Critiquing India’s ‘do or die’ attitude towards ‘terrorism’, Bidwai analyses New Delhi’s obsession with the Israeli model and its moral and practical implications.
Eland looks at precisely how the US military has adopted Israeli military tactics in its occupation of Iraq. This piece exposes early on the dangers of adopting such policies as well as the likelihood of their failure as a ‘security’ oriented tactic. The only case to be made for such adoption, given the Israeli experience, appears in this analysis to be the perpetration of extreme violence largely against civilians.
A relentless war against the Palestinians has been portrayed as Israeli self defence, even as a search for peace. Meanwhile any resistance has been portrayed as the obstacle to peace, even as terrorism. Through this storyline, the so-called ‘international community’ has legitimised the Zionist occupation of Palestine through its imitation of these policies in the global ‘war on terror’.
Following the ruthless killing of an innocent Brazilian in London by British police in July 2005, it rapidly emerged that for many years Britain had secretly adopted a shoot-to-kill policy to deal with suspected human bombers. The policy was implemented following lengthy consultations with and training by members of the Israeli security forces, who themselves are frequently accused of gross human rights abuses. With the civil police force in Britain adopting the brutal tactics of occupying armies, is the UK effectively being turned into a war-zone?
This is a review of a book on al-Quds written by a prominent scholar of the ahlus-sunnah school of law based in Qatar. The book deals with issues connected to Palestine in general. Issues dealt with by the scholar include the place of al-Quds in the Qur’an, the relevance and importance of al-Quds to Muslims. On the political side he deals with the enemy i.e. the Zionist, and their project of destroying al-Quds and installing the temple of Solomon on its ruins. He discusses at length the nature of the enemy utilizing various sources in Arabic and Hebrew. He points towards the support the Americans had given towards Israel in fulfilling their Zionist project of the expansion of Israel. He ends the book by outlining some recommendations for the Muslims in the face of this encroachment towards al-Quds.
It is an increasingly sad truth that much of what is understood to be nefarious racist, discriminatory, unjust and / or violent policy in various nation states follows policy and precedent set by successive Israeli administrations and its security forces. This dubious accolade is neither one that Israeli commentators and politicians shy away from and both they and oftentimes those countries and institutions that emulate them exalt.
This issue of Palestine Internationalist looks at the US, UK and Indian adoption of such practices within Iraq, the UK and South Asia respectively. Sourced externally, thought provoking Indian journalist Praful Bidwai discusses the Indian government’s use of an Israeli model in its attempts to deal with security issues ranging from the Mumbai train bombings to cross border issues with Pakistan and by implication the struggle for Kashmiri independence from New Delhi. Written last summer, its moral case against adopting the perilous route of Israeli anti-terrorist policy is a commanding polemic and practical argument against the efficacy and normativity of such an approach. As Bidwai has alluded to elsewhere[1] New Delhi’s lobbying in Washington has involved “working closely with the American Jewish Congress, despite its deplorable Zionist credentials.”
Ivan Eland’s prescient warnings about the use of Israeli military tactics and indeed direct training in the occupation of Iraq by US forces again highlights how the perpetration of egregious violence by state forces is increasingly exhorted as being a direct emulation of Israeli tactics - even when they are otherwise understood to be tactical failures except in the level of violence unleashed.
Les Levidow’s powerful analysis of the implications for Palestinian Solidarity by the ‘war on terror’ focuses not only on the ‘war’s’ Zionist origins, but highlights the dangers surrounding essentialist or uninformed responses. Levidow also brings to bear not only his theoretical insight to the issue but a long time activist’s response and advice to those concerned with the demonisation of Palestinian Solidarity and struggles for justice worldwide.
Finally two contributions from the Palestine Internationalist team conclude this issue. On the main theme, Fahad Ansari articulates in detail the adoption of Israeli shoot-to-kill practices by British police. Whilst meticulously charting the connection, Ansari highlights what should be an institutionally acknowledged disparity between the practices of a civilian police force and a military force that has been internationally castigated as one of the worst perpetrators of human rights abuses. Not only is the British police policy indicted by this piece but the very nature of what type of state the UK is or is becoming is called into question.
Examining regional responses to the Palestinian struggle, Mohamad Nasrin Nasir reviews Al-Quds:al-Qadhiyyah Kulli Muslim [al-Quds: An Issue for All Muslims] by Dr Yusuf Qardhawi. The review of this Arabic text highlights to non-Arabic readers some surprising commentaries perhaps not expected from a scholar demonised as radical in a pejorative sense. It also highlights how re-evaluating expectations and not falling into stereotypical analyses is a way forward regionally as well as for all of us who show solidarity with the Palestinian and global struggles for justice.
Arzu Merali
Fahad Ansari
Mohamad Nasrin Nasir
December 2006
[1] Bidwai, Praful ‘A case for refocusing India 's foreign policy’ Khaleej Times, 7 October 2006 http://www.tni.org/archives/bidwai/refocusing.htm
Copyright © 2005 Palestine Internationalist
source: Volume 2 Issue 2 (Dec 2006), http://www.palint.org/mag.php?issuenum=22
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