Israel is not alone: Hindus, Buddhists, Native American, Yazidi and Tibetan groups stand with Israel
by Ezequiel Doiny
When one sees UN votes against Israel one may have the impression that Israel is alone but Israel is not alone, besides many Hindus, Christians and Buddhists there are many groups that have been banned from their homelands or are minorities with no political power that support Israel. Native American, Yazidi, Tibetan groups stand with Israel.
In an interview for the Times of Israel Indigenous activist Ryan Bellerose from Alberta said “I feel compelled to fight the idea that Israel is a colonialist state, that the Jews are colonizers from Europe and the entire invalid and false Arab narrative that has been spread since the 1960s. This ridiculous inversion of history has been accepted because nobody really stands up and fights it. And I believe coming from an Indian from Canada, who has lived through actual apartheid (two laws, one state for two peoples), I have a unique perspective. I have lived through colonization, and Israel is not even remotely colonialist.
I also do not like people who tell lies to Indians or who use our naivete and ignorance of the world to weaponize us. You are Jews from Judea. Your entire history is in the earth you walk on. Some of you were displaced and you fought for 2,000 years to return to the land of your forefathers. You do not need to be apologetic for doing something that is the goal of every indigenous people. You need to be celebratory. You need to be proud…
Israel needs to be more assertive about its ancestral lands, that it cannot be ambiguous and that the people as well as the government need to understand that it’s not about your “religion or spirituality.” It’s about your very identity. Your connection to your ancestral lands is not only spiritual but physical. Israel itself needs to take a larger role in stopping lies and false assertions because they really do cause issues. I believe that you need to become better at telling your story, which really is an amazing story. I think that once Jewish people start seeing themselves through a Jewish and not European lens, once they understand themselves as indigenous people, they will be stronger in their identity and will become what they are meant to be, which is a light unto the nations.
…You are a great example to my people and to all indigenous people of what indigenous peoples are capable of. You were a damaged fractured people who had the entire world against you, yet you not only regained your ancestral lands, you rebuilt them and you built a thriving powerful nation without losing touch with your ancestral roots. Tell me that’s not a powerful story and example.”
https://www.timesofisrael.com/indigenous-activist-advocates-for-israelis-native-rights/
Arutz 7 reported “The Native American Chief Joseph RiverWind and his wife, Laralyn arrived Sunday for a tour of Samaria. Chief RiverWind is the Peace Chief of the Arawak Taino Nation…In a meeting with the head of the Samaria Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, RiverWind revealed the warm feelings of the Native American community towards the State of Israel in general and Judea and Samaria in particular. He said that the story of the Jewish people and their return to their land is an inspiration for them and gives them hope for their own future…”
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/244812
Read more about indigenous solidarity with Israel “Indigenous movements around the world in solidarity with the indigenous rights of Jews to their homeland, and Jewish solidarity with other indigenous movements.”
http://www.cuwi.ca/indigenoussolidarity
New journal: “Zionism, An Indigenous Struggle: Aboriginal Americans and the Jewish State”
https://www.isranet.org/?s=zionism-indigenous-struggle-aboriginal-americans-and-jewish-state
https://www.isranet.org/israzine/zionism-indigenous-struggle-aboriginal-americans-and-jewish-state/editorial/#howard
Not only Native American groups stand with Israel against the false Palestinian narrative, Hindu, Yazidi and Tibetan groups also stand with Israel.
PM Netanyahu was warmly received in his trip to India earlier this month. Ashutosh Singh, an Indian with a Doctor of Philosophy degree wrote in http://quora.com “I am a fan of Jews and the State of Israel”.
On February 19, 2018 the Jerusalem Post reported “Over 70,000 Hindus in India engaged in what has been described as the “largest pro-Israel rally in history” in Kolkata on February 14, 2018.
There were massive calls for India to stand by Israel and move its embassy to Jerusalem. The rally was one of several organized by the Hindu Samhati, longtime supporters of close India-Israel relations.”
https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/70000-Hindus-rally-for-Israel-under-Hindu-Samhati-banner-543072
Devdutta Maj wrote in Arutz 7 “…What is true to the Jews is also true for Hindus in West Bengal and in large parts of Eastern Bharat. Through a decade of ground efforts in Easter Bharat, where violence against the Hindus knows no bounds, where women are raped and get no justice due to the clout of the Islamists, where Hindu sisters are kidnapped and sold, through a decade of efforts we have been able to save thousands of sisters from falling into the hands of jihadis…
West Bengal has around 30% Muslims as part of its demographics. Israel is a symbol to organize the hate against values that both Hindus and Jews hold dear. These values which Tapan da mentioned in a previous article addressed to the beautiful nation of Israel are gender equality, co-existence and quest for knowledge. To defend these values, we have built a counter narrative to the communists and the Islamists.
This quest for a counter narrative, against the lies that help to sustain the hate of the Islamists and the communists motivated us to rally our people to come out on the streets in support of Israel. This effort was not easy to start with. The local administration was hostile to us, there were chances of Islamist attacks and chances of communists trying to stop the rallies.
Yet we succeeded despite all odds and in 2014 at the height of the attacks on Israel, when rockets using women and children as shields were raining down on Israel, we rallied with 20,000 people on the streets of Kolkata. In our rallies we showed support and solidarity for Israel. I personally had the honor to design the rally and organize the rallyists. This was an unique effort anywhere in the world and we continued the tradition in 2018 with a much bigger rally of 70,000 people.
The consequence of these rallies has not only emboldened the pro-Israel groups worldwide but also helped to develop a counter narrative to the communist Islamist narrative globally. And even though it is a baby step and needs much scaling up, in the midst of the volatile troubled world we live in, it can provide hope how similar pro-Israel rallies can be organized. The solution to defeat the forces of hate against Israel is thus to serve the poorest of poor people in the world who are facing daily atrocities in regions of the world due to a narrative of hate perpetrated by the same forces who are both against Israel as well as against the Hindus and India. If we serve them, empower them and risk our lives to help them, then they can stand with us with trust and confidence to create a counter narrative to protect the values that we hold dear and save our ancient indigenous civilizations…”
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/22303
Ezidi.fr les yézidis des yézidis is a website that represents the Yazidi community exiled in France. On December 24, 2017 Mr Pir Melek from Ezidi.fr les yézidis des yézidis wrote in an email he sent me:
“…the Jewish people supported us. and we support the Jewish people. Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.”
“…the Sinjar region belongs to the Yezidi people and today we are a minority there. it became a territory of conflict between Kurds and Arab while it was our country yezdikhan (ezdixane).”
Rachel Avraham wrote in Arutz 7“…According to Yezidi leader Mirza Ismail, “The Jewish people were persecuted by the pharaoh in ancient Egypt, where the Jewish baby boys were murdered in order to reduce their population and their women and girls were taken to be slaves, where they faced much hardship.” Similarly, under ISIS, the Yezidi nation witnessed a genocide reminiscent of what Pharaoh inflicted upon the Jewish people.
Despite the fall of the Caliphate, Ismail related that 3,000 Yezidi women and girls are still condemned to sexual slavery. However, with the Turkish invasion of Afrin and the Turkish threats on Mount Sinjar, the plight of Yezidis has become even direr. Among the Turkish troops who took over Afrin, Ismail reported there are also ISIS terrorists: “Over 18 Yezidi villages have been emptied. The people are displaced, living in abandoned houses, buildings and open fields with very limited food and water. According to one of the Yezidis I spoke to, about 7 young Yezidi men were blindfolded and taken to an unknown place. Their families have not heard from them again.”
With Turkey threatening Mount Sinjar, Ismail noted that the Yezidis are barred from returning to their historic homeland: “During the last Turkish airstrikes on Mount Sinjar, a young Yezidi boy was killed, some were injured and a Yezidi cultural center was destroyed.” With ISIS fighting along Turkish forces and given the history between Yezidis and Turks, Ismail fears for the worse with these recent developments: “As Yezidis, we have faced 74 genocides by different Islamic sects. The Turks were collaborating in all of the genocides against the Yezidis from the very past to the present. When Erdogan said ‘we will go into Sinjar; now the operations have begun there,’ this did not surprise any Yezidi. Turkey has always tried to destroy the Yezidis whenever possible. Ottoman Turkey committed a genocide against the Yezidis in Sinjar when the Yezidis gave safe haven to Christians in 1915-1918. Turkey opened its gates to ISIS fighters to come in from around the globe.”
Ismail sees a lot of parallels between his peoples’ history and that of the Jewish people: “Many Jews were also persecuted by the Muslims under the Prophet Mohammed, who murdered the Jewish men and sexually enslaved the Jewish women and girls in Mecca and Medina. The Yezidis are considered infidels and people without a book by the Muslims under the Shariah law. Therefore, they are encouraged to commit genocide against us, thus killing the men, sexually enslaving the women and girls and kidnapping the boys, whom they brainwash to come and kill their own people. The same fate applies to Hindus and many other nature worshippers.”
Bangladesh has now been independent for 48 years but during this period of time, Shipan Kumer Basu, the President of the World Hindu Struggle, reported that only the Muslims obtained their freedom: “The 25 million minorities in the country are freedom fighters due to their perseverance in the face of adversity. During the War of Bangladeshi Independence, the minorities suffered unspeakable atrocities. In 1971, Hindus were massacred and raped by the Pakistanis and their Muslim Bengali allies. 100 million Hindus fled to India in order to save their lives.”
According to Basu, the plight of the Hindus of Bangladesh has not improved much since then: “To this day, Hindus in Bangladesh are raped and murdered arbitrarily. Their holy sites are desecrated and their homes are destroyed. The Bangladeshi government regards them as enemies and confiscates their property. The exodus of Hindus out of the country continues unabated. The Bangladeshi government under the tutelage of ISIS and other Islamist extremist groups have taken everything away from the Hindus for the goal and purpose of the Awami League from its roots in the Muslim League to the present is to eliminate the Hindu population in the country.”
“Sheikh Mujib, the father of Sheikh Hasina, was opposed to Bangladeshi Independence,” Basu noted. “By oppressing the Hindus and other minorities, Sheikh Hasina is following in her father’s footsteps by denying freedom and independence to the Hindu people in her country. Due to such actions, the German government has now declared that Bangladesh is an autocracy and not a democracy. It is important to recall that the main opposition leader opposed to Sheikh Hasina is now behind bars. The home of advocate Rabindra Ghosh, who is a prominent human rights activist and the president of Bangladesh Minority Watch, was attacked. The Bangladeshi leadership is trying to give the perpetrators of the attack immunity. As the Jewish people celebrate their freedom at the Passover Seder, please help another oppressed people to obtain justice through the establishment of a democracy in Bangladesh or else pretty soon, there will be no minorities left in the country.”
According to Ismail, “The Passover holiday is very important and is celebrated by many because it was the end of the slavery of the Jews in Egypt. I think that the Jews always remember their dark times and how G-d helped them out, so when the Jews see other groups suffering from genocide and atrocities, they feel the pain and try to help out as much as possible. This is the gift of the Jewish people to humanity…”
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/21917
Like the Yazidi, the Tibetans also support Israel. On August 31, 2017 Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada wrote “I stand up for Natural Rights of Jews to live in Judea and Samaria; and I stand up for Natural Rights of Tibetans to their ancestral Homeland. I support His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Five-Point Peace Plan to stop Communist China’s Colonization of Tibet.”
https://wholedude.com/tag/living-rights-of-jews-judea-and-samaria/
“WHOLEDUDE – WHOLE PLANET serves as the official page of Special Frontier Force, a military alliance between the US, India, and Tibet to resist Red China’s Expansionist Policy. Special Frontier Force is funded by United States and it promotes Democracy, Freedom, and Peace in Occupied Tibet…Whole Dude is a phrase that refers to Whole Man in all aspects of one’s being, including physical, mental, social, moral, and spiritual… “
Not only in Tibet have Buddhist been persecutted. Buddhists have also been persecuted by the Muslims. On October 29, 2017 Akhilesh Pillalamarri wrote in the Diplomat “there is an unusually high level of tension between Buddhists and Muslims in regions where the two groups share space, including Rakhine state in Myanmar, southern Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Ladakh, the eastern part of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.
At the root of this tension is the fear among Buddhists — not completely exaggerated — that Muslims will swamp them demographically. Many Buddhists also fear that their countries will lose their culture and become Muslim, as had been the case in many parts of modern day Central Asia, Xinjiang, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, which were majority Buddhist before the arrival of Islam in the 7th-11th centuries. Often, the arrival of Islam went hand-in-hand with the destruction of Buddhism. When the Muslim Turkic Qarakhanids captured the Buddhist city of Khotan in Xinjiang in 1006 CE, one of their poets penned this verse: “We came down on them like a flood/We went out among their cities/We tore down the idol-temples/We shat on the Buddha’s head.” In the Islamic world, a destroyer of idols came to be known as a but-shikan (?? ???), a destroyer of but, a corruption of the word Buddha, as Buddhism was prevalent in much of what became the eastern part of the Islamic world…”
https://thediplomat.com/2017/10/buddhism-and-islam-in-asia-a-long-and-complicated-history/
The Muslim persecution of Budhist started in the 12th century when Muslim invaders destroyed Budhism in India. In 1193 the Budhist Naranda University in India was destroyed by Muslim invaders “N?land? (Hindi/Sanskrit/Pali: ??????) is the name of an ancient center of higher learning inBihar, India. The site of Nalanda is located in the Indian stateof Bihar, about 55 miles south east of Patna, and was a Buddhist center of learning from 427 to 1197 CE. It has been called “one of the first great universities in recorded history…Nalanda University was one of the first universities in the world, founded in the 5th Century BC, and reported to have been visited by the Buddha during his lifetime. At its peak, in the 7th century AD, Nalanda held some 10,000 students and 2000 teachers when it was visited by the Chinese scholar Xuanzang…The library of Nalanda, known as Dharma Gunj (Mountain of Truth) or Dharmagañja(Treasury of Truth), was the most renowned repository of Buddhist knowledge in the world at the time. Its collection was said to comprise hundreds of thousands of volumes, so extensive that it burned for months when set aflame by Muslim invaders…Nalanda was sacked by Turkic Muslim invaders under Bakhtiyar Khalji in 1193, a milestone in the decline of Buddhism in India. The great library of Nalanda University was so vast that it is reported to have burned for three months after the Mughals set fire to it, sacked and destroyed the monasteries, and drove the monks from the site…”
On March 12, 2001 the Telegraph reported “THE world’s two largest standing Buddhas – one of them 165ft high – were blown up by the Taliban in Afghanistan at the weekend.
A Buddha of Bamiyan statue stands over 150 feet high above a small town situated at the foot of the Hindu Kush mountains of central Afghanistan, prior to its destruction
After failing to destroy the 1,700-year-old sandstone statues of Buddha with anti-aircraft and tank fire, the Taliban brought a lorryload of dynamite from Kabul. A Western observer said: “They drilled holes into the torsos of the two statues and then placed dynamite charges inside the holes to blow them up.”
The operation to wreck the statues carved into a cliff in the Bamiyan Valley in the Hindu Kush mountains of central Afghanistan was supervised by Mullah Obaidullah, the Taliban defence minister. There has been an international outcry since Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban leader, issued a special edict on Feb 26 ordering the destruction of all non-Islamic statues.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/1326063/After-1700-years-Buddhas-fall-to-Taliban-dynamite.html
Jews, Christians and Hindus also suffered Islamic invasions and had their holy sites destroyed or converted into Mosques. Below is a list of non-Muslim Holy Sites, sites stolen by Islamic armies:
1. Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Holiest site for Judaism. Site of the two Jewish Temples. The Muslims built two mosques there, adding the legend that Mohammed tied his horse to a post there.
2. Cave of the Patriarchs in Hevron. The Jewish Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are undeniably buried there. The Muslims built a mosque there.
3. There are 2000 Hindu Temples in India that were converted to mosques. During the reign of Aurangzeb, tens of thousands of temples were desecrated: their facades and interiors were defaced and their divine images looted. In many cases, temples were destroyed entirely; in numerous instances mosques were built on their foundations, sometimes using the same stones. Among the temples Aurangzeb destroyed were two that are most sacred to Hindus, in Varanasi and Mathura. In both cases, he had large mosques built on the sites.
4. The Babri Mosque in Ayodhya (North India) was built on the site of a Hindu Temple. In 1992 a mob of 150,000 Hindus razed the mosque. Nobel Laureate writer V. S. Naipaul has praised the act for “reclaiming India’s Hindu heritage”.
5. The great temple of Keshava Rai at Mathura was one of the most magnificent hindu temples ever built in India. The Temple was demolished in 1670 and on its site a mosque was built.
6. The Somnath Temple in India: destroyed by Muslim invaders and converted into a mosque. In AD 1025, Mahmud destroyed and looted the temple, killing over 50,000 people who tried to defend it. After independence, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel pledged on November 13, 1947, that the temple would be reconstructed. The mosque was not destroyed but carefully relocated. In 1951 Dr. Rajendra Prasad performed the consecration ceremony. The temple construction was completed on December 1, 1995. The then President of India, Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma, dedicated it to the nation.”
7. Kashi or Varanasi is the most sacred site in Hinduism and the worship of Lord Shiva as Vishveshvara goes back to ancient times. The temple was demolished several times by Muslim invaders, and was reconstructed again and again by Hindu kings. A mosque was built which still stands.
8. A surge in church-mosque conversion followed the 1974 Turkish Invasion of Cyprus. Many of the Orthodox churches in Northern Cyprus have been converted to mosques.
9. Hundreds of Greek Orthodox churches in Turkey were converted into mosques. Hagia Sophia, the seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, was converted into a mosque, and then, in order not to return it to the Christians, into a museum where until today Christians are forbidden to pray.
Israel is not alone, Israel is popular among Hindus, Christians and Buddhists. There are also many groups that have been banned from their homelands or are minorities with no political power that support Israel. Native American, Yazidi, Tibetan groups stand with Israel: Israel should invite them to build honorary embassies in Jerusalem.
Ezequiel Doiny is author of “Obama’s assault on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount”
