The following was given in a webinar to Socialist Action on May 24, 2020 in Canada, as part of a panel on India and Fascism.
This is the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, a threat to all humanity, and a time for solidarity and support.
In this spirit, we reach out to victims of apartheid Israel’s occupation of Gaza.
We must do the same for the people of Jammu and Kashmir, a disputed territory occupied by India. They are majority Muslims, who have suffered under complete lockdown and communications blackout.
It’s a question of land. India occupies Jammu and Kashmir and scrapped a constitutional ban on sale of Kashmiri land to non-residents. Now, all the land can be bought by anyone: Kashmir is up for grabs.
Think of what happened in Palestine. 72 years ago, the native Palestinian population had almost all the land – now they have almost none of it. Settler colonialism, land theft, war and ethnic cleansing robbed them of their fields, their olive trees, their country.
Kashmir could become another Palestine.
Yet Muslim Kashmiris under Indian rule are under attack, and India rejects United Nations involvement.
Covid-19 struck, and Indian prime minister Modi uses it as the excuse to intensify his oppression.
India’s security forces in the region include no less than 700,000 heavily armed soldiers, equal to nearly 10% of the population of Kashmir.
The peoples of Kashmir face grave threats with Covid-19. As in Palestine, this follows on decades of state violence, denial of rights, massive human rights violations.
Like the Palestinians, Kashmiris suffer from the silent inaction of the international community.
The government of India has wiped out Kashmir autonomy and locked down the country under permanent military rule, without democratic rights.
We in Canada need to join the growing international movement of solidarity with Kashmir. Let’s explain that India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi follows in the footsteps of Israeli apartheid. Please sign a petition –2607 Foreign affairs Petitions
Kashmir solidarity activists must urge the Trudeau government to publicize the report on Kashmir by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. We must press Trudeau to speak out in defense of human rights in Kashmir.
Anti-war groups, New Democratic Party activists, the Green Party, and other progressive organizations in Canada need to alert a broader public to this dangerous situation.
What should Canada do? Oppose the lockdown! Oppose the arrests and military killings in Indian oppressed Kashmir! Extend the hand of solidarity to Kashmir. Call for self-determination of the Kashmiri people.
Suzanne Weiss