Bollywood Supports Palestine!

Amid one of the most distressing weeks in recent years of the Israel-Palestine conflict  Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine, a growing number of celebrities and influential figures across the world have been voicing their support for the Palestinian plight.

Among them are a group of Bollywood celebrities who are:

 

Ishaan Khatter

Khatter posted the disturbing visual below in an Instagram story of a Palestinian family in Lod being terrorized in their home. Children and a woman can be heard screaming in the background as Israeli forces violently attempt to break in.

Shruti Haasan

Haasan, who undoubtedly caught the political activist bug from her father, posted a heartbreaking image on her Instagram account of a toddler crying in a pile of rubble in Gaza City.

Vishal Dadlani 

Outspoken Bollywood songwriter, Vishal Dadlani, of famed production duo, Vishal-Shekhar, reposted a tweet by Buzzfeed India producer, Andre Borges, that reads “To stand with Palestine is to stand for anti-colonisation, anti-erasure and for human rights.”

It’s heartbreaking to see the violence that’s happening in Gaza, and it’s more heartbreaking to see how surprised Palestinians are to be getting any kind of support.

To stand with Palestine is to stand for anti-colonisation, anti-erasure, and for human rights.#FreePalestine

— Andre Borges (@borges) May 12, 2021

Dhruv Sehgal

Dhruv Sehgal of Netflix’s Little Things fame posted a video of Al-Jalaa tower in Gaza being demolished by Israeli airstrikes.

The controversial demolition of the tower, which is seen as a war crime, housed not only 60 Palestinian families but also the office of the American non-partisan news agency, the Associated Press.

Israel claims that the tower was a safe haven for Hamas militants but when American Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, requested Israel to provide evidence, Israel did not submit any.

Zaira Wasim

The former Bollywood superstar posted a poignant dua on her Instagram account in support of Palestine.

Sobhita Dhulipala

The supermodel/actress reposted Palestinian American model, Bella Hadid’s post on Instagram that answers some of the most frequently asked questions about the conflict.

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Personally, as a Palestinian and a self-proclaimed Indophile, seeing this avalanche of support from Bollywood means the world to me.

Historically, India has always sided with Palestine over Israel as both countries have been colonized by Britain and are still reeling from the residual effects of that period. However after the right-wing BJP party came into power in 2014, a tectonic shift occurred which saw India side with Israel for the first time in over 60 years.

Rather than recognize the inarguable similarities between India and Palestine, the BJP party, led by party leader and current prime minister, Narendra Modi, has instead reduced the conflict to a strictly binary Muslims vs. Jews clash.

A few political pundits in India, such as Dhruv Rathee, claim Modi has done so in order to further his anti-Muslim agenda.