July 16-31, 2021 - Vol 1, Issue 26
INDIA NEWS
EDUCATION
India News-JGU-IAIE SMART program JGU has signed Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with Australia-based INDIA NEWS and Institute for Australia India Engagement (IAIE) to create opportunities for students to undertake internships in Australia. With INDIA NEWS and IAIE students will participate in the Student Mentoring and Research Training (SMART) program over a period of 1-2 months. As a part of the internship students design, edit and publish this page which contains commentaries by them on issues which they deem relevant for Australia-India relations. Page Editor: Ms. Anushka Saxena, Lady Sri Ram College (graduate), New Delhi Associate Page Editor: Ms. Vaibhavi Nagar, JGU Commentators: Mr Dhruv Kumar Jha, Ms. Harshita Calla, Ms. Sumedha Maheshwari, Ms. Sri C. Khyati Reddy, Mr. Shivam Shukla and Ms. Tanya Goel ( JGU students and graduates)
India-Australia on Israel-Palestine and the Two-State Solution of negotiations and peacemaking between the two parties-toconflict. Albeit it may not be the most logical. But before I move into its “why”, I find it apt to focus on India’s and Australia’s shared stance on the issue in particular.
Anushka Saxena
T
he Israel-Palestine Conflict, dating back to the creation of Israel in 1948, has once again come to dominate geopolitical discussions after Hamas, the international terror group in control of the disputed Gaza Strip, fired rockets at Israel following a growth in tensions among settlers in East Jerusalem. The Conflict more-or-less sits at the heart of regional dynamics in the Middle East, and a deadlock situation exists between the state of Israel and the entity of Palestine because while the former is supported vehemently by the United States, the latter has been conferred with bilateral recognition by 139 nations from across the world, especially since Palestine declared its own statehood and independence in 1988. Both India and Australia have diplomatic relations with Israel, and do not recognise Palestine as a state. Moreover, both India and Australia, recognising the bleak security and human rights situation along the IsraelPalestine axis, support steadfast resolution to the conflict by endorsing what the international community calls the “Two-State Solution”. Having been around the longest - since the British Peel Commission was setup in 1937 to devise a strategy for peaceful coexistence between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs, to having various UN resolutions dedicated to its endorsement - the TwoState Solution seems like the most widely accepted outcome
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Both India and Australia have positive strategic relations with Israel. India, for example, depends heavily on Israel for its technological and agricultural investments in the country. In 2017 alone, Israeli company ADAMA, before being acquired by Chinese giant ChemChina, invested US $50 million in India in agricultural solutions for crop protection. Similarly, both nations enjoy partnership in the field of space and telecommunications, and this partnership is furthered by Memorandums of Understanding on research and development, as well as industry and commerce, between the two nations. By historical standards, both Indian and Israeli individuals find the other nation to be a good tourist destination, and there exist strong people-topeople ties in both employment and education. Moreover, in defence, India has a lot to learn from the growing drone industry in Israel, and both nations even cooperate on counterterrorismthrough a Joint Working Group. In the case of Australia, Israel has witnessed significant support from the country. Historically, Australia was prompt in both, voting in favour of the UN’s 1947 Partition Plan, which eventually led to the formation of Israel, and in establishing diplomatic relations with Israel in 1949. Ever since, Australia’s Jewish community has strived to maintain cordiality with the Israelis, and both cultural and technological ties have prospered. Centering around innovation, the investments from both sides in 2019 alone, totalled to US $1 billion and 542 million. There also exists a special Australia “Trade and Defence Office” in West Jerusalem, since 2019. With a background of Israel’s relations with India and Australia,
we can begin to understand the Two-State Solution. It must be noted that despite the blooming bilateral ties, the Palestine issue and the relevant violations of International Law by Israeli settlers in occupied regions, is always a stumbling block in all of Israel’s worldly ties. Both, India and Australia have urged Israel to respect international law, even though the two have been harsher in condemning the actions of the Hamasin Palestine, which also violated international law by disregarding the principle of distinction. Therefore, to bring peace to the region, both nations push forth the Two State Solution, which essentially divides Israel and Palestine into two independent, internationallyrecognised states with defined borders. The internationally accepted border is the “Green Line”, first envisioned and laid out by the UN Partition Plan of 1947 (UNGA Resolution 181) and furthered by the Oslo Peace Accords between Israel and Palestine in 1993. Also known as the “Armistice line” of 1949, the border provides for a Palestine comprising the now occupied West Bank, and the Hamascontrolled Gaza Strip. While it may seem sensible for the two entities engaged in a state of war since 1948 to exist as separate states for achieving peace, on the ground, its implementation is much more complex. In a wonderful commentary on the breakdown of the Oslo process of peacebuilding and the alternatives to a Two-State Solution, Khaled Elgindy stated, “That there is international consensus on the need for a twostate solution does not change the fact that Israelis and Palestinians live in a one-state reality.” This is because of Israel’s huge settlement enterprise, that will now make it virtually impossible for the nation to evacuate lakhs of its settled citizens from the regions meant to belong to Palestine, coupled by the fact that if a Two-State reality does come into action, Palestine as a state will be subject to vulnerability by
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virtue of territorial discontinuity. Moreover, defined borders will also make it extremely difficult for Palestinian refugees to return to land from where they were evacuated due to Israeli control, or for Israeli Jews to securely visit the land they feel connected with inside the Palestinian territory. On a more practical note, I believe that the idea of “liberating” Palestine into an “Arab (Muslim-dominated) State”, has more to do with the regional sentiments of Arab supremacy and feeling of conquest, than with the actual merits of Palestine existing independently. This feeling has been the leading cause of most Israel-Palestine wars, be it Israel’s pre-emptive strike against joint Egyptian and Syrian forces in 1967 or the 1973 Yom Kippur war, and continues to destabilise the Middle East. In recent years, more Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the international community are now seeing the Oslo process becoming redundant. The recent protests in West Bank against President of the Palestinian National Authority (PA), Mahmoud Abbas, indicate the PA’s downfall on the Palestinian political scene, and a loosely-tied coalition among various Israeli Parties (both left and right-winged), led by their new Prime Minister - Naftali Bennett, can be the sign of a more moderate and cautious Israeli approach in dealing with Palestine. In this context, it seems rather logical that both Israel and Palestine exist as a symbiotic “One-State”, wherein one and all are guaranteed equal civil, political, cultural and educational rights, accompanied with a right to “free and open national selfexpression”. At the least, there must exist an economic union of sorts, as was envisioned by the UN Partition Plan. The major challenges to this idea exist in the form of cultural, nationalistic rivalries between Israeli Jew settlers and Palestinian Arabs, as well as the fragmented nature of political fervour within Palestine - as mentioned above, the PA and the Hamas have emerged as two polarising centres of power, furthering discontinuity. However, seeing as prolonged conflict has, more-or-less led to a burnout and a stalemate in the region, the accommodating tendencies are likely to emerge in favour of an egalitarian state for all. It would, however, require not just political, but cultural and social accommodations, and a zeal for conflict-reduction to achieve conflict-resolution.
Impact of COVID-19 on the Australian tourism industry
Harshita Calla
T
he COVID-19 pandemic came as a shock to the entire world, halting the smooth functioning of many industries, and tourism being one. In the short-term, it has led to a standstill in international visitation, with restrictions being imposed on domestic mobility as well. Australia acted swiftly in its response to the pandemic and as early as late September 2020, as two-thirds of Australians felt that it was now safe to travel within the country. A similar trend followed in the other aspects of tourism, including the hospitality industry, with various tourist accommodations going into hibernation due to a steep fall in hotel occupancy during March-April of 2020. The steep fall began once the lockdown conditions were eased by June 2020. The same cannot be said for the projects in the pipeline, with the slowing down constructionprojects due to disruptions in the supply chain. Many hotels scheduled to open in 2020 have postponed their launch. Overall, the tourism industry is mainly catering to domestic travellers only. It has been observed that domestic tourists have started taking shorter and frequent trips, while their travel spending has dropped from an average of $648 per person in 2019 to $385 per person in 2020. Organised tours, convention and conference registrations, taxi services, entertainment, and casinos have seen a reduction of more than 95% in their revenues. The industry is projected to recover and may even reach prepandemic levels soon, but this remains questionable, given the unpredictability of the pandemic and its recurring waves.
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