They Questioned India–Israel Ties. Now the trolls want to destroy their lives

NB: In India today, a section of opinion considers any criticism of Israel to be equivalent to ‘anti-nationalism’. This is similar to what has taken place in the USA; where even academic rersearch on Palestinan history is censored. It’s ridiculous that criticism of another country should be seen as betrayal of my country. Why? What is going on here? There are important human rights groups in the Western world, and indeed in Israel too, which have denounced the mass killing in Gaza. But in India even the Palestinian flag is seen as a symbol of terror. Those who think like this should visit the Palestinian consulate in New Delhi, where the flag may be seen; and check the near-unanimous demand in the UN General Assembly – over several decades- for a state of Palestine to be established and recognised. It is tragic that people have lost their moral balance to the point where they celebrate mass killing: well over a lakh of Palestinians have been killed or maimed for life, including tens of thousands of children.

However, I would caution the writer of this piece, which is timely; as are the positions taken by the two activists: stop using the term ‘Hindu Right’ – it makes no sense. We rarely see usages such as Muslim Right, Jewish Right or Christian Right or Sikh Right or Buddhist Right; so why not be mindful of why this is so, and to what we refer when we say ‘Hindu Right’? Please stop using this term – it is misleading and intellectually lazy. There are versions of extremism and chauvinist nationalism, hate-filled religious identity politics to be found in virtually every faith. This term leaves a sense of all Hindus being ‘rightist’ – which is certainly not the case: these two activists are also Hindu after all. The main point to stress is that solidarity with Palestine is not a Muslim issue and never was, there are Christian and (until the 1950’s) Jewish Palestinians too. Jesus of Nazareth, later known as Jesus Christ, was a Palestinian Jew (a member of the sect named the Zealots) – the area was called Canaan in those times.

Meanwhile readers interested in ther history of Canaan/Palestine may kindly read some of the posts beneath this article. I congratulate Shristi Khanna and Prashant Pundir; as well as this writer for standing up for the Palestinian people, and for the right to voice their opinions. To their critics, let me just say that India is not a puppet state of the US and Israel. Please moderate your criticism and your reactions. Thank you. DS

********

In early December, two activists in India released three videos detailing the rise of India–Israel ties and the dangers they pose to ordinary Indians. The videos quickly went viral, amassing around 2.6 million views. They struck a nerve. The Hindu right responded with fury. This is the story of how the Hindu right attacked these two activists and tried to destroy their lives simply for raising questions about India–Israel ties and the warm embrace of Israeli soldiers in India.

Azad Essa

First, let’s talk about the videos. In video number one, Shristi Khanna explains the difficulties of speaking about Palestine and the genocide in Gaza as an Indian and a Hindu. She says that when she does so, she is invariably labeled anti-national and a traitor.

“It’s almost unsafe to be vocal about Palestine in India, but we cannot stay silent or complicit,” she says. “There is a perception that the genocide in Gaza is only a Muslim concern, but it isn’t. It is all our concern.” In video number two, Khanna and her friend and fellow activist, Prashant Pundir, discuss how India projected itself as pro-Palestine over the years while simultaneously enjoying clandestine ties with Israel, and how understanding India–Israel relations today requires reckoning with that past. (Full disclosure: they cite Hostile Homelands in the video.)

Explaining why they made the videos, Khanna told me that they “wanted to talk about Palestine in relation to India, not in isolation.” “There are long-standing political and material connections between the two that shape both regions, but these are rarely discussed openly,” Khanna added. “Our aim was to share documented information and encourage a more contextual, informed conversation about those intersections,” she said.

Then came the third video—the one that went viral. In it, Pundir begins with a question: “Where do Israeli soldiers go after killing babies in Gaza?” “They come here, to India,” Pundir says after a short pause.

Then Shristi joins in: “To Goa, Himachal, Dharamkot, Pushkar, and Kasol—also known as the ‘Hummus Trail,’ built around Israeli backpacker culture.” The duo go on to explain how tens of thousands of Israeli soldiers come on “detox trips” to India following their deployments—in this case, to Gaza.

“Basically, India has become a rehab center for IDF soldiers committing genocide in Gaza,” Prashant adds. The videos offered nothing more than sober analysis of Indian complicity in the genocide in Gaza.

They were neither salacious nor provocative, but grounded in evidence and in humanity. The “success” of the video and the simple questions it posed, however, prompted a coordinated witch-hunt by the Hindu right aimed at destroying their lives.

“After our Instagram reel went viral (approximately 2.6 million views), it began circulating on X (Twitter), where it was picked up by large right-wing Hindu nationalist accounts,” the duo told me.

“At this stage, the response escalated from online trolling to coordinated harassment, defamation, and doxing. Once these accounts began posting the reel on X, followers were actively redirected to our Instagram profiles to continue the harassment there. Our Instagram accounts were screenshotted, monitored, and circulated across platforms.”

They were called “anti-national,” “terrorists,” and “urban Naxals” by not just one account, but by an entire ecosystem of Hindu nationalist trolls. The trolls went after their jobs, reputations, and privacy.

“Our LinkedIn profiles were publicly shared, exposing full professional histories, educational backgrounds, workplaces, and employers.” Posts were then put up encouraging followers to harass their employers and get them fired.

Within days, they were forced to delete their LinkedIn profiles. The trolls went on to email their workplaces, and employers were continuously tagged on X with demands that they be fired. Pundir’s work email was leaked publicly, and he began receiving repeated calls and threats.

Then their home locations were found and leaked. “Threats were made to find us and physically harm us. Due to fear, we did not step out of our homes for two days,” Khanna said. “The volume, coordination, and escalation of threats created constant fear and psychological distress,” she added.

The attack on Khanna and Pundir reveals how tightly India’s domestic politics are now entwined with its alliance with Israel. As India and Israel grow closer economically, militarily, ideologically, and even culturally, the space to openly discuss India–Israel ties will shrink even further. As evidenced by the attacks on the duo, there has been very little effort to debate their points of view. Instead, they were immediately vilified, harassed, and intimidated.

Criticizing Israel is already been treated as an attack on the Indian nation itself. We have all seen this story before “People who are part of struggles understand that systems of power often respond to dissent by trying to silence or erase voices. Experiencing that directly made this reality very real for us, as it has for many others.” the duo said.

https://azadessa.substack.com/p/indian-activists-targeted-attacked-speaking-on-palestine

********************

Natalia Ginzburg: Our Monstrous Ideas

Biblical Archaeology and the Judeo-Christian legends / The Deconstruction of the Walls of Jericho

Zionism Breaks

Hundreds of prominent Jews and Israelis urge world powers to hold Israel accountable ‘for Gaza atrocities’

The new barbarians

Gaza and the Death of Conscience

Pankaj Mishra: The Shoah after Gaza

Israel’s War in Gaza Is Nothing but a War of Annihilation

Arab Failures: The Unspoken Complicity in Israel’s Genocide

Bulldozing Gaza