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After Asaduddin Owaisi took oath as MP, there is a lot of political uproar over the slogan ‘Jai Palestine’. The rest of the MPs have objected to this and have also complained about Owaisi to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju. As the matter heated up, Owaisi said, ‘Jai Bhim, Jai Telangana, Jai Palestine. How is this wrong? I said what I had to say. Read what Mahatma Gandhi had said about Palestine.
The history of the conflict between Israel and Palestine is about 100 years old. It started in 1917 when the then British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour expressed Britain’s official support for creating a Jewish ‘national home’ in Palestine under the ‘Balfour Declaration’. Mahatma Gandhi’s opinion on this matter was published in the ‘Harijan’ newspaper in 1938.
‘The Jews’ demand for ‘their own national home’ does not suit me’
Mahatma Gandhi had written, ‘All my sympathies are with the Jews. I have known them closely since my days in South Africa. I have had old friendships with some of them and through them I have come to know a lot about the oppression they have suffered for centuries. But my sympathy for them cannot prevent me from seeing justice. Hence the Jews’ demand for ‘their own national home’ does not appeal to me.’
Mahatma Gandhi was of the opinion that like the rest of the world, Jews should make their home the country where they were born and where they earn their livelihood. He said, ‘Palestine belongs to the Arabs just as England belongs to the British or France belongs to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to force the Jews on the Arabs.’
‘It would be justifiable to fight a war against Germany’
Mahatma Gandhi further wrote, ‘…It would be justifiable that wherever Jews were born and are earning their livelihood, they should be treated equally. If the Jews want Palestine, would they like to be forcibly removed from all the places in the world where they are today? Or do they want two houses where they can live wherever they want?’
‘The kind of oppression that Jews were subjected to in Germany has no parallel in history… If there can ever be a just war in the name of humanity, a war against Germany to stop the wanton oppression of an entire race would be entirely justifiable. But I do not believe in any war. Therefore, the discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of such a war is beyond my scope.’
What would Mahatma Gandhi have done if he were a Jew?
In his article published in Harijan, Mahatma Gandhi wrote, ‘If I were a Jew and had been born in Germany and earning my livelihood from there, I would claim that Germany is my home just as it is the home of a tall and powerful German. I would challenge him to shoot me or imprison me in cellars, I am not willing to be expelled from here or to accept any discrimination. I would not wait for other Jews to join me in this resistance, but I would go ahead alone with the belief that in the end everyone would come on my path. If even one Jew or all the Jews had used this remedy suggested by me, their condition would not have been as pathetic as it is today.
Bapu believed that the Jews living in Palestine were wrong. They should try to win the hearts of the Arabs. The same God resides in the hearts of the Arabs as resides in the hearts of the Jews. They should do Satyagraha in front of the Arabs and surrender themselves without raising a finger against them, so that they can either shoot them or throw them into the sea. This will bring world public opinion in their favour.
What did Mahatma Gandhi say about the Arabs?
Mahatma Gandhi clarified in his article that he was not defending the atrocities of the Arabs. He wrote, ‘I definitely believe that they are rightly opposing the unfair interference being done in their country. But I would have liked them to have fought it non-violently. But from the perspective of the universally accepted definition of right and wrong, the way the Arabs have resisted in the face of massive opposition cannot be criticised.’
‘Now let the Jews, who claim to be the chosen race, choose the path of non-violence and elevate their position. Every country, including Palestine, is their home, not by aggression but by loving service. They have contributed a lot in fields like science, literature, medicine. They can also add the outstanding contribution of non-violent action to their many contributions.’
