Kirti Kisan Union Express Solidarity with Palestine; Film Screenings Disrupted

Senior leaders of the Panjab-based Kirti Kisan Union met with Dr. Abed Elrazeg Abu Jazer, Charge d’Affaires at the Embassy of the State of Palestine in New Delhi, and donated USD 5,900 as humanitarian aid for the Palestinian people. Raminder Singh Patiala, Press Secretary of the union, expressed solidarity with the Palestinians during their ‘terrible times of oppression,’ describing the situation as a genocide by Israel and a dark chapter in human history. He said, ‘the incidents in Palestine remind Punjabis, especially Sikhs, of past atrocities during medieval times, Partition, and the 1984 Sikh genocide.’ General Secretary Rajinder Singh Deep Singh Wala appealed to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and other organizations, along with fellow countrymen, to help the Palestinian people. The union seeks a permanent truce and demands the United Nations find a sustainable solution to the issue of Palestine. Meanwhile, a rising wave of restrictions and disruptions targeting film screenings about Palestine and other politically sensitive subjects has sparked concerns about shrinking spaces for cultural expression in India. On 16 Nov, at the 9th Udaipur Film Festival, members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh forcibly disrupted screenings at the Rabindranath Tagore Medical College auditorium, opposing the festival’s attempts to screen Palestinian documentaries. Similarly, the Dharamsala International Film Festival recently withdrew two Palestinian documentaries — No Other Land and From Ground Zero. Activists suggest that the censorship of these films parallels patterns of displacement and demolition in India, referencing incidents such as the demolition of homes in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir. The suppression extends beyond Palestine-related content, with disruptions of screenings of Anand Patwardhan’s documentary Ram Ke Naam.