Lucknow: The US is in a position to stop the Israel-Hamas conflict, but rather than playing a negotiator, it continues to support Israel, which is committing war crimes against the Palestinians, social activist and scholar Sandeep Pandey told ThePrint after announcing his decision to renounce his Ramon Magsaysay award, which he received in 2002.
The Magsaysay award is funded primarily by the Rockefeller Foundation. The category in which Pandey received the award was funded by the Ford Foundation.
Earlier this week, Pandey also said that he would give up his degrees from two American universities, Syracuse and Berkeley, in manufacturing and computer engineering and mechanical engineering, respectively, to protest US support to Israel.
“Even after so much has happened over the past three months — children have died and hospitals have been bombed — the US has sold arms to Israel. These are war crimes. Because of the US, even the European countries are supporting Israel,” he said, adding that the US should immediately ask Israel to stop the war against Palestine.
Pandey also said that he had held on to the Magsaysay award because he thought that the US was still a country where freedom of speech is valued but decided that “it was high time it (US) be called out for its actions” in light of Washington’s decision to supply arms to Israel as recently as last month.
The US State Department on 29 December said it approved a proposed USD 147.5 million sale of artillery munitions and related equipment to Israel, invoking an emergency provision that avoids a Congressional review process generally required for arms sales to other nations, The New York Times reported. The department used the same provision this month to facilitate the sale of about 13,000 rounds of tank ammunition to Israel, it added.
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‘Recognise Palestine as a sovereign state’
Talking about the conflict in the Middle East that began on 7 October, Pandey, who has been a visiting professor at IIMs and IITs, said, “While the attack on Israel by Hamas (the Palestinian militant group in control of the Gaza Strip since 2007) was wrong and the country has a right to self-defence, the Palestinians have now been pushed to a corner.”
He added that first, Israel asked the Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza and they all shifted to the south. “Since they shifted there, Israel has been bombing southern Gaza as well.”
“Palestinians have been pushed to a corner. They (Israel) have been bombing the Rafah crossing near Egypt, which is the only passage for Palestinians,” he said.
Stating that nobody is ready to talk to Hamas, Pandey asked if the US can talk to the Taliban, why can it not talk to Hamas? “This, even when Hamas won an election, while the Taliban didn’t even win any election.”
He was referring to the seats Hamas won in the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections.
According to him, the only solution to the conflict is to recognise Palestine as a sovereign state.
“If Israel doesn’t recognise the 1947 borders, it should recognise the 1967 borders, but it is not doing so. Israel has occupied vast swathes of land in Palestine, which it should vacate. It seems Israelis don’t want Palestinians to live at all,” said Pandey.
He opined that the veto wielded by permanent members of the United Nations Security Council is a hindrance in any resolution of the conflict.
“The UN secretary general is trying hard to bring the two sides to negotiate but the problem is the veto power of the permanent members of the UNSC. The veto power too should be cancelled to ensure that the UN can work democratically,” he added.
He also recalled how a few years ago when he went to Palestine with 60-70 people with relief material as part of a larger tour via Iran, Turkey, Syria and Lebanon, they had to bribe Egyptian officials twice before entering Gaza. “First, we had to pay USD 4,500 for deboarding our material at the Egyptian port, then we had to pay USD 10,500 for entry into Gaza,” he said.
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‘Returned USD 50,000 day later’
In 2002, the day after the Ramon Magsaysay award was conferred on him, Pandey had returned the prize money of USD 50,000 that he had received as part of the honour.
He also recounted the controversy that broke out soon after he participated in a protest against the US plan to attack Iraq back then. “I had gone to Manila to attend a peace conference organised by Professor Walden Bello at the University of Philippines in August 2002. I was informed that I will be conferred the Ramon Magsaysay Award, which is funded by an American organisation — Rockefeller Foundation,” Pandey told ThePrint.
Coincidently, the conference and the award ceremony were scheduled for the same day.
“In the conference, a resolution was passed to stage a protest at the US embassy (in the Philippines) against a possible attack on Iraq by the US. After my participation in the protest held on 1 September, an editorial was published in a Filipino newspaper the next day, which called me a ‘hypocrite’ and termed me a ‘USD 50,000 activist’. It said that if I was a principled man, I should return the award,” Pandey recalled.
The following day, Pandey returned the cash component to the Magsaysay Foundation but decided to keep the award.
“I wrote a letter to the foundation chairperson stating that I was keeping the award for the time being because it was named after a Filipino President, who is widely respected in that country, just like Jawahar Lal Nehru is in India. Further, the ceremony was held in Manila and I didn’t want to portray as if I was disrespecting the Filipino people,” he said
Stating that people like Jayaprakash Narayan, Vinoba Bhave and Baba Amte from India have received the award in the past, Pandey said that he wanted to “avoid any backlash from India as well”.
The social activist added that he even mentioned in that letter that in case the foundation felt his activities would create trouble for them, he would be happy to return the award.
‘Happy to return prize money’
Expressing content with his decision to return the prize money, Pandey said, “I am happy because I was asked not to participate in the protest.”
He added that the chairperson had even tried to stop him saying his participation in the protest at the US embassy would lead to disrepute of the foundation.
“I told her that they were already acquainted with my position against war because I had participated in a padayatra for global nuclear disarmament from Pokaran to Sarnath in 1999. However, I was informed that, while I could participate in such protests in my country, I should refrain from doing so in others,” he said.
“I found this more dangerous,” he told ThePrint, adding that immediately after his return to India, he participated in yet another protest — against Coca-Cola in Varanasi.
Pandey then went on to share yet another anecdote from his visit to the US in 2005.
“I remember that in 2005 when I was travelling to the US, the US chapter of the VHP (Vishva Hindu Parishad) had told the authorities there that I was a terrorist and a Naxalite.”
He said he was stopped and grilled at the airport where security authorities saw his press statement issued at the time of former US President George Bush’s declaration in the aftermath of the 2001 twin-tower attack that the US would launch a war against terror.
“I had famously declared that the US is the biggest violator as it had induced war in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries whenever it had wanted and it had still not apologised for the biggest terror attack on Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They still allowed me entry in the US saying that I was entitled to my opinion,” he said.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)