Indian activists take Palestinian solidarity protest into major market
Arab News :
Indian activists gathered for a Palestinian solidarity rally in one of New Delhi’s busiest commercial areas on Saturday, looking to raise public awareness of – and educate citizens on – Israel’s war crimes against the Palestinian people.
Though support for Palestinian statehood was once an integral part of Indian foreign policy, the Indian government has moved closer to Tel Aviv in recent years and has largely remained quiet since Israel launched its deadly assault on Gaza in October 2023.
New Delhi has been supplying Israeli forces with weapons and signed an agreement to send thousands of workers to Israel to replace their Palestinian counterparts.
Indian civil society and students have taken to the streets in solidarity with Palestinians and protest against the government. On Saturday, protesters carried Palestinian flags, “Free Palestine” posters, and placards that read “Stop the Genocide” in Nehru Place, a prominent commercial hub in the Indian capital, as they sought to engage passersby in conversation and spark awareness of Israel’s onslaught on Gaza.
“Coming to a place like this is really an attempt to take the protest (to) ordinary Indians, because it is their hearts and minds that we wish most to access … We want to create consciousness among ordinary Indians,” Harsh Mander, Indian human rights and peace activist, told Arab News.
“There has been a repression of pro-Palestine voices all across Europe and North America, but there has been significant pushback and resistance in other countries.
India has not seen that kind of societal pushback to the government’s open complicity with the … Zionist project of the Israeli government,” Mander continued.
Organized by the Indians for Palestine movement, Saturday’s protest moved away from the usual demonstration site of Jantar Mantar in the center of New Delhi.
But it was also met with resistance, with some participants becoming the target of harassment from market visitors.