Mohammad Sohail Ahmed
THREE parties are taking interest in the illegal annexation of India-occupied Jammu & Kashmir which is Pakistan, India and Israel which has taken the position of adviser, co-operator and conspirator against Pakistan. Another element in this tussle is the hypocrites or the lukewarm Muslims, who showed sympathies to Jews, (Bani Nadir, the Jewish tribe of Al-Medina Munawara) and assured them of their support in case of a collision with Muslims.
However, they did nothing when the Muslim army marched against Bani Nadir. Details of this punishment to the Jewish tribe are explained in Al-Quran al Kareem Surat al-Hashr, (‘Exile’) which refers to the exile of Bani Nadir. The most interesting aspect of their defeat as described in this Surat is that when they were thinking that their strongholds will protect them from Allah, the Almighty Allah reached them from a place whereof they reckoned not, and cast fear in their hearts so that they ruined their houses with their own hands and the hands of the believers, with a historic background of failures and punishment from the wrath of Allah how could India chose Israel.
The common denominator in the issue is that both Palestine and Kashmir have illegally occupied Muslim territories under the rule of non-Muslims. Israel has 72 years of experience in usurping the land and property of the Palestinians through military, bureaucratic means while enacting laws, using the judiciary as a state organ to get the decisions in its favour. The saga of creating laws in Israel started with the introduction of Absentee property law which authorised the illegal government to confiscate and lease as per its wishes. According to Michael Dumper’s book, Islam and Israel (Muslim religious endowments and the Jewish state) the government custodians of the waqf leased these properties to Jewish entrepreneur to make souvenir shops, restaurants and coffee shops. Even the mosques located in Jaffa, the ancient historic port south of Tel Aviv (occupied), were converted. The Al-Wahida Masjid was converted to a synagogue, Al Sik-Sik Masjid was converted to a Bulgarian restaurant and night club. Al- Nuzha Masjid was converted to a prostitution house. Abu Nabi cemetery was converted to Tel Aviv Hilton Park. This was done because 70 percent shops in Acre and Jaffa were waqf whereas in Ramallah it was 33 percent. A culture was imposed on Palestinian Muslims against their wishes and beliefs.
Working on the above formula the government of India has abrogated Articles 370 and 35-A of the Constitution. This has paved the way for the illegal possession of land by the Indian sponsored entrepreneur. The land laws are being changed as stated by the former Advocate General of Indian occupied Kashmir, Mr. M.I.Qadir. It authorises the govt official (district collector) to convert the status of the land from agriculture to urban and sell, gift, exchange, mortgage it to anyone outside Kashmir. This implies that Indian aristocrats will invest and own property in Kashmir to mint money as the status of a state change from Islamic and conservative to non-Islamic and liberal. In Palestine, the change of this status marginalised the local Muslim population causing perpetual law and order issues in the region. The same situation is likely to prevail in Kashmir. Religious sites are already under threat of Hindutva Doctrine and Babri Masjid demolition is the pilot project of the extremist RSS government and workers.
Another common denominator between Palestine and Kashmir is the previous history of occupation by the British rulers. The mechanism was to have control over the territory through the central government. It exercised control over overpopulation and non-state institutions for the implementation of government policies. The bureaucratic control is established by the government officials appointed by the government. The commonality is also in those who govern (non-Muslim state) and those who are being governed (Muslim institution(waqf) or population). Therefore, the Israeli government-appointed Jaffa board to manage the affairs of the waqf with limited powers.
However, its members were selected in such a manner to bring discredit to the board. Those who were convicted criminals were the members of such a board as reported by Michel Dumper in his book. The question is how can a convict be appointed? Either the proclamation is incorrect or the appointment was made with a male fide intention. The purpose to defame the Muslims as a leader, demoralise the Muslim population and project the State of Israel as a democratic and just government.
The Indian government is following the footprints of its ally. We have seen that the leaders of good repute such as Ali Gillani have been jailed and sellable people are being searched and appointed as government officials or politicians. Any Muslim appointed as a political leader will eventually be discredited to cause demoralisation and marginalisation to the locals. Similarly, the powers to such leaders are likely to be limited so that they are not effective and the problems of common masses are not resolved. In future, the government of India will continue to use a military and bureaucratic mechanism to run the affairs of the occupied territory. The policymakers will continue to face a dilemma after dilemma. This has been happening in Palestine for the last 72 years. The cumulative effects of these policies will cause the population to displace and masses to migrate as it happened in Palestine. This gives rise to hate and hostilities that erode national resources. In the long run, the instability in Palestine continues to grow and in the case of Kashmir, these sentiments will continue to flourish.
The biggest challenge with the Israeli government was to change the demography of Palestine. There were no Jews in Palestine before the start of the 19th century, the number of Jews naturalized to Palestine was only 57000 and Palestinian Muslims were 7,08,000 in 1918. This number increased to 0.2 million and 1.3 million Muslims respectively in 1948. This indicates that the demographic changes are very slow to materialize. As Israel continues to face security challenges so will India face security challenges in future. The legal disputes between the Muslims in Palestine and the government of Israel have been decided under the direction of its government. For example, 90% of 150 waqf properties were not accepted by the Israeli government as valid and the courts ruled in favour of the government. It has happened in India and will continue to happen in future which will further destabilize the region. Therefore with justice denied to the people of Kashmir as a last resort will result in separation of the people of Kashmir in the long run.
—The author is a Retired Commodore of the Pakistan Navy and regularly contributes to the national press.
