Kashmir: Journey to Freedom

Udi Aloni (born in Tel Aviv in 1959) is the producer-director of the documentary Kashmir: Journey to Freedom. Udi Aloni is very active in promoting justice, peace, solidarity, and love between Jews and Muslims living in occupied Palestine. He expressed his views about Palestine and Kashmir as follows:

“Every day Israel continues bombing Gaza. I am on the road, so all I can do is to go to demonstrations against the war and to come out against the war in my writings. I can fume and rant and burst into tears in response to all this evil.

There will soon be a ceasefire. Soon they will count the bodies. The propaganda machine will produce sterile accounts of a fundamentalist monster that must be defeated. Today the lines are drawn in Gaza. Tomorrow they will be drawn in Kashmir, or wherever the West decides to set its boundaries against the barbaric hordes that have swooped down to destroy its way of life. ….”

The documentary was filmed in Muslim majority Jammu and Kashmir valley – the major part of which is occupied by Indian forces and the rest is known as ‘Azad Kashmir’, an autonomous state under Pakistan. Aloni has interviewed Kashmiris belonging to different walk of life such as Yasin Malik, Usmaan Reheem Ahmad, Fasih Qadri, Altaf Khan, Mohammed Amin Bhat, and Malik Sajad.

Yesterday, I watched Aloni being interviewed by Retka, a Bollywood show host on Canadian TV – in which he told her that he is a great fan of Mahatma Gandhi and believe in a non-violence resistance both in occupied Kashmir and Palestine. He also stated that both Israelis and Palestinian should stop being dictated by the US, Saudi Arabia and Iran. His documentary, in his words, shows the desire of new generations of Muslims, Jews, and Hindus who desire to live in together in peace. These are very noble thoughts but far from the realities on the ground. For example:

1. Mahatma Gandhi was against the the partition of Palestine for the unwanted Jewish population in Europe – and the occupation of Jammu and Kashmir valley by Indian forces.

2. Muslims, both in Jammu and Kashmir Valley and Palestine – did resist their foreign occupiers through non-violence for many decades before coming to the conclusion that military resistance was the only way to make the Jewish and Hindu occupiers understand their victims’ frustration.

3. American don’t dictate Israel – it’s Israel which dictates Washington through its powerful Jewish Lobby in the US and most of EU countries. It was former prime minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, who told Shimon Peres (the current President of Israel) in October 2001 – “I want to tell you something very clear, don’t worry about American pressure on Israel, we, the Jewish people control America, and the Americans know it.”

4. Foreign unwanted Jews have replaced more than 70% of Muslim and Christian population of Palestine by terrorism and land confiscation for new Jewish settlements on daily basis. They have, with the help of western countries, established world’s fourth largest army, which they use to terrorize Israel’s Arab neighbours. Israeli historian, John Kaminski, once described Zionist entity as – “When you read the history of Israel from objective sources, you discover that it is an outlaw state, created by the powers that be by stealing the land from its original inhabitants, and systematically exterminating them ever since.”

Indian-held Jammu valley has 77% Muslim population and Indian Hindus are affraid to settle in that part of India. India has more than 500,000 soldiers to fight Muslim resistance in its occupied territory.

“History is witness to the fact that Kashmiris have fought against those who went against their wishes – be it towering leader of Kashmir, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, who was highly praised and respected by the people of Jammu and Kashmir, unlike any of the separatist or mainstream leaders of present time – but when people understood he has compromised on Kashmir cause – they went to the extent of dig his corpse out of his grave in 1990s….”,

http://www.daily.pk/pakistan/pakistannews/10157-kashmir-journey-to-freedom.html