Israeli Leaders Ignorant on Kashmiri FACTS

[Guest guest]

"fgautier" <fgautier@s...>

Wed Nov 19, 2003 5:38 pm

update

20. 11. 03

Dear friends,

 

This is an update on FACT.

I went to Israel for 6 days and just came back. Met there a number of

personalities, thanks to the efforts of Rabbi Cooper and Dr Balitzer

from the

Wisenthal US based foundation : The President of Israel, a soft-spoken

gentleman, who is very worried about the Palestinians suicide

bombers "no

religion condones that kind of barbaric act", he told us; the mayor of

Jerusalem, who proudly showed us the magnificent view of Jerusalem

from his

office's terrace; Shimon Peres, Nobel Prize and Israel's most known

face, who

preaches tolerance – but even he condemns totally the suicide

bombers; or the

deputy Prime Minister of Israel, Mr. Sherenzki, a well known

dissenter from the

ex- Soviet Union, who is seen as a hawk by the European media, but

appeared very

gentle to us.

 

I was surprised whenever I mentioned the name Kashmir, that neither

of our

interlocutors blinked: Kashmir did not mean anything to them,

although it faces

more or less the same problems than Israel faces at the hands of Arab

countries.

Even, Mr. Sherenzki, the deputy PM, looked blank (but he said he

defeinitely now

wants to visit Kashmir). Thus I realized that the exhibition on the

Kashmiri

Pandits had to be shown and we arranged for two venues, one in Tel

Aviv, with

the possibility of it coming up also at the Knesset, the Israeli

parliament in

Jerusalem. We thus left with a sense that so much more has to be done

so that

Indian and Israel come more together. Because like India, Israel is

one of those

`elected people of God', of whom Sri Aurobindo speaks in his book

the "Hour of

God", who have managed to keep their spirituality alive in spite of

oppressions,

invasions and genocides. We have to work to bridge the gap between

these

countries, as there is still much ignorance about Hindus in Israel

(the

so-called monotheism versus polytheism creed, which is a non- issue).

The Indian

ambassador in Israel, Raminder Jassal, was most helpful and he will

arrange, at

the same time that the exhibition comes-up, a meeting at his

residence with some

of Israel's top political and cultural people. Most probably I will

go back to

Israel in January for the inauguration of the exhibitions.

 

Another great news: there is a very important meeting between the

European

Community and India in Delhi from 22d to 29th November. We have heard

that some

of the European countries are going to bring-up the Gujarat human

rights issue

and thus possibly stall all meaningful dialogue. We have succeeded in

getting

the exhibition as well as our CD on the Kashmir Pandits to be shown

in Vygyan

Bhavan, the venue for the meet and the most prestigious Government

hall of New

Delhi. The inauguration will happen on the evening of the 23rd, in

the presence

of the delegates and the press. The Cd "And the world remained

silent" made by

Ashok Pandit and updated by FACT will be screened thereafter. Thus EU

will get a

feeling of what kind of terrorism India is subjected to.

 

Now with some of the problems. I was advised to bank with ICICI – and

that was a

big mistake, although ICICI advertises itself as friendly customer-

bank. They

have made my life miserable right from the beginning, saying no to

everything

possible. It took 4 months to get a credit card, although there was

enough money

in the account, I am an accredited journalist with Government of

India, married

to an Indian, and a long term resident. Finally, I had to get someone

to talk to

one of the top directors of ICICI. So much for doing business in

India if you

are a foreigner… it is still a nightmare: you need an approval for

each foreign

donation prior to it being put in the bank. You can imagine what it

means when

many of my donations are of 100 $, sometimes 50 or 20 $. Also they

turned down

many of the cheques because they were not properly labeled, they are

refusing

even now to accept cheques made out to FACT, even though it is the

name which

appears on the letterhead. They behaved worse than an Indian

Government bank,

and my feeling is that they are in some kind of financial trouble

(there were

some rumors at a time), otherwise they would not be so tight. We will

have to

change banks. Meanwhile, I urge all of you when you make donations to

label the

cheque exactly as follows Forum Against Continuing Terrorism.

 

Here is a list of the cheques that have been returned by them. I

would be

grateful if they can be reissued with the proper labeling. I will

tear up the

cheques in my hand:

 

Standard Chartered, Bank of Malaysia Berhad. 3380.36 rs (no name)

Federal Credit Union. From Sidharth Shankar. 200$

Hibernia Nat Bank. Datta Yoga Centre 2000$

Bank of America. Ganesh Ghurye. 50 $

Lyods UK. Chiswick Branch. Unknown donor. 10 £

Fleet. Mr Sundaram. 251 $

HSBC. Dilip Shah 20$

Charter One bank. Mr Devadass 20$

HSBC Sherma. 25 $

Padelco. Chandra Shyrashiad 25 $

HSBC Yadatore Chandrashekar 50$

Waterhouse Mr Thamavaram. 100 $

Citizens Bank Veena S Gandhi 1001$

ABN Amro. 5000 Rs from Dr Ashok B. Diskshit. Pune

 

Take care all of you

 

Francois Gautier

Convener FACT

François Gautier

41 Jorbagh, New Delhi 110003, India / Auromodel, Auroville, 605101,

T.N. India

tel 91 4132622255 / 91 9811118828

website: http://www.francoisgautier.com