Politically, Kerala has a history of standing in support of Palestine. Economically, its people now have strong work ties with Israel.
File photo of the destruction in Palestine. (UNRWA)
In God’s Own Country, one of the earliest ports of call of the Jews all those centuries ago, the current Israel-Palestine conflict is seen more in terms of a communal binary.
As the Union government has indulged in anti-Hamas rhetoric since it attacked Israel on 7 October, followed by the latter’s military retaliation, Kerala’s political parties espouse the Palestine cause and express concern the safety of its people — with an eye on the Muslims, who constitute a quarter of the state’s population.
This not only puts most of Kerala’s political parties at odds with the rest of the nation — the state unit of the BJP is the lone exception — but also, seemingly, with the aspirations of its people.
There are, of course, not many Jews living in Kerala today, but many Keralites go to Israel for work, primarily as health care-givers.
Many people from the state, largely those from the Christian community, also undertake pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Kerala has over 40 travel agencies that regularly take pilgrims to Israel. Many take the pilgrimage as a cover for illegal migration as well.
The Department of Non-Resident Keralite’s Affairs (NoRKA) officials say around 7,000 Malayalis are working in Israel. Its chief executive officer, Harikrishnan Namboothiri, told South First that the department is in constant touch with Malayali associations in Israel.
Apart from political sympathy, on the other hand, few Keralites have any economic or other links to Palestine.
The ruling LDF and Opposition UDF have made it clear that they stand solidly with the Palestinian cause and have zero tolerance for the Zionist principles of Israel.
The BJP accuses the LDF and UDF of supporting a militant organisation that kills scores of innocents to maintain their vote bank politics by appeasing Muslims in the state, who constitute 25.56 percent of the total population.
BJP national spokesperson Anil Antony, who incidentally is the son of Congress Working Committee (CWC) member AK Antony, accuses the Congress and some of INDIA bloc partners of vote bank politics and minority appeasement.
“Some in the @INCIndia and INDIA alliance are trying to bring to attention that they have always supported the Palestine cause. There is a big difference between your concern for the Palestine cause — and your refusal to acknowledge and condemn a blatant act of terror or your refusal to name or blame the perpetrators of terror — especially when one of the most horrific terrorist attacks in modern history has been inflicted by a radical Islamist terrorist outfit against one of India’s most important partners and friends. It’s vote bank politics and minority appeasement at its worst,” he posted on the social media platform X.
However, independent observers point out that the people of Kerala have a long history of opposing the Jewish might in Israel, which targets Palestinian people purely on racial and religious grounds.
Writer and thinker Sunil P. Elayidom told South First: “Whenever there were invasions and military actions by Israel, Kerala had organised meetings and rallies in solidarity with the Palestinian people. The anti-zionist sentiments prevailing in Kerala are a collective feeling transcending religious affiliations.
“You can see a number of families in Kerala which named their children Yassar Arafat and their houses Palestine. We continue to treat Israel as an imperialist and racial country that inflicts terror on hapless Palestinians. We disapprove of violence by Hamas. But that doesn’t mean we are remaining neutral in front of injustice.”
Soon after the 7 October incidents, former education minister and CPI(M) Politburo member MA Baby strongly criticised the unilateral political support extended by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union government to Israel.
He termed the government’s support for Israel as something that ran counter to political justice, world peace, and India’s longstanding commitment to peaceful coexistence.
Baby said: “The Hamas attack is only a retaliation to what Israel has done earlier. If you are labelling Hamas as a terrorist organisation, you will have to accept that Israel is also a terrorist country… No one should forget that this year, till the outbreak of the conflict on October 7, nearly 248 Palestinians were murdered, and among them, 40 were children… The UN should take steps to declare Palestine as an independent nation. This is the only solution to stop the bloodshed in the region.”
His statement received an immediate rebuke from Kerala BJP president K Surendran, who accused Baby and the CPI(M) of promoting extremism, endangering the larger national interest.
This, even as many BJP social media handles revoked a statement by party state president K Surendran in 2021 blaming the UDF and LDF for ignoring the death of Somya Santhosh — a Catholic Christian from the Idukki district of Kerala — in a rocket attack by Hamas at Ashkelon in Israel.
Surendran, at that time, accused the CPI(M) and the Congress of being indifferent to Soumya, as Hamas extremists were their allies.
No major political leader attended her funeral on 15 May, 2021, while Israel sent senior diplomat Jonathan Zadka to offer tributes.
Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) state president Panakkad Syed Sadikali Shiba Thangal told South First that Israel and Hamas are both showing extremist tendencies.
But he was clear about whom he supports.
“We don’t believe in retaliation, but Israel’s continued persecution of Palestinians must not be forgiven easily. The UN has to intervene,” he said.
The IUML is the second-largest constituent of the opposition UDF and the largest Muslim party in Kerala.
While most Muslim organisations in Kerala have started raising concerns over the counterattacks on Gaza, which included the denial of food, water, and electricity, apart from the killing of people and the damaging of houses in airstrikes, Sunni Muslim scholars in the central and southern Kerala regions carried out a march to the Raj Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.
After gathering there, they shouted slogans seeking the intervention of Governor Arif Mohammad Khan to ensure the Union government’s intervention in support of the fighters defending Palestine.
The protest was held under the banner of Dakshina Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama, and the participants marched through the heart of the state capital to the Raj Bhavan shouting “La ilaha illallah” and carrying a banner expressing solidarity with the “liberators” of Palestine.
The Muslim Youth League, the youth wing of the IUML, has already announced plans to organise a public event in solidarity with the people of Palestine at Mananchira in Kozhikode on Thursday.
Congress leaders in Kerala are busy informing Muslim leaders that it was the intervention of Ramesh Chennithala, the seniormost party leader from the state, that resulted in the Congress Working Committee (CWC) issuing a strongly-worded statement reiterating its commitment to the Palestinian cause on Monday.
On Chennithala’s insistence, the Congress modified its initial statement, slamming the “brutal attacks” on Israel and calling for a dialogue, even as it endorsed the legitimate aspirations of the people of Palestine.
The latest CWC resolution did not mention the brutality against Israeli citizens, making the party’s stand a clear contrast to Modi’s unequivocal condemnation of the terrorist attacks by Hamas.
Chennithala is said to have complained that India under Indira Gandhi was very close to the Palestine Liberation Organisation of Yasser Arafat, and the proximity appeared diluted by the statement issued on Sunday.
While condemning the attacks on Israel, he felt that the party could have done a balancing job for Palestine.
In the meantime, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan carefully avoided any reference to the Hamas attack on Israel in his memorandum to Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar urging his intervention to ensure the safety of Indian citizens trapped in Israel.
Expressing concern over the plight of Indian nationals in Israel, Vijayan noted that around 7,000 were from Kerala. He said the continuing hostilities put them in great hardship, and their family members were in extreme anxiety.
“I request your good self to intervene in every possible manner to ensure the safety of our citizens in Israel,” said the chief minister in his letter.
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