On Thursday, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) held a massive rally on Kerala’s Kozhikode beach to express their unwavering support for Palestine. At the rally, Muslims waved banners and chanted slogans in support of the Islamic terror group Hamas, which carried out a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 people including babies and women.

Inaugurating the rally, IUML state president Panakkad Syed Sadikali Shihab Thangal said that Israel was the biggest ‘terrorist nation’ in the world and added that the Indian government was trying to whitewash Israel.

Congress leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor, who was invited as the chief guest, also attended the rally. In his address, he referred to Hamas as terrorists. “Terrorists attacked Israel on October 7 and killed 1,400 people and took 200 as hostages and in retaliation Israel has killed over 6,000 people in the bombings carried out in Gaza which has still not stopped,” Tharoor said, however, adding that the Israeli response to the attack was disproportionate and in contravention of the human rights conventions.

“When the terrorists killed innocent children and women, the world condemned it. Now, we the world, including all of us, are condemning the Israeli bombings as well,” the Congress leader added.

“Just because this rally is organized by IUML, one should not think that it is a Muslim issue. It is a human rights issue. The bombs fall on people irrespective of their religion,” Tharoor further said, adding that it might well be one of the most important political rallies seen in India and perhaps across the world in ‘defence of human rights and in favour of peace’.

However, Tharoor’s remarks referring to Hamas as terrorists prompted a response from Muslim leader M K Muneer. Comparing Hamas terrorists with Indian freedom fighters, Muneer said that when Bhagat Singh and Subhas Chandra Bose fought for the independence of the country, their actions were termed as extremism and terrorism by the British and likewise the fight for independence of Palestine in Gaza is being portrayed by the imperial forces as terrorism. “It is a fight for independence by Palestinians but what Israel is doing is ethnic genocide. We are with the resistance of the people of Palestine, and we should be able to identify between resistance and attack,” the Muslim leader added.