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July
30, 2003
India Rolls
Out the Red Carpet
Feting Sharon
By N.D. JAYAPRAKASH
It is absolutely shocking to note that the Government
of India has extended an invitation to Mr. Ariel Sharon, Prime
Minister of Israel, to pay an official visit to India. This fact
was first revealed by Mr. Brajesh Mishra, India's 'National Security
Advisor', on 8 May 2003 in New York, while addressing the gathering
at the Annual Dinner held by the American Jewish Committee (AJC),
a rabid Zionist organization [1].
Promoting better relations with the people
of Israel is one thing but trying to white-wash the heinous crimes
of Ariel Sharon, and those of the fascist Likud Party he represents,
is quite another. By extending an invitation to Ariel Sharon
to visit India, the Indian Government has committed the cardinal
sin of bestowing honour on a war-criminal, who is deeply detested
by the vast majority of the global community because of his unsavoury
reputation. In fact Sharon cannot travel to most countries even
in Europe because of the extreme passions such a visit would
arouse. It cannot be that the Government of India is unaware
of the criminal record of Ariel Sharon or of the notorious Likud
Party he has been leading. Therefore, the motives for inviting
Ariel Sharon to India are highly suspicious.
During his speech at the said Annual
Dinner of the AJC, Mr. Brajesh Mishra had rightly claimed that
India "is one of very few countries in the world with no
history of anti-Semitism." However, Mr. Mishra very conveniently
forgot to add that India was one country that had been consistently
anti-Zionist since the early days of its national movement under
Mahatma Gandhi. It is primarily after the right-wing BJP [Bharathiya
Janata Party]-led alliance assumed office that the Indian Government
has started taking an increasingly pro-Zionist stance.
Mr. Mishra had also gone on to add that:
"India, the United States and Israel have some fundamental
similarities. We are all democracies, sharing a common vision
of pluralism, tolerance and equal opportunity." Since when
has Israel started promoting "a... vision of pluralism,
tolerance and equal opportunity"! ? Is it not a fact that
the bulk of the Palestinian population were violently displaced
from the area allocated to Israel under the UN Partition Plan
of 1947? Is it not a fact that the Palestinian people are under
the brutal occupation of Israel, especially since 1967? Is it
not a fact that more than half the 8 million Palestinian population
are forced to live as refugees both inside and outside Palestine?
Is it not a fact that the UN Committee on the Exercise of the
Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP, a committee
consisting of 25 UN members including India) has repeatedly voiced
its grave concern at the horrendous treatment of the Palestinians
by the occupying Israeli Defence Forces (IDF)? [2] Then by what
yardstick is Mr. ! Mishra claiming that the State of Israel has
been promoting "pluralism, tolerance and equal opportunity"?
Mr. Mishra's claim of shared vision obviously
rests on the ignoble Sangh Parivar's (self-proclaimed group of
fanatical "Hindu" organizations) version of history
[3]. According to them: "Just as the Hindus of India are
fighting for their survival in the very land of their origin
and forefathers, so too are the Jews of Israel confronting the
very same threats to the nation that is theirs by historical
and religious birthright. Hindus and Jews both face exactly the
same danger: Islam.... The desire to reassert what is their rightful
pride in land, culture and religion has awakened in the heart
of the common Isra! eli and Indian. The results are obvious,
the unabashedly Jewish Likud Party was voted into power in Israel
and the political party that represents the reemergence of Hinduism,
the BJP has been voted into power in India.... Considering the
import of shared experiences, ideas and situations that links
Indians and Israelis, it is about time that solid chains of friendship
were forged." [4] Kowtowing to such pressure sullies not
only the image of the Indian Government but that of the entire
Secular Democratic Republic of India. The Sharon visit will also
create utter dismay in the Sout h Asian region as a whole and
will be disastrous for peace and democracy in the subcontinent.
There is little doubt, therefore, that
it is the BJP's fascistic ideological affinity with the Likud
Party which is the driving force behind this attempt to forge
"solid chains of friendship". Just as the BJP emerged
out of the erstwhile Bharathiya Jan Sangh, the Likud ("Unity")
Party too emerged out of the erstwhile Tnuat Haherut ("Freedom")
Party. The "Freedom" Party was headed by Menachem Begin,
who also later went on to head the Likud Party. The Likud Party
first came to power in 1977 with Begin as Prime Minister. It
may be noted that nearly 30 years earlier many eminent US intellectuals
of Jewish origin, including the noted scientist Albert Einstein,!
had protested against the visit of Begin, while he was in the
United States in 1948 on a fund raising campaign, for his role
in the Deir Yassin massacre (see below). In their protest letter,
which was published in the New York Times, they spoke plainly
urging the US citizens not to support Begin or the fascist political
movement he represented. The letter stated as follows:
"Among the most disturbing political
phenomena of our time is the emergence in the newly created State
of Israel of the "Freedom Party" (Tnuat Haherut), a
political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political
philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties.
It was formed out of the membership and following of the former
Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization
in Palestine. ...Before irreparable damage is done by way of
financial contributions...the American public must be informed
as to the record and objectives of <Mr.Begin>'s and his
movement. ...Today they speak of freedom, democracy and anti-imperialism,
whereas until recently they openly preached the doctrine of the
Fascist state.... A shocking example was their behaviour in the
Arab village of Deir Yassin.... On April 9 (THE NEW YORK TIMES)
terrorist bands attacked this peaceful village, killed most of
its inhabitants--240 men, women and children--and kept a few
of them alive to parade them as captives through the streets
of Jerusalem. Most of the Jewish community was horrified at the
deed, and the Jewish Agency sent a telegram of apology to King
Abdulla of Transjordan. .... But the terrorists far from being
ashamed of their act, were proud of this massacre, publicised
it widely, and invited all the foreign correspondents present
in the country to view the heaped corpses and the general havoc
at Deir Yassin. The Deir Yassin incident exemplifies the character
of the Freedom Party....The undersigned therefore take this means
of publicly presenting a few salient facts concerning Begin and
his party; and of urging all concerned not to support this latest
manifestation of fascism." [5]!
As mentioned above, it is the same fascist
"Freedom" Party that has re-emerged as the Likud Party,
which has been ruling Israel for the last several years. At least
three of its members who have occupied the Prime Ministerial
post--Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir (who had plotted the murder
of the UN mediator for Palestine, Count Bernadotte, on 17 September
1948 [6]) and Aerial Sharon--have blood on their hands. It is
undisputed that, when he was just 25-year old, Sharon was directly
involved in the massacre of some 69 Palestinian civilians in
the West Bank village of Qibiya during the night of 14-15 October
1953 as the bloody operation was carried out by an Israeli army
unit led by him [7]. Later, as the Defence Minister of Israel,
Sharon was instrumen! tal in plotting the Israeli invasion of
Lebanon in 1982. There are various reports that vividly describe
the result of his ruthless actions in Lebanon. According to the
information compiled by the US Library of Congress:
"Beirut suffered grievously between
June 6, 1982, when Israeli troops first crossed the Lebanese
border, and September 16, when they completed their seizure of
West Beirut. Normal economic activity was brought to a standstill.
Factories that had sprung up in the southern suburbs were damaged
or destroyed, highways were torn up, and houses were ruined or
pitted by artillery fire and rockets. Close to 40,000 homes--about
one-fourth of all Beir! ut's dwellings--were destroyed. Eighty-five
percent of all schools south of the city were damaged or destroyed."
[8]
The same report further added: "Taking
stock of the war's toll, Israel announced that 344 of its soldiers
had been killed and over 2,000 wounded.... Lebanese estimates,
compiled from International Red Cross sources and police and
hospital surveys, calculated that 17,825 Lebanese had died and
over 30,000 had been wounded." [9] But this was not all.
"On the evening of September 16, 1982, the IDF, having surrounded
the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila, dispatched
approximately 300 to 400 Christian militiamen into the camps
to rout what was! believed to be the remnant of the Palestinian
forces. The militiamen were mostly Phalangists under the command
of Elie Hubayka (also seen as Hobeika), a former close aide of
Bashir Jumayyil, but militiamen from the Israeli-supported SLA
were also present. The IDF ordered its soldiers to refrain from
entering the camps, but IDF officers supervised the operation
from the roof of a six-story building overlooking parts of the
area. According to the report of the Kahan Commission established
by the government of Israel to investigate the events, the IDF
monitored the Phalangist radio network and fired illumination
flares from mortars and aircraft to light the area. Over a period
of two days, the Christian militiamen massacr! ed some 700 to
800 Palestinian men, women, and children." [10] Palestinian
sources, however, claim that the death toll was over 3500.
Due to his despicable role in the Sabra
and Shatila massacre, efforts were on to try Sharon as a war
criminal in a Belgian court of law [11]. On 18 June 2001, 23
survivors of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacres lodged a case
in Belgium accusing Ariel Sharon (then Defense Minister and currently
Prime Minister of Israel) with war crimes, crimes against humanity,
and genocide related to the massacres committed during 16-18
September 1982. The other accused include Amos Yaron (then Brigadier
Genera! l commanding the Israeli division's forward command post
in Beirut which was located just 200 metres from the Sabra and
Shatila camps and currently Director General of Israel's Ministry
of Defense), Elias Hobeika and other Lebanese Phalangist militia
leaders. (The Sabra and Shatila survivors lodged the charges
under 1993 and 1999 Belgian legislations that incorporates the
principle of Universal Jurisdiction for war-crimes and crimes
against humanity into Belgian criminal law.) Even the BBC has
produced a documentary on Sharon titled "The Accused",
which deals with his complicity in the Shabra and Shatila massacre
[12].
According to activists who are campaigning
to indict Sharon: "The central figure is unquestionably
General Ariel Sharon, then Israeli Defence Minister, who personally
directed the military operations in Lebanon and who was in Beirut
at the time of the events.....Certain information indicates that
Mr Sharon, although preferring to allow his local collaborators
to perform the massacre in the camps, might have planned it with
a view to terrorising the entirety of the Palestinian population
of the Lebanon into leaving, or retreating to the north of the
country.....Concerning the Phalangist militia, they could be
considered de facto auxiliary forces to the military power occupying
South Lebanon and Beirut at the time. These militia were armed
and trained by Israel. Their leaders would not have been able
to take any initiative that contradicted the will of the occupying
power [Israel], and the operations they carried out were devised
and prepared in collaboration with the Israeli military leaders."
[13]
It is rather unfortunate that because
of intense pressure from the US Government, the Belgian Government
has now agreed to change its laws in such a way that Sharon and
his co-conspirators cannot be tried in Belgium for war crimes
anymore [14]. But despite this setback there is unlikely to be
any letup in the efforts of the survivors of the Sabra and Shatila
massacre to put Sharon on trial. It may, however, be noted that
Sharon was indeed castigated for his role in the massacre by
Israel's own commission of enquiry headed by the then President
of the Israeli Supreme Court, Yitzhak Kahane, an! d he was forced
to resign from his post as Defense Minister in 1983 [15]. Nevertheless,
the situation in Israel is such that Sharon had little difficulty
in bouncing back to power within a short time.
Meanwhile, Israel has had the dubious
distinction of attaining "pariah" status in the UN
because of the despicable deeds of its government. According
to American Jewish Committe's (AJC) own admission: "...
since the fall of 1996... the world body has entered a new and
regrettably familiar phase, reminiscent of the UN in the 1970s
and 1980s.... In this vast and strife-torn world, no other country
is subject to the relentless, indeed obsessive, attention that
is focused on Israel, ! year in and year out, in the General
Assembly and other UN bodies. No other country is the subject
of an even remotely similar number of critical resolutions, agenda
items, committees of the Secretariat, and intolerant remarks"[16].
Seven years later the AJC could not but add that: "There
are many others ways in which Israel has been singled out for
special treatment at the UN, making it a pariah state."
[17]
According to another Zionist sympathizer,
only the United States "can be counted on to quickly and
unambiguously express its understanding of Israel's situation
and defend Israel's right to strike back.... Europeans, by contrast!
, stumble all over themselves, trying, but never convincingly,
to show sympathy for the Israeli victims, but unable to hide
their profound antipathy for the Sharon-led government and their
general dislike of military responses to what they believe to
be political problems." The same report also went on to
add: "...the Geneva-based Commission on Human Rights, for
example, was able to devote about 35 percent of its time at this
year's six-week session to bashing Israel. It passed no fewer
than eight anti-Israel resolutions, when no other problematic
regional situation was the object of more ! than one resolution,
if that." [18]
Zionist Israel is despised the world-over
precisely because of its forcible occupation of Palestine and
its most inhuman treatment of the Palestinian people for the
last 55 years. Ariel Sharon's infamy goes back even further.
Sharon has never lost an opportunity to spill the blood of Palestinians
ever since he joined the Haganah, the terrorist wing of the Zionist
movement, way back in 1942. The scale of his cruelty has only
increased with time. Thus, Sharon's current role as Prime Minister
has been equally appalling. The massacre of Palestinians in the
refugee camps in the West Bank town of Jenin in April 2002 is
yet another exa! mple of the brutality with which IDF under Sharon
has been treating the hapless Palestinians. It is this bloodthirsty
leader of the Likud Party that the Government of India has chosen
to bestow an honour by inviting him to India at this juncture.
This thoughtless decision of the Indian Government stigmatizes
all conscientious Indians.
Under the circumstances, if the Government
of India does not withdraw the said invitation to Ariel Sharon
forthwith, it would be a severe blot on the entire Indian nation.
Any hesitancy on the part of the Government of India to do so
would only mean that the Government has chosen to turn a blind
eye to the horrendous crimes being perpetrated by Ariel Sharon
and his fascist clique on the unfortunate people of Palestine,
who are under the yoke of Israeli occupation. It would also mean
that the present Government has chosen to completely overturn
the principled policies followed by all previous governments
in India, which have fervently supported the just cause of the
Palestinian people.
It was reported that Ariel Sharon is
scheduled to visit India from 9 to 11 September 2003, but the
Government of India, however, claims that the dates are yet to
be finalized [19]. If the dates are never finalized, it would
save the Indian Government the embarrassment of inviting a war
criminal to India. But unless enough public pressure is mounted
on the Indian Government to stick to its earlier principled stand,
the pro-Zionist lobby will not desist from imposing its will.
References:
[1] See http://www.indianembassy.org/i
[2] See The
Palestinian Saga.
[3] On June 2, 2001, The New York Times
reported in its New York Report Section ("Two Unlikely Allies
Come Together in Hatred of Muslims," Page A13), that a group
of extremist Queens-Long Island Hindus (HinduUnity.org),
who presume to speak for all their fellow believers, have joined
forces with the Brooklyn followers of the late Rabbi Meir David
Kahane (<Kahane.org>). The two groups have agreed to share
their resources and strategies even as they help each other to
maintain their hate websites. (See Amritjit Singh: "Is
Islam Really a Problem for Jews and Hindus?"
[4] Aditi Chaturvedi, 'India
and Israel--Destined for true friendship', March 22nd, 1999,
at < (This website is funded by yet another Zionist organization:
The Freeman Center for Strategic Studies, Huston, Texas, USA)
[5] Albert Einstein and twenty-eight
others, New York Times, 4 December 1948
[6] For more details see: http://www.us-israel.org
[7] See http://electronicintifada.net/
and
http://www.palestinefacts.org/ (a Zionist web-site)
[8] (US Library of Congress / Federal
Research Division / Country Studies / Area Handbook Series /Lebanon
/ Chapter 3 / The Economy / Recent Economic History / Invasion
and Trauma, 1982-87, Para1)
[9] (US Library of Congress / Federal
Research Division / Country Studies / Area Handbook Series /Lebanon
/ Chapter 5 / National Security/The 1982 Israeli Invasion And
Its Aftermath /The Siege of Beirut, Para 5)
[10] Ibid, Para 9
[11] For more details, see http://www.indictsharon.net
[12] See http://news.bbc.co.uk/
(BBC Panaroma, 17 June 2001)
[13] (The
Case Against the Accused / Responsibilities)
[14] See Reuters
12 July 2003 at and The Hindu, Delhi, 14 July 2003. Also
see The
Daily Star, Beirut, 21July 2003.
[15] Israel's Foreign Relations, Selected
Documents, 104. Report
of the Commission of Inquiry into the events at the refugee camps
in Beirut, 8 February 1983.
[16]
American Jewish Committee, 23 September 1997.
[17] http://www.ajc.org/Israel/IsraelAndTheUN.asp,
29 May 2003
[18] David A. Harris, 'Israel
nearly alone in its war for survival', Miami Herald, 3 September
2002.
[18] See The Hindu, Delhi, 22 July 2003
N.D.Jayaprakash
is a member of the Delhi Science Forum and can be reached at:
jpdsf@hotmail.com
Weekend Edition Features for July 26 / 28, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
NYT's Screws Up Again; Uday and
Qusay Deaths Bad for Bush; Gen. Hitchens at the Front
Gary
Leupp
Faith-Based Intelligence
Saul Landau
A Report from Syria
Stan
Goff
Bring 'Em On Home, Now!
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Book Cooking at Boeing
Andrew
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The Sons Are Dead; Now the Blood Feud
Begins
Jason Leopold
CIA Points the Finger at the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans
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Refuting Brad DeLong's Smear Job on Noam Chomsky
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Keeney, Witherup, Short, Nimba, Guthrie and Albert
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