Hamas-Israel War and the Rights of Palestinians | An Analysis of Indian Perspective

Hamas-Israel War and the Rights of Palestinians | An Analysis of Indian Perspective

Hello and welcome to the Discourse.

On October 6, 2023, Palestine-based terrorist group Hamas launched thousands of missiles and seized villages near Gaza. Hamas fighters crossed out of Gaza, taking hostages and killing Israeli civilians. The leaders of Hamas declared that the attack was a response to the Israeli treatment of Palestinians at the al-Aqsa Mosque last week. However, the terror attack on Israel appeared to be a well-planned strategic operation. Another terror outfit Hezbollah, supported by Iran helped Hamas in planning out the attack on Israel to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Yom Kippur War.

Over 1000 innocent Israelis including fourteen American citizens were killed in the attack by Hamas. The terrorists of Hamas entered Israeli villages and cities, captured innocent people, killed them, or took hostages. Among the captives are soldiers and civilians, including women, children, and older adults, mostly Israelis but also some people of other nationalities.

On Tuesday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi immediately gave a responsible response in favor of Israel and criticized the terrorist attack by Hamas.

In response, Israel formally declared war and ordered the largest call-up of reservists in the country’s history. On Monday, Israel’s defense minister announced a “complete siege” of Gaza. “There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we will act accordingly.” Israel attacked Gaza and killed hundreds of Hamas terrorists, and hundreds of innocent Palestinians who have nothing to do with Hamas.

Nothing can justify the inhuman attack on Israel but there is nothing that can justify the innocent butchering of already depleted people of Palestine too. Israeli air strikes couldn’t distinguish between Hamas Terrorists and the innocent people of Palestine.

On Monday, a Hamas spokesman threatened to broadcast the execution of an Israeli hostage for every unannounced strike, saying, “The enemy does not understand the language of humanity and morals, so we will address him in the language he knows.”

On Thursday, Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that India believes in its long-standing support for the establishment of a "sovereign, independent and viable" state of Palestine.

Indian position on the current situation is pretty clear. We cannot support any terrorist attack on the innocent people of Israel, nor can we support any organized attack by a recognized state on the innocent people of Palestine.

War, Peace, and the State

War is no trivial subject. It’s violence on the widest scale. At their best, wars can throw off the worst tyrannies and liberate the oppressed. But they can also bring about the worst atrocities. This is why it is necessary to properly examine the situation and always stick to the principles of humanity. It is necessary to have a fine understanding of when violence is justified. There is a difference between war and crime. Killing even a known criminal without due course of legalities is considered a huge crime. So what changes in a war?

Murray N. Rothbard wrote an essay titled "War, Peace, and the State" outlining that the difference between war and all other questions of crime and punishment is simply a matter of scale. Everyone has a right to defend themselves, to resist and repel any invasion of their person or property; to extract restitution or exact punishment in response to an invasion, or to help someone else do the same. However, any violence committed against an innocent third party in response to a crime is itself a new crime.

Let us consider a hypothetical situation. Rahim attacks the farmland of Ram and tries to burn the crop. Ram has every right to defend his property, to repel Rahim and try to catch him. While doing so, if Ram kills Rahim, even that would be justified because Ram certainly has the right to self-defense. However, let’s assume Rahim succeeds in burning the crop and then runs away and hides in a neighboring village. Outraged, Ram decides to complain against him and offers enough proof to the security agency against Rahim. Now the security agency must capture and punish Rahim. But neither Ram nor the security agency has any right to repel Rahim by bombing the neighboring village and murdering innocent people or to catch him by spraying machine gun fire into an innocent crowd. The fact that wars are often fought between groups does not change the fact that attacking innocent people is a crime.

Israel declared all Palestinians living in Gaza as human animals and blocked electricity, food, water, fuel, and supplies of other necessities. Is it justified? No, It is not justified to punish innocent people for the crime of Hamas. It is against morality. Israeli airstrikes are killing hundreds of Hamas terrorists but they are also butchering hundreds of innocent citizens of Palestines, their women, and toddlers and while doing so, Israel is committing the same crime that Hamas did.

Do Palestinians Support Hamas:

Hamas has been the de facto ruler of the Gaza Strip since 2006. They won the 2006 presidential and legislative elections. The election was judged by international observers to have been "competitive and genuinely democratic". In fact, the EU said that they had been run better than elections in some member countries of the union, and promised to maintain its financial support.

In 2009, the Wall Street Journal interviewed Mr. Cohen a Tunisian-born jew who worked in Gaza for more than two decades.

“Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel’s creation,” said Mr. Cohen. Mr. Cohen watched the Islamist movement take shape, muscle aside secular Palestinian rivals, and then morph into what is today Hamas, a militant group that is sworn to Israel’s destruction. Instead of trying to curb Gaza’s Islamists from the outset Israel for years tolerated and, in some cases, encouraged them as a counterweight to the secular nationalists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and its dominant faction, Yasser Arafat’s Fatah.

Israel’s experience echoes that of the U.S., which, during the Cold War, looked to Islamists as a useful ally against communism. Anti-Soviet forces backed by America after Moscow’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan later mutated into Al Qaeda.

Now when Israel understands that it cannot control Hamas, it is ready to kill innocent Palestinians who have nothing to gain from the war. Yes, Palestinians have a soft corner for the terrorists of Hamas. Most probably, they are friends, or family members of the common men of Palestine. Killing someone’s friends and family motivates them to fight back—not roll over and put down their weapons. When innocent Israelis were murdered by Hamas, Israel decided to go to war. Now when innocent Palestinians are being killed by Israeli airstrikes, it won’t weaken Hamas, rather it will embolden them. The innocent and mostly secular common Palestinians too, out of grief and loss will start supporting Hamas. The same thing happened after 9/11 when to take revenge on Osama Bin Laden, the U.S. and Britain attacked Iran, and then Afghanistan, killing millions of innocent Iranians and Afghans. America’s wars in Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, and Libya, and especially the covert war against the Syrian government from 2011–2017 created support for Ladenian political and religious radicalism and violent conflict throughout the region and into northern and western Africa and gave rise to various other more deadly groups like ISIS and Boko Harem.

The same thing happened with Pakistan. In the garb of fighting the ‘War against Terror’, the Pakistani army harassed and murdered thousands of Afghanis in Afghanistan. Now when American and British troops are out of Afghanistan and Taliban rules again, Afghanis have a bitter memory of Pakistan and they consider Pakistan an enemy state. Outfits like TTP continue to kill innocent people in Pakistan. Killing innocent people in the name of war never brings any good. When the Indian government under Rajeev Gandhi sent the Indian army to Sri Lanka to fight LTTE terrorists, the Indian army did certain atrocities against innocent civilians and that became the cause of revenge of LTTE against Rajeev Gandhi.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu termed Hamas as human animals, but along with those animals, Israeli forces are killing innocent Palestinian humans too. It will bring no good to anybody but will strengthen the regime of terror and immorality. Indian government rightly put forth its views by supporting Israelis in their time of need but also standing for the rights of innocent Palestinians as a sovereign nation.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the Ethics of Liberty. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!