What’s good for the goose should be good for the gander.
If one follows Justin Trudeau’s logic on Israel, India had the right to assassinate Hardeep Singh Nijjar and other Canadians New Delhi labels “terrorist”.
Canadian politicians and media have rightly denounced India’s assassinations in Canada. Recently the RCMP accused Indian diplomats of engaging in clandestine homicides and intimidation campaigns of Sikh dissidents. The revelations are part of an investigation into the June 2023 killing of Nijjar in Surrey, BC. Canadian police say India was responsible for the assassination of the prominent Sikh separatist.
While the Indian government technically denies its role in the killing, they simultaneously justified it. They labeled Nijjar a “terrorist” in 2020 and accused him of participating in “terror training camps” and violent separatist politics. Partly legitimating India’s claims, Ottawa put Nijjar on a no-fly list and froze his bank accounts.
The Indian government blames the Khalistani movement for a wave of violence in the 1980s. Reportedly, the bulk of Indians are hostile to Khalistani politics and sympathetic to extreme government measures aimed at weakening it.
Irrespective of Indians’ perspective or any opinion they may have about Sikh separatism, Canadian political leaders rightly oppose the Indian government assassinating Canadians. Just because the Indian government labels someone a terrorist and most of that country’s public is hostile to it doesn’t make it okay to assassinate them internationally.
Why doesn’t that logic apply to Palestinians or Lebanese?
Two weeks ago, Prime Minister Trudeau called Israel’s killing of Yahya Sinwar, who grew up in a refugee camp after his family was displaced by Zionist forces, “a measure of justice”. The prime minister said, “the brutal leader of the terrorist organization Hamas, has been eliminated by the IDF.” He added that the assassination “delivers a measure of justice” and “Sinwar’s death ends a reign of terror.”
Two weeks earlier Trudeau made a similar declaration when Hassan Nasrallah was killed during an Israeli bombing in Beirut that killed dozens. “He was the leader of a terrorist organization that attacked and killed innocent civilians, causing immense suffering across the region”, posted Trudeau.
Why is it okay for Israel to kill those it labels “terrorists” but not India? Why is Israel granted special rights to label basically everybody it targets as “terrorists”, even UN agencies?
Ottawa’s support for Israel’s terrorist claims has reached the point where Ottawa followed Israel in labeling a Vancouver-based Palestinian prisoner solidarity group a “terror” entity even though no one claims it has engaged in any violence. If we don’t break the pattern, Ottawa may even follow Israel’s recent labeling of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA as a terror entity.
The horrible irony in the politics of terror is that few groups/states have perpetrated as much terror in human history as Israel (certainly for its size and short history). The discrepancy in Canada’s response to recent Israeli and Indian assassinations of “terrorists” reveals a great deal about geopolitics, race and nationalism as well as Israeli exceptionalism.
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