IBNLive : Paarull's Blog : Kashmir and Palestine
We're in Jerusalem. "I'm from Kashmir", our journalist friend makes his first tentative approach to a couple of Palestinian men. "You pray for us, we'll pray for you", they reply. The conversation is over. The Palestinians are in no mood for a chat.
I'm not a party to this conversation but our group of Indian journalists has a quick laugh when it's relayed to us. So much for `solidarity to the cause'. But I also sense the frustration lurking behind that remark.
I see frustration when I'm at Aida (the word is Arabic for Return). It's a Palestinian refugee camp in Bethlehem city, West Bank. Young kids, some not older than 8 or 9, are filling water trickling out from a rusty tap. Our guide says they stay thirsty for days because Israel controls the supply and chooses to consume a bulk of the water, leaving very little for the Palestinians. Even discounting for propaganda, living in a camp for as long as you can remember can't be fun. (The Kashmiri Pandits will tell you the same, by the way).
I see a school with no window panes, it's boarded up on one side. The refugees worry about Israeli missiles blasting through the glass, hurting their kids. The camp has no tent - it long ago made way for Lajpat Nagar-like hovels, a family to a room, shared among lots of brothers and sisters. Karim, who shows us around, points to "those nice buildings at the top of the mountain. They are the Israeli settlers who came to steal our lands. Each family has an apartment". I smell despair.
And then there's the Wall that cuts through their homes, villages and factories - and the Israeli Defence Forces at every checkpoint. Frisking for a belt packed with explosives.
For Israelis, the wall is an anti-terror fence which has successfully kept many suicide bombers away, beginning 2003. There were only 614 attempts at suicide bombing last year, the government says proudly. For the Palestinians, the wall/fence is a visible symbol of occupation. It's also a major source of inconvenience for those who travel within West Bank and to Jerusalem and back. They ask, "If Israel needs it, why don't they build it on their side?".
Both are right.
I'm in the occupied territories the week Kashmir is on the boil. It makes me think of the Kashmiris who're out getting shot by the men in khakhi. Even in the rest of India, a Kashmiri risks being frisked more than the rest of us. For some others, a Kashmiri is a suspected terrorist - until proven innocent.
I see the similarities in the narrative of Palestine and Kashmir.
Yes, there are similarities even though 'azadi' for Kashmir is not on the table - while Israel recognises the Palestinians' right to a nation. There are similarities even though status quo will likely be a final solution for the Kashmir problem (i.e Pakistan keeps *** and India keeps what it has) while Israel will eventually pull out from West Bank.
I see similarities not just because India is being embarrassed by Kashmir and Israel is being embarrassed by Gaza. But because I hear the same words over and over again - dignity, humiliation, occupation, terrorism, militancy, rage, anger, human rights violations.
Both are conflicts over land, with water now creeping into the discourse. Blood spilled - of countless innocents - and of 'martyrs' and brave soldiers. Both Israel and India are prickly about UN involvement. And both India and Israel lack a credible peace partner on the other side. Israel is unable to do business with Hamas -- because Hamas is either unwilling to or unable to control terror from Gaza which is under its control. It's radicalized. And it's resolutely opposed to Israel's existence. India faces the same problem with Pakistan. Elements within its Army are determined to sponsor terrorism, determined to break India up as revenge for Bangladesh.
But most importantly perhaps, parties to both conflicts are guilty of perpetuating them by missing opportunities, turning a blind eye to misgovernance, fostering a political vacuum and taking recourse to terrorism to widen the trust deficit.
If West Asia had its Camp David in 2000, seven years after the peace process officially began, we had our 2004-2007 period (coinciding with the composite dialogue) when the UPA led by Dr Manmohan Singh and General Musharraf made quiet progress on Kashmir.
Cut to the present. We have Omar Abdullah playing Emperor Nero. The marginalisation of a mainstream opposition. The Centre squandering goodwill. The security forces thoroughly discredited. The revival of Syed Ali Shah Geelani and the resurgence of the Dukhtaran-e-Millat.
Where did the millions of rupees in development funds go? The funds for jihad, by the way, too are believed to have gone into private pockets. Conflict, you see, is good business for some. In a year when we should have built upon the gains of a successful election, we gave them fake encounters and botched-up investigations. And when, driven by despair, the Kashmiri picked up a stone - he got a fatal bullet from a confused and clueless security force. But the leadership saw nothing, says nothing. And there could be more trouble on the horizon - if a largely secular movement turns radical, if the Kashmiri picks up the gun again.
If that happens, we would only have ourselves to blame. Just like the Palestinians blame themselves.
A thoroughly insensitive and corrupt Yasser Arafat regime raked in billions of dollars in international aid. The Palestinian Authority - led by Fatah -- squandered its chance at governance in West Bank and Gaza. Jericho, handed over by Israel to the PA, got a casino before it got a hospital. "The occupied territories got dozens of armed militias, people never saw the billions and were denied basic freedoms", says Khalid , an Israeli Arab journalist of Palestinian stock. In 2006, Hamas swept to power in Gaza. The Palestinians had wanted change, you see. Today, Israel is worried. Hamas is such bad news for Israel that it is almost grateful for having to deal with the PA, praising the security co-operation it offers to manage West Bank!
Hamas has also damaged the Palestinian cause. The deputy mayor of Bethlehem, a Fatah leader, admits, "Terror won't help us achieve our goals, people are suffering under Hamas in Gaza". A large Kashmiri cross-section is only too aware of the damage Pakistani-sponsored terrorism and jihad for Kashmir has done to their cause. India will want it to stay that way. In return, it has to clean up its act. It can start by stopping the killings.
Every policeman and soldier who kills an innocent must be punished. As for riot control, there's a wealth of technology that Israel has developed which we can assess for our use -- like an armoured car that fires small stones back, The Shout - an acoustic weapon, a speaker that deafens anyone near it, a sticky net that can be dropped from a helicopter to round up a huge group, paint guns and guns with stinky pellets to identify riot leaders long after a protest is over. The Israelis learnt from the 2nd initifada, we must learn from the 2010 uprising.
So here's where we stand.
The Israelis and Palestinians and the Indians and Pakistanis now find themselves being nudged by President Obama to return to the talking table. I hear many Israelis say "Let's wait it out. Maybe we should start seeing the problem with more humility and realise it won't be solved in our lifetime. The gap is too wide. It's not having direct talks that's important, it's what you say." I'm beginning to sense this fatigue vis-a-vis Pakistan in policy circles in Delhi as well, notwithstanding the Prime Minister's push for peace. But we cannot afford to abandon the Kashmiris. The talks with Pakistan can wait, we need to listen to the Kashmiris first.
