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Holocaust scholars in India debate ‘Bawaal,’ controversial new Bollywood movie about couple visiting Auschwitz
(JTA) – Mehak Burza is the first to admit that the state of Holocaust awareness in India is abysmal.
“You will not get a very positive response on this,” she said with a laugh.
Indian schoolchildren are taught next to nothing about the events of the Holocaust, and what does make it to textbooks does not mention Jews, Burza said. Public opinion on Hitler ranges from neutral to positive, with politicians, TV characters, and businesses having adopted his name and dress as aspirational symbols over the past few years.
“They always see the Holocaust as an alien event,” Burza, who teaches English literature at several universities in New Delhi, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
All of that, Burza said, is why — despite some serious reservations — she is pleased with the new Bollywood movie “Bawaal,” which follows a conceited history teacher as he learns about the events of the Holocaust while trying to repair his strained relationship with his wife. The movie, which debuted on Amazon Prime two weeks ago, tracks its protagonists Ajay and Nisha as they visit European World War II sites of note, including the beaches of Normandy, Anne Frank’s house in Amsterdam, Hitler’s bunker in Berlin and the Auschwitz death camps.
“Bawaal” has been heavily criticized both by people who happened to tune into the movie and also by Jewish groups like the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which objects to the characters in the film’s climax imagining themselves as Jewish prisoners of the camp. The film is rife with historical inaccuracies and barely mentions Jews; it also has lines of dialogue that Burza admits are deeply offensive and off-putting. In the most egregious example, one actor playing an Auschwitz survivor tells the protagonists, “Every relationship has its own Auschwitz.”
When Burza heard that line, “I had to pause the movie and go and get a breath of fresh air,” she said. “You’re trivializing Auschwitz with your marriage!”
Yet Burza, who is also the head of Holocaust studies at the Global Center for Religious Research, still thinks “Bawaal” is a positive start to the subject that will encourage many Indians to do further research into the Holocaust.
“Being the first Bollywood movie to take up this issue is very, very challenging, and a very big step for an Indian audience,” she said. “As a Holocaust scholar, I can point out hundreds of mistakes in the movie. But as a first-time audience, I see, OK, it’s a welcome step to those who don’t even know anything at all.
“The only disappointing thing that quite irritated me throughout the movie,” she added with a laugh, “was the pronunciation of ‘Auschwitz.’” (In the movie, the characters make it sound like “office.”)
Born and educated in the capital of New Delhi, Burza came to the subject of Holocaust scholarship while studying to become a medical doctor, after an interest in trauma narratives kept drawing her to memoirs by survivors. Switching her studies to English literature, she focused her thesis on the breakdown of gender in Holocaust memoirs and found that while “Mein Kampf” has been translated into most of India’s 22 official languages, very few Jewish authors of Holocaust books had found anything approaching a similar reach. Burza’s students had read Anne Frank’s diary, she said, but were under the impression it was a novel.
India’s lack of awareness of the Holocaust can be partially attributed to its own history from the time period. Only two years after the British helped liberate the Nazi death camps, its dissolving empire hastily divided India and Pakistan into Hindu- and Muslim-majority nations, which led to the killing of more than 1 million people in sectarian violence and displacement of an estimated 15 million more. The devastating legacy of partition has led many Indians today to refer to the event as the “Indian Holocaust.”
India’s current Hindu-nationalist government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has sought to capitalize on that painful history by passing discriminatory laws and stoking ethnic resentment toward its Muslim minority, which Hindu nationalists believe has no claim to the nation. On Monday, Modi faced a no-confidence vote in his country’s parliament over his lack of response to an upswing in violent attacks on Muslim and Christian minority populations in the state of Manipur. A small Jewish community in the area has also been caught up in the ethnic violence.
Efforts to spread Hindu nationalist sentiment have extended to the country’s extraordinarily popular and globally influential film industry, as Bollywood filmmakers are under increasing pressure to mount historically dubious productions painting India’s Hindu population as heroes and Muslims as villains. Recently, Israel’s ambassador to India apologized after the acclaimed Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid, serving as a juror on an Indian film festival, sharply criticized one of the films in competition for what he said was Islamophobic propaganda.
Navras Aafreedi, left, and Mehak Burza have differing views on the new Bollywood movie “Bawaal.” (Screenshot via YouTube; courtesy Mehak Burza)
In this context, the decision by “Bawaal” director and co-writer Nitesh Tiwari to make his film about the history of WWII and the Holocaust rather than a world event that directly involved India was a bold one, Burza said. Tiwari recently told Indian media he chose his subject matter because the events were less familiar to Indian audiences who could go on the same journey of understanding as the protagonists. He and stars Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor also dismissed critics of the film, with the director saying he was “disappointed” they had not “comprehended it” in the manner in which it was intended. The film’s production team, Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment, did not return a JTA request for comment.
Even within the microscopic cohort of India’s Holocaust and Jewish Studies scholars, there is deep division on “Bawaal.” Navras Aafreedi, a history professor at Presidency University in Kolkata who studies Jewish communities of India and orchestrated the country’s first Holocaust film series, believes the movie is just another example of the Indian tendency to trivialize the Holocaust. He told JTA the film’s treatment of its subject matter is “deeply disturbing but certainly not surprising.”
“Just as Hitler has come to be used as a metaphor for any authoritarian figure in India, often with admiration,” Aafreedi wrote in an email, “the makers of the film ‘Bawaal’ see it appropriate to refer to Auschwitz as a metaphor for marital quarrels.”
Outside observers, including genocide scholar Gregory Stanton — who developed the theory of the “Ten Stages of Genocide” in part by researching the Holocaust — have warned that India may be headed toward a genocide of its own within a few years; the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has expressed similar concerns, with its data researchers recently determining the country is one of the most at risk for a new mass killing. Last year the museum published an interview about the region with human rights attorney Waris Husain, who asserted that under Modi, “exclusionary ideology — a known mass atrocity risk factor — has escalated.”
Both Burza and Aafreedi are Muslim, which, Burza says, lends an air of urgency to her push to improve Holocaust education in India.
That context, Burza said, may help explain one of the movie’s more head-scratching moments, in which the teacher’s wife, Nisha, muses that “we’re all a little like Hitler” because “we are not satisfied with what we have.” That line, she said, could be understood as a subversive political statement directed at the broad swaths of Indian society who admire Hitler without understanding the danger he posed.
“The present government is compared with Hitler,” she pointed out, noting that Stanton and others have drawn a link between “what [Modi is] doing to the Muslims and what Hitler did to the Jews.”
Regardless of whether or not Indian audiences think about such issues while watching “Bawaal,” Burza believes it’s inevitable the movie will lead to an increased interest in Holocaust education in her country — not to mention an uptick in Indian visitors to Auschwitz.
“In India, whatever the male lead and the female lead does in the movies, that becomes a trend,” she said. “Mark my words: You’ll see Indians at these sites.”
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France Believes Israel’s Netanyahu Has Immunity From ICC Arrest Warrant
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in Jerusalem, Sept. 2, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
France said on Wednesday it believed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had immunity to actions by the International Criminal Court (ICC) which is seeking his arrest for alleged war crimes in Gaza, given Israel has not signed up to the court statutes.
France‘s view, issued a day after the announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah brokered by the US and France, was condemned by rights groups. Other countries including Italy have also questioned the legality of the mandate.
A statement by the French Foreign Ministry said it would continue to work closely with Netanyahu.
Paris has taken almost a week to come up with a clear position, after the court in The Hague issued arrest warrants on Nov. 21 for Netanyahu, his former defense chief Yoav Gallant, and a leader of the Hamas Palestinian terrorist group.
After initially saying it would adhere to the ICC statutes, France‘s foreign ministry fine-tuned that in a second statement on Nov. 22 amid concerns that Israel could scupper efforts for a ceasefire in Lebanon, saying it noted that the court’s decision merely formalized an accusation.
On Wednesday, the ministry pointed out that the Rome Statute that established the ICC provided that a country cannot be required to act in a manner incompatible with its obligations “with respect to the immunities of States not party to the ICC.”
“Such immunities apply to Prime Minister Netanyahu and other relevant ministers and will have to be taken into consideration should the ICC request their arrest and surrender.”
The French ministry statement, referring to what it called the historic friendship between two democracies committed to the rule of law, said France intended to continue to work closely with Netanyahu and other Israeli authorities “to achieve peace and security for all in the Middle East.”
The ICC has no jurisdiction over Israel as it is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, which established the court. Other countries including the US have similarly not signed the ICC charter. However, the ICC has asserted jurisdiction by accepting “Palestine” as a signatory in 2015, despite no such state being recognized under international law.
Rights groups suggested France had tempered its response in order to maintain a working relationship with Netanyahu and his government.
“Some shocking nonsense from France here. No one gets immunity from an ICC arrest warrant because they’re in office – not Netanyahu, not Putin, no one,” Andrew Stroehlein, European media director at Human Rights Watch, said on X.
He pointed to article 27 of the Rome Statute on the “irrelevance of official capacity.”
Amnesty called France‘s position “deeply problematic.”
“Rather than inferring that ICC indictees may enjoy immunity, France should expressly confirm its acceptance of the unequivocal legal duty under the Rome Statute to carry out arrest warrants.”
Israeli leaders have lamabsted the ICC’s allegations against Netanyahu and Gallant as false, politically motivated, and “antisemitic.”
The US similarly rejected the arrest warrants for the Israelis.
The post France Believes Israel’s Netanyahu Has Immunity From ICC Arrest Warrant first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Intercepts Vast Iranian Arms Shipment Intended for West Bank
Israeli military, Jenin area, West Bank, August 31, 2024. Photo: Israeli Army/Handout via REUTERS
JNS.org — Israel’s security forces recently thwarted an attempt by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to smuggle heavy weaponry to Palestinian terrorist cells in the West Bank city of Jenin, the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said on Wednesday.
Israeli intelligence believes that the arms were sent by Unit 4000 — the special operations division of the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization — and Unit 18840, the special operations unit of its Quds Force in Syria.
Among the weapons seized by Israel were 40 standard large Claymore mines, including detonators and wireless activation systems; 37 handguns; 33 improvised Claymore mines; 24 RPG-18 and RPG-22 rockets; 20 60mm mortar shells; seven Hunter sniper rifles; six RPG-7 launchers; six M16 rifles and 1 M4 rifle, along with ammunition; three 107mm rockets; and two 60mm mortar barrels, the joint statement said.
The majority of the weapons were buried in a location that was discovered by Israeli forces after the shipment was intercepted.
SEIZED: Iranian weapons used to arm terrorists in Judea and Samaria
The smuggling was orchestrated by Iran’s IRGC 4000th Division, led by Jawad Ghafari, and the Quds Force’s Unit 840 in Syria, commanded by Etsar Bakri.
The weapons seized included rockets, Claymore… pic.twitter.com/AlUn08pGye
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 27, 2024
The statement noted that Israeli security forces in recent months have “identified attempts by Iranian forces to resume smuggling advanced weapons into Israel, intended for the Judea and Samaria area [the West Bank].”
“This is part of an ongoing Iranian campaign to destabilize the region’s security by arming terrorist cells in Judea and Samaria, to carry out attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops,” it continued.
The IDF and Shin Bet vowed to “continue to monitor and thwart in advance any Iranian activity aimed at smuggling weapons into Israel and the Judea and Samaria area.”
In two separate operations in the past week, Israel Police officers foiled attempts by Israeli Arab citizens to smuggle large quantities of ammunition from northern Israel across the West Bank security barrier.
On Monday, a female resident of the Israeli Arab town of Kfar Qasim was pulled over by police officers near Yokneam. A search of her vehicle revealed several boxes containing more than 6,000 ammunition rounds.
On Friday, two men from Ma’ale Iron, a local council made up of five Arab towns near Megiddo, were caught attempting to transport a larger stockpile of over 20,000 bullets. The Arab suspects were pulled over at a junction a mere minutes’ drive away from the Samaria security barrier.
Earlier this month, Palestinian terrorists in western Samaria for the first time tried to fire a rocket with powerful explosives at Israel’s central region. The terrorist rocket, whose warhead contained high explosives with the potential to cause mass casualties, was discovered in bushes in the village of Budrus near Ramallah, about six miles from Ben-Gurion International Airport, Israel Hayom reported on Nov. 13.
The outlet noted that this marked the first time that a “high quality” (e.g., non-improvised) rocket warhead was found in the West Bank. It was also the first time a rocket was located in the area but outside northern Samaria.
In June, Palestinian Authority security officials told Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster that Iranian-backed terrorist groups might be able to fire advanced rockets at central Israel from the West Bank within a year.
The Islamic Republic continues to instigate terrorism in the West Bank by flooding the area with weapons, The New York Times reported in April, citing American, Israeli, and Iranian officials.
The majority of the weapons smuggled into the West Bank are small arms and assault rifles, analysts said. However, the US and Israeli officials said that the Islamic Republic is also smuggling in advanced weaponry, including anti-tank missiles and rocket-propelled grenades.
In the first six months of 2024, the West Bank saw more than 500 Arab terrorist attacks each month on average, according to data made public by Hatzalah Judea and Samaria (Rescuers Without Borders).
During that period, first responders recorded 3,272 acts of terrorism in the region, including 1,868 cases of rock-throwing, 456 attacks with Molotov cocktails, 299 explosive charges, and 109 shootings.
Terrorists murdered 14 people and wounded more than 155 others in the West Bank between January and July, the rescue group said.
The post Israel Intercepts Vast Iranian Arms Shipment Intended for West Bank first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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McGill cancels talk with former Hamas insider turned Israel advocate, citing fears of violence
McGill University has canceled an on-campus event planned by Jewish students—and temporarily halted bookings for all extracurricular activities—following threats of violence along with a death threat, as outlined in a […]
The post McGill cancels talk with former Hamas insider turned Israel advocate, citing fears of violence appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.