Experts warn of 'impunity' amidst Indian calls to implement 'Israel playbook' in Kashmir

Middle East Eye

25-04-2025

The comparison between India's control over Kashmir and Israel's occupation of Palestine has long been made by academics and activists.
Now, prominent Indian figures are invoking the connection themselves.
Following an attack on tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir, there have been widespread calls for an "Israel-like" retaliation by law enforcement, high-profile commentators, and members of the public.
As the Indian response unfolds, experts warned to Middle East Eye that the implementation of the "Israel playbook" will create impunity around the state's treatment of Kashmiris.
On Tuesday, gunmen opened fire on a group of tourists near central Pahalgam, killing at least 26 tourists, primarily from India.
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A group calling itself the "Resistance Front" – affiliated with Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba – issued statements claiming responsibility for the attack, although they are still to be verified.
While media footage and eyewitness accounts from the incident have captured the role of Kashmiri locals in protecting tourists immediately after the attack, many members of the Indian public have called for a vengeful response against both Kashmiris and Muslims, referencing Israel's ongoing war on Gaza, in which over 51,000 Palestinians have been killed.
Professor Mohamad Junaid from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, whose work focuses on state violence and activism in Kashmir, told MEE that the social media rhetoric being amplified by the "Hindu right-wing" is adopted from "anti-Muslim rhetoric from anti-Palestinian, anti-immigrant, and anti-minority discourses in the West".
Many of these calls are coming from organisations and higher-profile journalists.
The Stop Hindu Hate Advocacy Network (SHHAN) - based in the US - called for the "[flattening] of Kashmir," comparing Indian-controlled Kashmir to Gaza.
Kashmir should be flattened like Gaza.
Both don't deserve freedom. https://t.co/KzwWDZ4fMi — Stop Hindu Hate Advocacy Network (SHHAN) (@HinduHate) April 22, 2025
Arnab Goswami drew widespread attention for announcing on his show on the right-wing YouTube channel Republic World that: "22 of April is to India what 7 October was to the Israelis."
A guest featured on the programme added: "We demand we turn Pakistan into Gaza."
Indian columnist Sanjay Dixit had a similar message for viewers of YouTube channel Jaipur Dialogues.
The Ultimate Solution to Kashmir Terrorism Problem is destruction of Pakistan
While this might take time, Surgical Strikes and Missile Attacks on Border Areas inside Pakistan should be a Contineous Affair
India needs to adopt the Israel Model to finish Pakistan once and for… — The Jaipur Dialogues (@JaipurDialogues) April 22, 2025
The rhetoric has not been limited to talk show hosts and X users and has been invoked in mainstream Indian media coverage and by members of law enforcement, cementing a parallel between the Indian and Israeli states.
Zee News, a prominent Indian news network, described the Israeli ambassador Reuven Azar's response as a statement from India's "closest friend, Israel".
Muslims fear potential 'Israel-like' retaliation after Kashmir attack Read More »
Former director general of police of Jammu and Kashmir S.P Vaid said that "we must respond like Israel," as reported by Hindi newspaper Jagran.
Human rights groups have documented the ways in which the Police of Jammu and Kashmir, run by India's Ministry of Home Affairs, have led raids and interrogations against journalists, and maintained extrajudicial detentions of Kashmiris.
Likewise, an opinion piece in The Print by former Indian army general MM Naravane called on India to 'borrow' from Israeli tactics.
"It is time for India to bare its fangs and not fall prey to calls for restraint," he wrote.
Experts have widely described Indian-controlled Kashmir as "the world's most militarised zone". Many of these military personnel are trained by Israel forces.
An overview of the Israel model
This is not the first time that the "Israel model" has been invoked in the context of Indian-controlled Kashmir.
In June 2024, Indian author Anand Ranganathan called for an 'Israel-like solution' for Kashmir, nearly a year into Israel's war on Gaza.
Indian consul to New York City Sandeep Chakravorty made similar analogies in 2019.
Lawyer and author Suchitra Vijayan told MEE that the "invocation of 'Israel-style' tactics by Indian politicians, media, and internet users is not incidental".
How India is implementing the 'Israel model' in Kashmir Read More »
Rather, she added, "it reflects a strategic and ideological alignment between two ethnonationalist states - India and Israel - both of which have normalised prolonged military occupation, demographic engineering, and the criminalisation of dissent".
Vijayan explained that this relationship is not just ideological, but extends to the 'shared infrastructures of violence: surveillance, digital repression, population control, and policing regimes that are increasingly modelled on each other's practices".
India has long been the largest purchaser of Israeli weapons, while Indian-made Hermes drones have been used in Israel's war on Gaza.
Research also show that Israeli drones and surveillance technologies are deployed in Kashmir.
Human rights groups and academics have documented the shared approaches of both countries military and police – such as punitive home demolitions, extrajudicial killings, and arbitrary detentions, employed by the Israeli state against Palestinians, and the Indian state against Kashmiris.
The use of these tactics has escalated following the revocation of Kashmir's special status in 2019, where the Indian government launched a major crackdown on dissent, targeting journalists and civil society.
According to Kashmiri academic Hafsa Kanjwal, the Indian government's 2019 decision - which enables Indians to purchase land in Indian-controlled Kashmir – paves the way for similar "settler-colonial projects" in India and Israel, forcing "demographic change".
Junaid said that by invoking the parallels between the two states, the Hindu right-wing aims to garner "the same kind of impunity to kill and destroy Muslim and Kashmiri lives that it believes Israel has".
"They are feeding into the hate and dehumanisation of Palestinians and Kashmiris and using the power of the state to produce spectacles of domination," he added.
At the time of writing, Indian news source Maktoob Media has reported the detention of at least 1500 Kashmiris, as well as incidents of Kashmiri students being violently targeted by Hindu nationalist mobs across India.
"Israel's ability to act with impunity has created a global precedent, and India is watching, adopting, and adapting," Vijayan said.