Almost four months into the war on Gaza, the International Court of Justice has directed Israel to prevent genocide in Gaza, yet refrained from ordering a ceasefire. In December 2023, the Supreme Court of India rubber-stamped the government’s unilateral abrogation of Article 370, which previously afforded Kashmir a special status that included the right of self-determination. Discussions of the international rule of law, settler colonialism, and its violence have taken the center stage. At this dark moment in history, we must address the connections, parallels, and distinctions between Palestine and Kashmir, for as the Indigenous Peoples in North America remind us, the settler colonial project and genocide is ongoing.
The present situation demonstrates once again how legal apparatuses, be it UN outfits or Supreme Courts, fail to uphold justice currently and historically: affirming abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir, failing to prosecute illegal settlements and the breaking of treaties and documented land rights, refusal to prosecute genocide when it fits official legal definitions, not following up with charges when official human rights institutions (like OHCHR) document violations, not upholding the right of the occupied people to armed resistance against an occupier, and so on.
The roundtable addressed the legal frameworks providing parallels and distinctions between settler colonial projects in Palestine, Kashmir, and Turtle Island. It aims to demonstrate how the Indian, Israeli, Canadian, and US governments build on each other’s actions to reinforce their settler colonial agendas, what lessons have been learned from North American settler colonial experiences, as well as what the ICJ ruling on Gaza means for India, a state under two genocide alerts.
The event consisted of two threads: the first one will cover the broader themes of legal framework and ramifications in Turtle Island, Palestine, and Kashmir; the second will hone in on the lived experiences from the three geographies, providing a grounded view of resistance and ways forward as they relate to settler colonialism.
Speakers:
– Turtle Island: Sylvia McAdam (Assistant Professor, Windsor Law) & Megan Scribe (Assistant Professor, Toronto Metropolitan University)
– Kashmir: Imraan Mir (Attorney, writer, researcher) & Ather Zia (Associate Professor, Anthropology and Gender Studies, University of Northern Colorado)
– Palestine: Jonathan Kuttab (International Human Rights attorney) & Mariam Barghouti (Palestinian American researcher, writer, journalist based in Ramallah)
– Moderators: Azeezah Kanji (Legal academic and writer, Toronto) & Dean Accardi (Assistant Professor of History and Global Islamic Studies, Connecticut College)
From Turtle Island to Kashmir to Palestine: Settler Colonialism is a Crime
Resources:
Kashmir Law and Justice Project
Organizers: South Asian Diaspora Action Collective (SADAC), Kashmir Scholars Consultative Advocacy Network (KSCAN), Just Peace Advocates (JPA)
Co-Sponsors
- Academics for Palestine-Concordia
- Alliance Against Islamophobia, Australia
- BIPOC Caucus of AUFA
- PalestinianCanadian Academics and Artists Network (PCAN)
- Canadian Foreign Policy Institute
- Canadian Forum for Human Rights and Democracy in India
- Canadians for Peace and Justice in Kashmir
- CERAS (South Asia Forum)
- Craigieburn Masjid and Community Centre
- Critical Diasporic South Asian Feminisms Collective
- Faculty4Palestine Alberta
- Free Kashmiri Political Prisoners
- Friends Of Sabeel North America (FOSNA)
- India Civil Watch International
- India Labour Solidarity
- India Labour Solidarity (UK)
- International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India (InSAF India)
- Insurgent Resurgent Knowledges (IRK Lab)
- Justice for All Canada
- Kashmir-Palestine Scholars Solidarity Network
- Kashmir Law and Justice Project
- Le collectif des femmes pour la Palestine
- Muslim Identities and Cultures
- Ontario Palestinian Rights Association
- Palestinian Canadian Academics and Artists Network (PCAAN)
- Palestinian and Jewish Unity/ Palestiniens et Juifs unis (PAJU)
- Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM)
- Periyar Ambedkar Thoughts Circle of Australia
- Projet accompagnement solidarité Colombie (PASC)
- Punjabi Literary and Cultural Association
- Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) – Concordia
- Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) – McGill
- Solidarity Across Borders
- South Asia Solidarity Group (SASG)
- Stand With Kashmir
- Students for Justice in Palestine, University of Alberta
