Civil society figures, Israeli envoy butt heads

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru/New Delhi: Opposition to Israel’s bombing of Gaza, which has taken more than 15,000 lives, has put Indian academics on a collision course with the Israeli ambassador to India.

As many as 470 public figures have signed a letter condemning the targeting of people who criticised the bombing of Gaza by the Israeli envoy Naor Gilon.

The signatories held that Gilon’s interference in criticism of Israel amounted to an attack on academic freedom on Indian soil.

Those who have signed the letter include Delhi University's Apoorvanand, Nandini Sundar, Maya John, Rajshree Chandra and Karen Gabriel, apart from Jawaharlal Nehru University's Atul Sood, Ayesha Kidwai and Nivedita Menon, Kyoto University's Rohan D'Souza, former professors Anita Rampal, Achin Vanaik and Ravi Sundaram from the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS). 

“We are issuing this statement to call upon university administrators and the government to respect our academic freedom,” the statement said.

“We object to the way in which any discussion of the historical context of the occupation of Palestine and the barbaric Israeli assault on Gaza, along with the denial of food, fuel and water, since October 7th, is being projected as support for the brutal terror attack on civilians in Israel by Hamas on October 7th.

“We object to the Israeli ambassador's (Gilon’s) interference with academic freedom on Indian campuses. Defending the right to life and dignity of Palestinians, or pointing out the links between Zionism and Hindutva as supremacist ideologies, is not equivalent to anti-Semitism,” it added.

Artist, varsity, feel heat

There have been a couple of instances of hostility toward critique of Israel. Art curator Ranjit Hoskote was forced to quit a German art panel for supporting a statement against an Israeli event in Mumbai named “Leaders' Idea of Nations: Zionism and Hindutva”.

In November, Sonipatbased OP Jindal Global University issued a public statement to distance itself from a talk Vanaik gave on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

This came after Gilon reportedly wrote to the varsity. The envoy had been publicly critical of an Indian magazine interviewing chief of Hamas's international relations office Abu Marzouk and former Hamas chief Khaled Mashal participating in a pro-Palestine rally in Kerala through a video call.