Daily Times

As the today world continuously watches that both India and Israel, the two analogous oppressors, unjustly continue their military control over Kashmir and Palestine respectively, resulting in two of the most protracted and deadliest conflicts with strong parallels. The Intifadas (until victory) led by the dissipated Palestinian youth against the Israeli crackdown on them whilst the resistance steered by the resurgent Kashmiri youth against the Indian occupying forces are so organically similar in nature that the two disputes can metaphorically be called South Asian Palestine and ‘Middle Eastern Kashmir. And yet, undeniably, as a young Palestinian and Kashmiri, there is little escape from the violence of the colonial machine.

Obviously the variety of tactics used by India under Modi to control the civilian population of Kashmir strongly resembles those used by Netanyahu in Palestine. These unabatedly include, “arbitrary arrests, extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances, curfews, collective punishment, administrative detention, torture, rape and sexual abuse, the suppression of freedom of speech and assembly, house demolitions, and so forth.” India’s oppression of Kashmiris, however, cannot be seen in a vacuum. Over the past decades, the country’s growing ties with Israel have created a situation in which the oppression of Kashmir is linked to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. It goes an establish fact that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a non-state volunteer Hindu paramilitary volunteer group to which the BJP is affiliated, have long desired the repeal of the state subject laws that have maintained the demographic make-up of Kashmir.

Ironically, both Tel Aviv and New Delhi claim to be exceptional democracies, despite their treatment of large swaths of populations under their control. Additionally, both Zionists and Hindu Nationalists argue that the existence of many Muslim countries in the world necessitates a Jewish and Hindu state, respectively. This perpetuates the lie that Palestinians and Indian Muslims can supposedly live elsewhere, yet choose to live in Palestine and India only to antagonize Jews and Hindus. But death and devastation are not yet the only fatalities of the failure of the UNSC to resolve the question of the self-determination of the Palestinian and Kashmiri peoples, but also the ongoing reflections on stunted economic growth and lack of economic development are further results of these unresolved national questions.

Prompt reminders of a victimised past, dehumanisation, denial of inalienable rights, economic depravity, created by Israeli and Indian occupation forces in Palestine and Kashmir, are some real causes which intensify hostilities against the Governments whose occupying forces execute hardline policies to eliminate youth bulges

Today, Netanyahu’s Israel is a glaring example of an ethnic -nationalist political configuration. The Israeli ethnonationalism is deeply rooted in colonial narratives ardently dictating a racial hierarchy of belonging in which the subordination of some members of the population, the out-group, is structurally entrenched and often backed up with physical violence. As per its newly incorporated Nation-State Law, Israel is not a state of its citizens but rather belongs to Jewish people that have a membership and belonging in the state. The full privileges of membership in Israel are extended exclusively to its Jewish population.

Similarly, the Modi-advocated revocation of Articles 35A and 370 paves the way for Indian presence in Kashmir to further mirror Zionist presence in historic Palestine, since this allows the Indian state to rule Kashmir directly without the need for Kashmir’s state legislature, which was also recently abolished. Furthermore, it facilitates the execution of plans to alter the demographic make-up of Kashmir by allowing Indians from across the country to purchase property and settle there under the protection of the Indian military presence, just as the demographic make-up of the West Bank continues to be altered with the construction of Jewish-only settlements. Given the insight into the literature on AFSPA and its origins, it is not hard to draw the connection to Israel’s justification of the use of torture and indefinite detention against the Palestinian population by declaring the areas in which it is applied to be in a state of emergency, remaining so for decades.

And now with the unprecedented morphing of Jammu and Kashmir’s legal status from a special status state to a union territory (without a legislative assembly), India’s colonial domination over the contested region will become more overtly coercive in representing Indian interests. This is a radical and crucial development to be observed closely by Palestinians who are living in areas where the Israeli occupation is currently facilitated by the Palestinian Authority (PA). With an extremely high fertility rate in both the West Bank and Gaza, the youth population is set to continue growing at a concerning rate. Youth (aged 15-29) comprise 30%i of the total Palestinian population and all children and youth under the age of 29 almost bracket over 50%ii of the population. And yet not surprisingly, in India-held Kashmir, 63% of the valley’s males are under the age of 30 and 70% are below the age of 35.

Academically, the term ‘Youth Bulge’ was first coined by Fuller in 1995 and his theory –was co-supported by three famous political thinkers-Samuel Huntington, Heinsohn and Fukuyama– as the phase when youth between the ages of 15-l9 and 20-24, reach a proportion of 20 per cent or more of the total population. This theory of youth bulge rightly applies to the Palestinian and the Kashmiri-waged freedom struggles. Huntington advocated Fuller’s theory and regarded Youth Bulges as ‘surging youth populations’ suggesting the idea of the ‘critical threshold–while asserting that the propensity of feuds becomes very high in societies when 20 per cent of its population comprises of youth aged between 15-24. True, the Palestinian and the Kashmiri societies still encounter movements led by ‘young ambitious, unconstrained’ aggressive men.

Prompt and callous reminders of a victimised past, dehumanisation, denial of inalienable rights, poor governance, economic depravity, and difficulties of mobility created by Israeli and Indian occupation forces in Palestine and Kashmir, are some real causes which intensify hostilities against the Governments whose occupying forces execute hardline policies to eliminate such youth bulges. Yet make no mistake once the Curfew is lifted in Kashmir, the remonstrance against this revocation bill will remain resurrected by the Kashmiri youth who holds paramount significance in shaping the course of Kashmir freedom movement. Illegally, the Modi government’s introduced new domicile law in India- held Kashmir jettisons the fundamental municipal rights of the native Kashmiris.

Ultimately, in aiming to dismantle the Israeli apartheid and an evil role of Hindutva dynamic in Kashmir –projected by the negative trajectories of Israeli PM Netanyahu and Indian premier Narendra Modi, it is certain that the victimized Palestinian and Kashmiri youth will continue to become agitated and rebel against oppression. Hence, both Kashmir and Palestine have to be re-centred in the global discussion by the UNSC and the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC where China has currently joined its panel ) around self-determination and the demands of the people who have had lived for so long under colonial military occupation regimes.

The writer is an independent ‘IR’ researcher and international law analyst based in Pakistan