New Delhi: India could have prevented former Hamas leader Khaled Mashal’s controversial address at a rally in Kerala last month if it had designated the Palestinian group as a terror organisation, said Israel’s ambassador to India Naor Gilon while speaking to journalists in New Delhi Tuesday.
Israel is currently in talks with India to designate Hamas as a terror organisation. This also comes after Israel, ahead of the 15th anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks on 26 November, officially designated Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) as a terror organisation.
Speaking to a group of journalists, the Israeli envoy said: “What is the effectiveness of designating Hamas a terror group here (in India)? It’s very simple. When I see Khaled Mashal on video appearing in Kerala telling the people to go to the streets and demonstrate, prepare for jihad… and finance the resistance, meaning finance Hamas which is a terror organisation — all of that could probably have been prevented.”
On 27 October — 20 days after Hamas’ attack on Israel — Mashal virtually addressed a pro-Palestine rally in Malappuram where he said: “Together, we will defeat the Zionists and we will stand united for Gaza.”
His remarks sparked a political row, as the BJP accused the Opposition of being anti-national and of violating the secular values of the nation.
“I don’t think the Indian government is too happy with people coming from the outside and telling their citizens things like that,” the Israeli ambassador added. “This would have been probably prevented in a situation where it (Hamas) will be (designated) a terror organisation.”
He also suggested that interviews given by senior Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook to the Indian media after the Israel-Hamas war broke out could have been avoided.
On 25 October, Israel’s ambassador to India had said his country had been in talks with the Indian authorities about the possibility of New Delhi designating Hamas as a terror organisation, adding that Israel was not applying “pressure” but simply “asking”.
It is unclear at what level these talks have been held.
Since the start of the war, India has backed Israel and termed the Hamas attack as “terrorism”. However, it has also called for the observation of international law and continues to send aid to Gaza as the humanitarian crisis mounts.
ThePrint reached Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi over text with queries, but did not receive a response.
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Designating LeT as terror group was ‘symbolic gesture’
Last week, Israel listed LeT as a terror organisation to symbolise the marking of the 15th year of commemoration of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
Israel took the step independently and not at the request of the Indian government, according to a statement from the Israel embassy.
Ambassador Gilon said that this was in the works for the past five-six months.
“We were not aware that the Lashkar-e-Taiba was never listed (as a terror group) in Israel. So, we started the process — a long inter-agency process,” he said.
“It’s very symbolic. If India had come to Israel five years ago and said — ‘look, we know this individual from LeT is in communication and getting money from this person in Israel’ — he would be arrested, whether they (LeT) were designated as a terror group or not,” he added.
“When it comes to fighting terrorism, we are very determined. We felt that this was the right gesture to make 15 years after the [Mumbai attacks]. We thought it was the right thing to do. There were also six Israelis killed in the Mumbai attacks… but this was not the motivation as such,” he further said.
During the press briefing Tuesday, the envoy was wearing a yellow band on his wrist as a symbol to stand together against terrorism.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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