HRF Condemns Israeli Attacks on Gaza

Hyderabad: The Human Rights Forum (HRF) has condemned Israeli attacks on Gaza and stressed on the need to stand by the rights of transgenders and other sexual minorities. The meeting slammed the October 4 encounter in Bastar district and asked the Chhattisgarh and Central governments to stop ‘Operation Kagar’ in that state.

The meeting held on the 15th death anniversary of its founder K. Balagopal unveiled the documentary ‘Prisoner No. 626710 is present’ on Umar Khalid, arrested in September 2020 for the Delhi riots, and other activists by film director Lalit Vachani. Books on the Sompeta struggle, a protest against a thermal power plant in Srikakulam, a democratic approach to reservations and camps coming up in the Bastar area of Chhattisgarh were released on the occasion.

Writer Achin Vanaik described Israel as an army with a nation.

“It is the only country in the world which has not submitted a map with its defined boundaries to the United Nations as it is eyeing to occupy more Palestinian territory. Though it has military power to defeat all the Arab countries put together, it has conscription not because it is under any threat but to keep the threat perception alive among its citizens,” Vanaik said.

“The basic logic of the Zionist project is more land with less Palestinians. The war on Gaza has led to the elimination of eight percent of the population there. Settlements of Palestinians have expanded after the Oslo accords, which turned Fatah into a sub-contractor of Israel,” he said, while adding that rulers of the Arab countries have no real concern for the Palestinians citing their failure to use oil as a bargaining power to stop it.

Queer rights activist Tashi Choedup stressed on the need to recognise the role of transgenders, queer and other sexual minorities. She stressed on the need for the rights movements to give them their due.