Statement by Sudhanva Deshpande, actor and author, on the disinformation campaign against him and Sharmistha Saha by Times Now 9 November 2023
Times Now has run a malicious disinformation campaign against me and Prof. Sharmistha Saha of IIT-Bombay on its channel on November 8. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci9rsqamKpw Hamas Terror Whitewashed? Row Over IIT Bombay Event)
I had been asked by Prof. Saha to introduce a 2004 documentary film, ‘Arna’s Children’, made by Juliano Mer Khamis, an Israeli Jewish filmmaker, actor and theatre director. One of the characters in the film is Zakaria Zubeidi. My talk was part of a scheduled class on November 6.
Zakaria Zubeidi is a former military commander of the armed wing of Fatah, the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. Fatah is the political party founded by Yasser Arafat. When I met Zubeidi in Palestine in 2015, he had given up arms and was advocating cultural resistance. He had highlighted the value of culture in the Palestinian freedom struggle. He co-founded The Freedom Theatre in the West Bank to fulfil his vision. I had referred to Zubeidi as a ‘visionary’, because in his conversation with me, he envisaged a future where the entire territory of historic Palestine would be a single nation, in which ALL its citizens — Arabs, Jews, Christians, and others — would have equal rights.
In a series of bulletins titled ‘Row Over IIT Bombay Event’, the TV channel referred to Zubeidi as a Hamas terrorist and called me a ‘Hamas apologist’. The channel claimed that my online talk to the IIT-B students on November 6 ‘whitewashes’ the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, and that I had ‘glorified a Hamas terrorist’.
The bulletins run by Times Now were based on a video recorded by a student of IIT-B, who was present for my talk. To set the record straight:
I said nothing that glorified Hamas. In fact, I did not even mention Hamas in my talk. Zakaria Zubeidi was NEVER a member of Hamas, as claimed on air by Times Now. By flashing lies on its screen – ‘Hamas Apologists Get Stage’ and ‘Blind to Hamas Terror’ – Times Now has defamed me and Prof. Sharmistha Saha on the channel on November 8.
The film ‘Arna’s Children’ shows the work of a theatre for children established by Arna Mer, Juliano’s mother, and an Israeli Jewish person herself. Juliano Mer Khamis was assassinated outside The Freedom Theatre in 2011. Juliano had previously served in the Israeli army.
Fatah is currently led by Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority. Arafat’s leadership and the Palestinian freedom struggle have historically been recognised by India. In 1974, India became the first Non-Arab State to recognise the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) led by Arafat as the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.
The Government of India clarified its position as recently as October 12, 2023, affirming, ‘Our policy has been longstanding and consistent. India has always advocated the resumption of direct negotiations towards establishing a sovereign, independent and viable state of Palestine.’
Despite these facts, Times Now has been playing up my statement, ‘The Palestinian struggle is a freedom struggle…’ to fuel its heavily slanted reportage in favour of Israel and the genocide and ethnic cleansing being perpetrated on Palestinians — over 10,000 people killed since October 7, including over 4,000 children, and two-thirds of Gaza’s 2.2 million inhabitants displaced. The Israeli military campaign has targeted hospitals and ambulances, killed journalists, shut down water, electricity and the Internet, and severely curtailed humanitarian aid.
Times Now has also twisted my observations that ‘there has been no freedom struggle in the history of the world, in the history of colonialism, that has been entirely 100 per cent non-violent’. Ignoring this historical fact, Times Now effectively denies revolutionaries such as Bhagat Singh their glorious role in India’s freedom struggle.
I am not a ‘Hamas apologist’. Times Now is whitewashing genocide and ethnic cleansing.