Name: Export of “Battle-Tested” Technology
Start: 2023-10-26T18:00:00-04:00
End: 2023-10-26T23:00:00-04:00
Location: UQAM

Export of “Battle-Tested” Technology

The New Alliance Between India & Israel

Conference – Export of “Battle-Tested” Technology and Unholy Alliances

A conversation with Azad Essa,

Author of Hostile Homelands : The New Alliance Between India & Israel.

https://www.facebook.com/events/876262987250974

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In recent times, Hindutva and Zionist governments in India and Israel have increasingly come closer at the expense of the Palestinian people and the many minority groups of India, particularly Muslims. This is in stark contrast to when India was part of a family of nations that stood in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle for justice, self-determination and decolonization. But for a decade now, ruling establishments of both countries, mostly the BJP and Likud, have signed numerous defense contracts worth billions of dollars. It is crucial for us to recall that these are often deals including military hardware that are shamelessly touted as, ‘battlefield tested’ – referring to the constant, genocidal violence the Israeli military inflicts on the people living in the West Bank and Gaza. These weapons are then sold to countries such as India.

Forces of Hindutva Fascism have been taking out leaves from the Zionist playbook, including the usage of the spurious term ‘Hinduphobia’ to silence any form of criticism towards the Modi regime’s actions. They have invented ‘Hinduphobia’ so it can be weaponized in ways akin to how anti-Semitism is used to silence critics of Israel, to attack the BDS movement, etc. In saluting the heroic resistance of the Palestinian people to the ongoing Israeli occupation and related human-rights abuses, we look forward to future governments in India to return to the traditional stance of solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

About the book, Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance Between India & Israel, via @Leftwingbooks*:

Under Narendra Modi, India has changed dramatically. As the world attempts to grapple with its trajectory towards authoritarianism and a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ (Hindu State), little attention has been paid to the linkages between Modi’s India and the governments from which it has drawn inspiration, as well as military and technical support.

India once called Zionism racism, but, as Azad Essa argues, the state of Israel has increasingly become a cornerstone of India’s foreign policy. Looking to replicate the ‘ethnic state’ in the image of Israel in policy and practice, the annexation of Kashmir increasingly resembles Israel’s settler-colonial project of the occupied West Bank. The ideological and political linkages between the two states are alarming; their brands of ethnonationalism deeply intertwined.

Hostile Homelands puts India’s relationship with Israel in its historical context, looking at the origins of Zionism and Hindutva; India’s changing position on Palestine; and the countries’ growing military-industrial relationship from the 1990s. Lucid and persuasive, Essa demonstrates that the India-Israel alliance spells significant consequences for democracy, the rule of law and justice worldwide.

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About the Author:

Azad Essa is an award-winning journalist and author based between Johannesburg and New York City. He is currently a senior reporter for Middle East Eye covering American foreign policy, Islamophobia and race in the US. He is the author of The Moslems are Coming and Zuma’s Bastard and has written for Al Jazeera, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy and the Guardian.

https://leftwingbooks.net/products/hostile-homelands-the-new-alliance-between-india-and-israel

Co-organized by:

South Asian Diaspora Action Collective (SADAC)

CERAS (South Asia Forum)

Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU)

Association facultaire étudiante des sciences humaines de l’UQAM (AFESH-UQAM)

Association étudiante des cycles supérieurs en science politique et droit de l’UQAM (AECSSPD-UQAM)

Sponsored by:

LeftWingBooks
Quebec Public Interest Research Group – Concordia University (QPIRG – C)

Other references:

The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World

Antony Loewenstein