Deciphering Priyanka Gandhi’s strong, consistent criticism of Israel govt | Political Pulse News

Netanyahu’s visit to the US and his speech at the joint meeting of Congress came at a time when Israel’s continuing offensive in Gaza has stirred and divided American society and opinion for the first time since the Vietnam War. In India too, the Israel-Hamas war has divided the BJP-led government and the Congress.

“It is no longer enough to speak up for the civilians, mothers, fathers, doctors, nurses, aid workers, journalists, teachers, writers, poets, senior citizens and the thousands of innocent children who are being wiped out day after day by the horrific genocide taking place in Gaza,” Priyanka wrote. “It is the moral responsibility of every right thinking individual including all those Israeli citizens who do not believe in hatred and violence, and every government in the world to condemn the Israeli government’s genocidal actions and force them to stop. Their actions are unacceptable in a world that professes civility and morality. Instead we are subjected to the image of the Israeli Prime Minister being given a standing ovation in the US Congress.”

An Israeli military officer walks past destroyed children’s bicycles at the site of a rocket attack in the Druze town of Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. (AP)

She added, “He calls it ‘a clash between barbarism and civilization’. He is absolutely correct, except that it is him and his government that are barbaric and their barbarism is being given the unstinting support of most of the western world. It is truly a shame to watch.”

It is not the first time that Priyanka has spoken on the Israeli invasion and hit out at the Netanyahu government but her fresh remarks come as she prepares for her electoral debut. She will contest from Wayanad, the Lok Sabha seat in Kerala that was vacated by her brother and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi. Wayanad has a considerable Muslim population.

Amid the rising death toll in Gaza, Priyanka, in October last year, attacked Israel, accusing it of violating every international law. “Even after the killing of 7,000 people in Gaza, the cycle of bloodshed and violence has not stopped. Out of these 7,000 people, 3,000 were innocent children,” she said in the last week of October.

“There is no international law that has not been trampled upon. There is no such limit which has not been crossed. There is no such rule which has not been flouted…When will humanity wake up? After losing how many lives. After sacrificing how many children. Does the consciousness of being human remain? Did it ever exist?” Priyanka said.

She then slammed the Modi government after it abstained from voting on the resolution on the Israel-Hamas conflict at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in October. “I am shocked and ashamed that our country has abstained from voting for a ceasefire in Gaza,” she said, quoting Mahatma Gandhi that “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”.

“Our country was founded on the principles of non-violence and truth, principles for which our freedom fighters laid down their lives, these principles form the basis of the Constitution that defines our nationhood. They represent the moral courage of India that guided its actions as a member of the international community. To refuse to take a stand and watch in silence as every law of humanity is pulverised, food, water, medical supplies, communication and power is cut off to millions of people and thousands of men, women and children in Palestine are being annihilated goes against everything our country has stood for throughout its life as a nation,” she had said.

Congress position, family links

The war, triggered by Hamas’ attacks in Israel on October 7, initially put the Congress, which has historically been sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, in a bind. The Congress initially did not name Hamas and refrained from using the word terror to describe its audacious attack on Israel, prompting some leaders such as Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor to point out at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) held on October 9 that its CWC resolution should condemn the Hamas attack on Israel, name the outfit, and use the word “terror”.

The resolution, however, did not mention the Hamas attack at all. “The CWC expresses its dismay and anguish on the war that has broken out in the Middle East where over a thousand people have been killed in the last two days. The CWC reiterates its long-standing support for the rights of the Palestinian people to land, self-government and to live with dignity and respect. The CWC calls for an immediate ceasefire and for negotiations to begin on all outstanding issues including the imperative issues that have given rise to the present conflict,” it said.

Seeking to strike a balance, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge later condemned the “brutal attacks by Hamas on the people of Israel”, while adding that the “indiscriminate actions by Israel’s military forces in civilian areas, that includes a siege of the Gaza Strip and bombings in it” are also unacceptable.

While the Congress has always been sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, the Nehru-Gandhi family had close ties with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. It is often said that Arafat treated Indira Gandhi as his sister and wept publicly at her funeral. He also attended the funeral of Rajiv Gandhi, while Sonia Gandhi met Arafat several times after joining politics.

In an article in The Hindu in the last week of October, Sonia hit out at Israel for its unprecedented military response to the Hamas attack. “The power of the Israeli state is now focused on exacting revenge from a population that is largely as helpless as it is blameless. The destructive might of one of the world’s most potent military arsenals is being unleashed upon children, women and men who have no part in the Hamas assault; they, instead, for the most part, have been at the heart of decades of discrimination and suffering,” she wrote.

While the world had been diminished by the “brutal attacks on Israel”, Sonia wrote, “the world stands diminished again by Israel’s disproportionate and equally brutal response”. There is a historical context too. In 1948, India was the only non-Arab country that voted against a UN-proposed partition plan of Palestine in the General Assembly that led to the creation of Israel. But the needle shifted slightly in 1992, when the then Congress government headed by P V Narasimha Rao opened an Indian Embassy in Tel Aviv, a move aimed at normalising India’s ties with Israel. While India-Israel ties grew, the Congress-led UPA government ensured that India remained a friend of the Palestinian Authority, supporting its inclusion as a full member of UNESCO in 2011 and co-sponsoring a resolution at the UNGA to induct it as a non-member observer state at the UN without voting rights.