How many dead babies are enough to avenge an infiltration attack claiming the lives of military personnel, civilians of all ages, and dogs? It appears Benjamin Netanyahu has thrown out his computing gadgets lest he be held for a number-to-number stocktaking of his vengeance. No number is enough to satiate the bloodlust of a once-discredited political leader who has not only made a political comeback by unleashing a never-ending war on Palestine, but also radicalised a large number of his countrymen, possibly irrevocably.
Gaza is starving. Nobody cares.
At least nobody in a position to stop Netanyahu cares. The President of the United States, Donald Trump, for instance, demands an effusive thank you for sending aid for food. He may not realise, but starvation - that he acknowledged - impairs cognitive, motor, and speech functions before causing death. Starving people cannot possibly sing paeans. But expect Trump to mention this 'ingratitude' at least 18 times in different contexts.
India Knows
Recently, at the United Nations Security Council, India emphasised the need for sustained humanitarian assistance to the people of Palestine and a two-state solution. But what do such utterances even mean on the ground? India, a country that has known man-made famines far too well, understands starvation. Indian children remain stunted and malnourished, owing to skewed wealth distribution. India must speak louder than anyone else about it.
India once spoke, nay, thundered, in the western capital cities, demanding justice for a beleaguered people. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi raised the issue of atrocities unleashed by West Pakistanis on their Bengali compatriots in East Pakistan in 1971. Surely, even then, the West did not care. Just like it has turned a blind eye towards a genocide unfolding and televised in real time.
Remember 'Blood Telegram'?
The few conscientious objectors, such as Archer Blood, the US Consul General posted in Dhaka, along with a handful of his diplomatic colleagues on the ground, were the exceptions proving the rule. Blood's communication to Washington about the massacre of Bengali-speaking Muslims and Hindus was duly rewarded by President Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger with an immediate recall. 'Blood Telegram', as the dissenting communication was later famous, was a strongly worded letter. Sample this: "Our government has evidenced what many will consider moral bankruptcy... But we have chosen not to intervene, even morally, on the grounds that the Awami conflict, in which unfortunately the overworked term genocide is applicable, is purely an internal matter of a sovereign state."
Academics, security analysts, diplomats, and politicians across the world can continue to quibble about the word "genocide" while children continue to be killed. It was contested during Bangladesh's war of independence, and it's being contested now. People continue to die. Those who care more for semantics than human beings now have blood on their hands. The situation is so bad in Gaza that even the television media in India has got its tongue back, and there is a trickle of coverage on what has been transpiring for almost two years. The situation is so bad that even some fundamentalist Hindu ideologues are vocal about the trauma and tribulations of the children of Gaza.
The Logic Of Vengeance
Not only is all this noise too insignificant, but it is too late. A miracle of human will is needed to stop this destruction that has gone beyond all frontiers of logical warfare. But this is how the logic of vengeance works. This is why the vengeance-seeker was chased by the Furies, the most dreadful creatures in Greek mythology. This is why the Mahabharata does not condone vengeance even in a deadly battle. Because once vengeance is unleashed, there is no way to control its trajectory or outcome. What we are seeing today is Netanyahu's further manipulation of vengeance. He has successfully weaponised the fear complex of Israelis. What he has also succeeded in doing is creating a hostile, even threatening, environment for Jews everywhere in the world. Antisemitism is on the rise, and even those Jews who have nothing to do with Israel's actions against the people of Palestine are not spared the hate.
The 2018 Visit
One could argue that India's silence on the issue of starvation in Gaza is not necessarily due to apathy, but rather reflects its complex foreign policy calculus. It still does not make sense. Given New Delhi's historical support for Palestine, this supposed 'neutrality', citing a strategic relationship with Israel, is incongruous. PM Narendra Modi is the only Indian head of government to have visited Ramallah in the West Bank, in 2018 - an unprecedented act of solidarity. Many compare India to Israel and seek to justify the latter's actions against Palestine as they would against Pakistan. Is it time for that fallacy to be junked?
The secular democratic India has nothing in common with a state founded on religious exclusion that has now aced the art of weaponising persecution complex to massacre those who do not belong. Indians may find a similar state in their neighbourhood.
India must speak out, loud and clear, on Gaza. Because, as Martin Luther King Jr once said, "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." Whom do the deliberately, systematically starved children of Gaza not affect?
(Nishtha Gautam is a Delhi-based author and academic)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
