Netanyahu in India: What used to be swept beneath the carpet

In case you believed that the Indian folks universally welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to India, then you had been misled. The corporate media – both in India and in Israel – targeting the click releases from the offices of the head ministers and offered hook, line and sinker into their successfully-orchestrated propaganda.

There had been the everyday visits: to the Taj Mahal, to Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram and to Gandhi’s samadhi (memorial). There used to be the opening of a technology centre and there used to be the meeting with alternate leaders.

But the media now not only didn’t quilt the biggest cause of Netanyahu’s search suggestion from, it also unnoticed Indians who protested in opposition to it and known as for cohesion with Palestine.

The arms deals

Amid all of the pomp and ceremony, what the media did now not focus on had been the arms deals that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Netanyahu mentioned. India is a first-rate purchaser of Israeli weapons; between 2012 and 2016, the nation offered forty one p.c of Israeli arms exports.

The meetings of « alternate leaders » which had been mentioned in the media incorporated weapons manufacturers and weapons contractors –  retailers of battle – who, of their blue suits and silk ties, pretended that their alternate is alternate and now not battle. What used to be mentioned at these meetings used to be reasonably significant.

In April 2017, India and Israel signed a deal for protection force instruments price $2bn. But on January 2 this twelve months, the Indian authorities told the Israeli arms firms that it may perchance perchance perchance no longer be honoring the $500m contract to take hang of the Spike anti-tank missiles. At some level of Netanyahu’s search suggestion from, nonetheless, he pointedly acknowledged that the deal used to be motivate on the desk. It sounds as if, Modi had individually told Netanyahu to forget the January 2 discover about.

To end so, Modi needed to slide in opposition to the Indian teach-owned protection force company Defense Study and Construction Group, which used to be performing per the Indian authorities’s « Originate in India » industrial coverage. In preference to form anti-tank missiles at dwelling, India will must pay up to import Israeli technology.

Weapons are at the center of the relationship between India and Israel. All else is secondary. It can perchance, nonetheless, had been too indecent to emphasise the weapons deals. Modi and Netanyahu are both showmen. They realize the art work of propaganda. To reduce their relationship to brokering for arms deals would now not end. They wish to be considered as high-minded men who are bringing their countries collectively for a greater cause.

Gandhi and Palestine

Mahatma Gandhi has been prolonged ancient to being misused in India. A man who eschewed money and detested the profit motive of capitalism is honoured on each of India’s currency notes.

In 1931, when Gandhi used to be requested about protection force force, he told a reporter that he hoped a future India would bear « the smallest navy that you just may perchance imagine ». India has, in the meanwhile the 2d largest standing navy on this planet (after China, with the United States in 1/Three space). India, which spends $56bn a twelve months on its protection force, is fifth on the list of nations by protection force expenditure ( after the United States, China, Russia and Saudi Arabia). It’s miles by far the field’s largest importer of weapons (adopted by Saudi Arabia).

Modi and his authorities acknowledged nothing about Gandhi’s views on the Palestinians in the course of this search suggestion from. Despite the entirety, they’d bear approach in the formulation of the arms deals.

 

That Modi took Netanyahu to Gandhi’s major ashram on the Sabarmati River, shut to Ahmedabad and that he took to to his samadhi at Raj Ghat (the put he used to be cremated) is an insult to India’s late anti-colonial chief. This used to be a wicked resolution now not only on legend of these men had in actual fact approach collectively to cement an arms deal, but thanks to Gandhi’s views on the Palestinians – a folks forgotten by the corporate media in the course of Netanyahu’s propaganda commute.

In 1938, Gandhi wrote, « Palestine belongs to the Arabs […] It’s miles spoiled and inhumane to impose the Jews on the Arabs ». He used to be writing as a man interested by an anti-colonial war. In his ogle, Europe may perchance perchance now not appropriate expel Palestinians from their land and driven by its private historical previous of anti-Semitism select the European Jewish population there.

In 1946, two years earlier than the formation of Israel, Gandhi wrote: « Why may perchance perchance restful [Jews] rely on American money or British arms for forcing themselves on an unwelcome land? Why may perchance perchance restful they resort to terrorism to form ethical their forcible landing in Palestine? » He had in thoughts groups esteem the Haganah and Irgun, which ancient violence in opposition to the British and the Palestinians as a prelude to the forcible expulsion of the Palestinians from their land throughout the 1948 Nakba (catastrophe).

Modi and his authorities acknowledged nothing about Gandhi’s views on the Palestinians in the course of this search suggestion from. Despite the entirety, they’d bear approach in the formulation of the arms deals.

The protests

Protests took space at some level of the nation in opposition to the search suggestion from of Netanyahu. In Original Delhi, the communist movement and pro-Palestinian groups led the formulation with a mass rally.

Prakash Karat, a major of the Communist Event of India (Marxist), acknowledged that by animated Netanyahu, the Modi authorities « provides legitimacy to the occupation of Palestine by Israel ». He pointed out that even when US President Donald Trump visited Israel, he went to the West Bank. When Modi went to Israel last summer season, he unnoticed Palestine. The dearth of any mention of Palestine in the course of this commute is share of a coverage to erase Palestine from the Indian political consciousness.

Netanyahu went to Mumbai, the put he met some high-profile actors and producers of Bollywood. At some level of the meeting, an expected selfie with the Israeli PM used to be staged, that contains actors Amitabh Bachchan, Abishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, and Vivek Oberoi and producers Raj Nayak and Ronnie Screwvala. All had been grinning for the camera, unapologetic about being photographed with a man being investigated for corruption in Israel and on his formulation of being placed on the battle crimes list by the Worldwide Prison Court.

But now not all in India’s film alternate welcomed the search suggestion from. Anand Patwardhan, the award-winning documentary filmmaker, determined to slide for an illustration in opposition to Modi as an different of be share of the charade. When I requested about his remark, Patwardhan summed it up reasonably successfully: « Most likely one of the major major salubrious names in Bollywood will join the Modi-Netanyahu hit parade in jettisoning the trigger of Palestine. What that you just may perchance restful know is that this may perchance perchance be an unholy alliance made up of ruthless, militarist majoritarians on the one hand and film bigwigs who store their giant unlawful wealth in tax havens esteem Panama. To query their ilk to difficulty about justice for the dispossessed is inquiring for too a lot. » 

The views expressed on this article are the author’s private and end now not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.