FOUR Al Jazeera journalists, including globally admired correspondent Anas al-Sharif, were killed in Gaza in an Israeli air strike on Aug 10.

Seeking to muffle the outrage, Israel sought to justify the targeted killing by claiming ingeniously that the murdered men were ‘Hamas terrorists’. Solid evidence shows up the lie.

A tweet by Priyanka Gandhi the following day berated the Modi government’s silence on the wider genocide of Palestinians underway with impunity in Gaza. “The Israeli state is committing genocide,” Gandhi declared amidst a sea of silence.

“It has murdered over 60,000 people, 18,430 of whom were children. It has starved hundreds to death including many children and is threatening to starve millions. Enabling these crimes by silence and inaction is a crime in itself. It is shameful that the Indian government stands silent as Israel unleashes this devastation on the people of Palestine.” Nehru would be pleased with his great-granddaughter’s sagacity and sense of camaraderie that he had institutionalised for new India.

Israel’s ambassador responded impertinently to Gandhi’s Nehruvian anger. Emboldened by his complicit right-wing Indian hosts, Ambassador Reuven Azar sneered at Priyanka as Hindutva groups applauded him. “What is shameful is your deceit,” the ambassador railed before proceeding with his troll. “Israel killed 25,000 Hamas terrorists. The terrible cost in human lives derives from Hamas’s heinous tactics of hiding behind civilians, their shooting of people trying to evacuate or receive assistance and their rocket fire.”

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© Dawn