their children from the northern Gaza Trip to UNRWA schools inside Gaza City. Children are afraid of the sound of bombing who hear it during their presence due to events on the Strip’s borders,” the photographer wrote on her own Instagram page.

    It didn’t take long for Internet users to slam Jamie as she used the wrong picture to show solidarity to Israel.

    “Just to clarify, this picture is from Gaza. The children looking up at the rockets are Palestinian,” an Instagram user wrote in the comments section.

    “That’s Arabic in the back there, look at the store signs. If that was in Israel, it would be Hebrew,” someone else pointed out. “In fact, this is a picture from Gaza! The children are Palestinian children from Gaza and they are under Israeli terror and heavy airstrike!”

    “Girl, wtf is the message here? You have a photo of Palestinian children taken by a Gaza-based Muslim photojournalist with an Israeli flag in the incredibly manipulative caption,” someone else fumed.

    A user on X (formerly Twitter), wrote: “Jamie Lee Curtis posting a pic from Gaza and thinking it’s from Israel is kinda funny ngl.”

    “Jamie Lee Curtis reposting a picture of Palestinian children in Gaza and captioning it with the Israeli flag is some serious shameless lying. When you support Israel, you need to lie in order to make your case,” another tweeted. “Jamie Lee Curtis posted the picture to get sympathy for Israel when it’s literally Palestinian kids… you can’t make this up…,” another tweet read.

    Jamie wasn’t the only celebrity who was under fire after showing support for Israel.

    Kylie Jenner landed in hot water as she was called by online users for sharing a pro-Israel post even though her best friends, including Gigi Hadid and Bella Hadid, have been advocating for Palestine for years.

    Beginning on Saturday, the militant group Hamas launched thousands of rockets from Gaza in a surprise ambush.

    Since the ongoing conflict, more than 1,100 people have been killed from both sides and over 2,300 people have been injured, according to the media.

    LOS ANGELES: Oscar-winning actress Jamie Lee Curtis has quietly responded to backlash over her post which saw her showing support for Israel following the Hamas attack.

    The actress has deleted the controversial post as it’s no longer on her Instagram page, reports aceshowbiz.com.

    In the Saturday post, Jamie shared a picture of several children looking terrified while staring missiles in the sky.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    “Terror from the skies,” the ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ actress wrote alongside an Israel flag.

    The actress also tagged Samar Abu Elouf, the photographer behind the image.

    Samar, however, clarified that the picture actually featured Palestinian children in Gaza.

    They were running from bombs being counter-launched by Israel.

    “Palestinian families seek refuge with their children from the northern Gaza Trip to UNRWA schools inside Gaza City. Children are afraid of the sound of bombing who hear it during their presence due to events on the Strip’s borders,” the photographer wrote on her own Instagram page.

    It didn’t take long for Internet users to slam Jamie as she used the wrong picture to show solidarity to Israel.

    “Just to clarify, this picture is from Gaza. The children looking up at the rockets are Palestinian,” an Instagram user wrote in the comments section.

    “That’s Arabic in the back there, look at the store signs. If that was in Israel, it would be Hebrew,” someone else pointed out. “In fact, this is a picture from Gaza! The children are Palestinian children from Gaza and they are under Israeli terror and heavy airstrike!”

    “Girl, wtf is the message here? You have a photo of Palestinian children taken by a Gaza-based Muslim photojournalist with an Israeli flag in the incredibly manipulative caption,” someone else fumed.

    A user on X (formerly Twitter), wrote: “Jamie Lee Curtis posting a pic from Gaza and thinking it’s from Israel is kinda funny ngl.”

    “Jamie Lee Curtis reposting a picture of Palestinian children in Gaza and captioning it with the Israeli flag is some serious shameless lying. When you support Israel, you need to lie in order to make your case,” another tweeted. “Jamie Lee Curtis posted the picture to get sympathy for Israel when it’s literally Palestinian kids… you can’t make this up…,” another tweet read.

    Jamie wasn’t the only celebrity who was under fire after showing support for Israel.

    Kylie Jenner landed in hot water as she was called by online users for sharing a pro-Israel post even though her best friends, including Gigi Hadid and Bella Hadid, have been advocating for Palestine for years.

    Beginning on Saturday, the militant group Hamas launched thousands of rockets from Gaza in a surprise ambush.

    Since the ongoing conflict, more than 1,100 people have been killed from both sides and over 2,300 people have been injured, according to the media.

  • India’s position not new: MEA on abstention at UNHRC on Gaza resolution

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: India on Thursday defended its abstention during the voting at the UNHRC on a resolution to probe Gaza violence, saying its position is not new and it has abstained on previous occasions also.

    Asked about the Palestinian foreign minister writing to his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar on India abstaining during the voting in the United Nations Human Rights Council on the issue, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said a similar letter has been written to all countries who abstained.

    “Palestine wrote similar letters to all countries who abstained. The position that we took is not a new position.

    And we have abstained on previous occasions. I think that explains our position quite clearly and addresses these questions,” the spokesperson said during a media briefing.

    Expressing “concern”, Palestine’s Foreign minister Riad Malki in a letter to Jaishankar said that India “missed an opportunity to join international community at this turning point, both crucial and long overdue, on the path to accountability, justice and peace”.

    Both Israel and Palestinian group Hamas agreed on a ceasefire that came into effect last month after days of intense fighting in which around 230 people were killed in Gaza and 12 in Israel.

    Last week, India along with 13 other countries abstained from voting on the resolution at UNHRC to launch an investigation into alleged violations and crimes during the 11-day conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

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    The resolution was adopted as 24 countries voted in favour of it while nine opposed it at the end of an all-day special session of the 47-member UN body at its headquarters in Geneva.

    The special session of the Council was called to discuss the “grave human rights situation” in the Palestinian territory including East Jerusalem.

    India’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva Indra Mani Pandey had said at the special session that New Delhi welcomes the diplomatic efforts of the international community and regional countries that have resulted in bringing ceasefire between Israel and armed groups in Gaza.

    “India calls on all parties to show extreme restraint, desist from actions that aggravate tensions and refrain from any further attempts to unilaterally change the existing status-quo, including in East Jerusalem and its neighbourhoods,” he said.

    Pandey said India was firmly convinced that dialogue remains the only viable option that can effectively address the issues confronting the region and its people.

  • ‘Deeply concerned’ over govt’s stand on recent Israel-Palestine conflict: Congress

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday expressed deep concern over India’s stand on the recent conflict between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza and said the widespread impression is that India has “moved away from its traditional policy” in the region.

    In a statement, the opposition party said India’s foreign policy has historically been bipartisan and added that it supports the government in its articulation and defence of the country’s interests abroad.

    “It is in this spirit that we reiterate the traditional position in support of the two-State solution, with appropriate recognition of East Jerusalem as the capital of independent Palestine, must not be undermined by omission,” the party said in the statement.

    “Both parties should respect the ceasefire and return to peace negotiations, there being no other path to a meaningful, peaceful co-existence of Israel and Palestine.

    As one of the few countries to have maintained a good relationship with both parties to the conflict, we must not be influenced by expediency to dilute our commitment to Palestine,” it also said.

    “The Congress party is deeply concerned about our country’s stand on the recent tragic conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza.

    Press reports indicating a perceptible shift in the Indian position between the Indian intervention in the UN Security Council on May 16 and our statement in the UN General Assembly on May 20 have conveyed the widespread impression that India has moved away from its traditional policy in the area,” according to the statement.

    The Congress said it was appropriate for India’s initial statement to note that the intrusion by Israeli forces into the Holy Al Aqsa mosque during Ramzan prayers ruptured the delicate peace in the region.

    “Omitting that in our statement to the General Assembly, where sympathy for the Palestinians is far more extensive than in the Security Council, was incomprehensible.

    It must not be lost sight of that this unacceptable intrusion into the holy precincts was the immediate flash point,” it noted.

    The formulation reiterating “India’s strong support to the just Palestinian cause and its unwavering commitment to the two-State solution,” which was part of the Indian statement in the UN Security Council, was absent from the General Assembly statement, raising questions about the overall direction of our policy in the region, the Congress statement said.

    “Our later statement at the UN Human Rights Council has also conveyed the impression that we have departed from our time-tested commitment to Palestine and thrown our support entirely to Israel,” the Congress said.

    The Israeli attack on media offices, undermining the first principles of free flow of information, and the death of a large numbers of children in Israeli airstrikes, have gone without appropriate censure from our side, it said.

  • Dua Lipa refutes antisemitic allegations after extending support to Palestinians

    By ANI
    WASHINGTON: British singer and songwriter Dua Lipa recently spoke out after being accused of antisemitism due to her support of Palestinians in the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

    According to Fox News, the singer is taking an organization to task after it paid for a full-page ad in a news outlet that called her antisemitic for her support of Palestinians, saying it used her name shamelessly to “advance their ugly campaign with falsehoods and blatant misrepresentations.”

    In the rambling ad, which appeared in Saturday’s newspaper in the main section, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, the head of the World Values Network, named Lipa, and the models Bella and Gigi Hadid as three “mega-influencers” who have “accused Israel of ethnic cleansing” and “vilified the Jewish State.”

    Bella Hadid has previously shown her support for the Palestinian people on social media.

    Lipa took to Twitter on Saturday afternoon to “reject the false and appalling allegations” and said the World Values Network twisted what she stands for.

    “I utterly reject the false and appalling allegations that were published today in the New York Times advertisement taken out by the World Values Network,” she began her post.

    pic.twitter.com/Wcdr5E1jCA
    — DUA LIPA (@DUALIPA) May 22, 2021

    Dua further continued, “This is the price you pay for defending Palestinian human rights against an Israeli government whose actions in Palestine both Human Rights Watch and the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem accuse of persecution and discrimination.”

    She concluded the post by adding, “I take this stance because I believe that everyone – Jews, Muslims and Christians – have the right to live in peace as equal citizens of a state they choose. The World Values Network are shamelessly using my name to advance their ugly campaign with falsehoods and blatant misrepresentations of who I am and what I stand for. I stand in solidarity with all oppressed people and reject all forms of racism.”

    Tensions increased in the Middle East since May 10, when Hamas militants in Gaza fired long-range rockets toward Jerusalem. The barrage came after days of clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

    As per Fox News, a cease-fire was declared on Friday. The 11-day war left more than 250 dead, the vast of whom were majorly Palestinians, and also brought widespread devastation to the already impoverished Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. 

  • Gal Gadot criticised after she calls for ‘solution’ to Israel-Palestine conflict

    By PTI
    LOS ANGELES: Hollywood star Gal Gadot came under fire on social media after she posted a message of peace in the wake of the latest round of fighting between Israel and Palestine.

    Gadot, a former Israeli Defence Forces fighter, posted a statement on Twitter, saying it breaks her heart to her see her “country is at war”.

    “My heart breaks. My country is at war. I worry for my family, my friends. I worry for my people. This is a vicious cycle that has been going on for far too long,” the 36-year-old actor wrote.

    The “Wonder Woman” star said both Israel and its “neighbour” deserve to live as “free and safe” nations.

    “I pray for the victims and their families, I pray for this unimaginable hostility to end, I pray for our leaders to find the solution so we could live side by side in peace. I pray for better days,” Gadot added.

    However, her post on Twitter was flooded with replies that criticised her of being a “propaganda” tool for Israel, given her past military service record.

    Some also called out her for using the word “neighbour” instead of referencing Palestine by name.

    The backlash was so severe and vitriolic that Gadot disabled the comments section to her tweet.

    At least 53 Palestinians and six Israelis have been killed in spiralling violence as of Wednesday as Gaza-based militants fired hundreds of rockets on Israel since Monday evening.

    Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes at Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in the coastal strip.

  • ‘Turkey Wants Better Ties With Israel But Its Palestine Policy Is Unacceptable’: Erdogan

    Turkey is in favour of improving diplomatic relations with Israel but its Palestinian policy is unacceptable to Ankara, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on December 25. While other Middle Eastern powers like UAE and Bahrain normalised relations with Israel, Turkey has stood firm in its support for the Palestinian cause. Speaking to reporters in Istanbul, the Turkish leader stressed that there was an issue with “people at the top level” in Israel and that ties could have been “very different” if it were not for those issues.

    Ties between the two countries severed in 2018 after Ankara expelled the Israeli ambassador over the killings of Palestinians amid protests in Gaza Strip. Jerusalem retaliated by expelling the Turkish diplomat, eventually making both the countries without diplomats ill Ankara appointed one earlier in 2020.

  • India hopes for early resumption of dialogue between Palestine, Israel

    Expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said India hopes for an early resumption of dialogue between Palestine and Israel for moving towards a comprehensive and negotiated resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

    In his message on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, Modi said, “I wish to convey India’s strong support for the Palestinian cause and to express our solidarity with the Palestinian people in their efforts to establish a sovereign, independent and united State of Palestine co-existing peaceful with the State of Israel.

    He said as the Day is marked, “we hope for an early resumption of dialogue between Palestine and Israel for moving towards a comprehensive and negotiated resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

    Modi underscored that historical ties between India and Palestine have further strengthened in recent years, adding that his visit to Ramallah in February this year was the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Palestine.

    “The visit was an assertion of India’s strong commitment for the development of Palestine.”

    India has announced an increase in the annual scholarships for Palestinian students, six new projects including construction of a specialty hospital and an increase in its annual contribution to UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East).

    “Our financial and technical assistance is an expression of our strong resolve to strengthen Palestinian institutions,” Modi said.

    In his message Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a two-State solution where Israel and Palestine live side-by-side as sovereign nations is still “the only option” for lasting peace, and “containing the situation is not sufficient.”

    Guterres said more than 40 years ago, the General Assembly established an International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people to remind “us of our collective, unfinished task of resolving the question of Palestine. Over the decades, this has become one of the most intractable challenges for the international community, and we know only too well the tragic results.”

    He called on Palestinian and Israeli leaders “to restore faith in the promise” of the UN General Assembly resolution of two States living side-by-side in peace and security, fulfilling the legitimate national aspirations of both peoples, with borders based on the 1967 lines and Jerusalem as the capital of both states – East Jerusalem being the capital of the Palestinian state.”