Israel's unlikely home away from
home By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - Israeli tourists are descending on
an unlikely destination this year - strife-torn Jammu
and Kashmir. For the second year in a row, Israelis have
topped the list of foreign tourist arrivals to India's
troubled hot spot.
According to figures issued
by the Kashmir Tourism Department, more than 960
Israelis - a little less than one-tenth of the foreign
tourist arrivals this year - have visited Kashmir,
reports Reuters from Srinagar. Last year, 1,097 Israelis
visited Kashmir. More are expected to troop in this year
before the end of the peak tourist season in October.
Overall, about 200,000 tourists have
visited Kashmir this year. Tourism is the main industry of
the state, which is nestled in the Himalayas. Its
snow-clad mountains, forests, orchards, grassy meadows, lakes
and glacier-fed streams used to draw more than
800,000 tourists annually. About 40% of these were foreigners
- prior to the eruption of the insurgency in 1989.
But with grenades and gun battles
between militants and Indian security forces dominating the
news coming out of Kashmir, tourist arrivals fell to a
trickle. Foreign tourist arrivals dipped further when,
in 1994, six western tourists trekking in the Himalayas
were kidnapped by the al-Faran, an Islamist militant
group that subsequently changed its name to Harkat-ul
Mujahideen.
One of the
hostages was beheaded, another escaped, and the fate of
the rest remains unclear. Media reports on Kashmir and
travel advisories issued by governments have kept many
tourists away from the area for more than a decade.
An
improvement in the security situation in Srinagar, the
state's summer capital, and the India-Pakistan peace
overtures have contributed to a recent surge in tourist
arrivals. The flow of tourists, even foreign tourists,
to the Kashmir Valley is understandable to some extent.
The flow of Israeli tourists is not. Given the fact that
Israelis see themselves to be vulnerable targets of
Islamists, their flocking to Kashmir at a time when
jihadi terrorism is far from quelled is hard to
comprehend.
The armed uprising in Jammu and
Kashmir started off as an anti-India insurgency led by a
supposedly "secular" Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front.
But quickly the uprising turned overtly Islamist, as
pro-Pakistan groups such as the Hizbul Mujahideen
dominated the militancy. From the mid-1990s onward, the
jihadi element in the militancy started growing. Today
it is the jihadis that dominate the anti-India violence.
Israel's role in India's
counter-terrorism operations in Kashmir would make Israeli tourists
all the more vulnerable in the state. In 2000, reports
in the media said an Israeli counter-terrorism team,
including military intelligence specialists and senior
police commanders, visited Kashmir to assess India's
security needs. Since then, several such visits are said
to have taken place. Kashmiris insist that "Israeli
agents" were in Kashmir much earlier.
India is
drawing heavily on Israel's counter-terrorism expertise,
intelligence and surveillance technology to tackle the
infiltration of militants from Pakistan and to combat
terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. Israel's significant
input into India's counter-terrorism operations in Jammu
and Kashmir would make militants hate Israelis all the
more.
But India as a tourist destination is not
new to Israelis. The hippie haven of Goa has for several
years drawn thousands of Israeli tourists. Restaurants
selling Israeli food and shops with signboards in Hebrew
are not an uncommon sight in Goa, where Israeli
backpackers are warmly welcomed. But their arrival in
droves to Kashmir over the past two years has taken many
by surprise. This year, signboards outside a few shops
in Srinagar were in Hebrew, apparently to woo Israeli
tourists shopping for Kashmiri handicrafts.
The
warm welcome that Kashmiris are extending foreign
tourists, even Israelis, can be attributed to their
desperation. They are anxious to make some money when
the going is good. Kashmiris don't expect the tourist
boom to last long and they are keen to make tourists
feel at home.
Another reason is that Kashmiris
are by and large a tolerant people; the Islam that is
practiced there is a gentle, tolerant religion. With
regard to India, for instance, they make a distinction
between the Indian state and the Indian people. They say
they have no problem with the Indian people. It is
likely that in the case of Israel too, they
differentiate between the Israeli state and the Israeli
people and hold the former responsible for its policies
toward the Palestinians.
It is the
foreign mercenaries fighting in Kashmir and, more
important, the jihadis that have an ax to grind with Israel
and its people. Jihadi terrorists operating in Kashmir
pose a threat to foreign tourists, and Israelis
in particular. Shop owners who have put up signboards
in Hebrew admit they are wary of drawing the wrath of
the jihadis. But economic uncertainty forces them to
take risks.
But why are Israelis willing
to take such a risk? Back in 1991 about seven Israeli
tourists were kidnapped, though they managed to escape.
An
Israeli backpacker in Srinagar told Asia Times Online
that he was drawn to Kashmir because of its scenic
beauty, and because travel and accommodation there suited
his limited budget. When asked about the dangers of
travel in Kashmir, he replied that he was careful and
did not stay out late. Besides, the situation in Kashmir
was far safer than that back home in Israel, he pointed
out. Unlike other tourists who feel harassed when
subjected to numerous airport checks and are intimidated
by sandbagged bunkers and the presence of armed Indian
paramilitary personnel on the streets of Srinagar, the
Israeli tourist seems able to take this in stride.
For the Israeli tourist, then, violence-ravaged
Kashmir is a home away from home.
Sudha
Ramachandran is an independent researcher/writer based
in Bangalore, India. She has a doctoral degree from
the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru
University in New Delhi. Her areas of interest include
terrorism, conflict zones and gender and conflict.
Formerly an assistant editor at the Deccan Herald
(Bangalore), she now teaches at the Asian College of
Journalism, Chennai.
(Copyright 2004 Asia
Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
information on our sales and syndication policies.)
