Azad Essa

India once called Zionism racism, but, as Azad Essa argues, the state of Israel has increasingly become a cornerstone of India’s foreign policy. Looking to replicate the ‘ethnic state’ in the image of Israel in policy and practice, the annexation of Kashmir increasingly resembles Israel’s settler-colonial project of the occupied West Bank. The ideological and political linkages between the two states are alarming; their brands of ethnonationalism deeply intertwined.

Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance Between India and Israel puts India’s relationship with Israel in its historical context, looking at the origins of Zionism and Hindutva; India’s changing position on Palestine; and the countries’ growing military-industrial relationship from the 1990s. Lucid and persuasive, Essa demonstrates that the India-Israel alliance spells significant consequences for democracy, the rule of law and justice worldwide.

This event will be in-person and livestreamed on The People’s Forum YouTube channel. If attending in person, please be prepared to show proof of vaccination at the door.

Azad Essa is a South African journalist based between Johannesburg and New York. His work focuses on the intersectionality of race, Islamophobia, and US foreign policy. He is the author of Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance Between India and Israel.

Linah Alsaafin is a Palestinian writer and journalist currently based in London. She has written for several print and online outlets such as The Times Literary Supplement, The New Internationalist, Middle East Eye and Al Jazeera.