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India Vs Pakistan: Why Equating Pakistan With Palestine is Dangerous
In the haze of online wars and geopolitical posturing, nuance is often the first casualty
The recent flare up in India-Pakistan tensions — whether over ceasefire violations, civilian casualties, or international lobbying — has spawned a troubling trend across social media and public discourse: equating Pakistan with Palestine.
At first glance it may appear as an act of rhetorical convenience: two Muslim-majority regions locked in high profile conflicts. But this conflation is deeply flawed and dangerous, in addition to being historically inaccurate and intellectually lazy.
To begin with, it is essential to grasp that Pakistan and Palestine represent fundamentally different realities, emerging from vastly divergent histories and power structures. Lumping them together under a simplistic binary does an injustice to the Palestinian people, whose decades-long fight for self-determination becomes collateral damage in a proxy war of nationalist egos.
A Tale of Two Realities: Sovereignty Vs Statelessness
Pakistan came into existence in 1947 as a sovereign state carved out of British India on the basis of two-nation theory. Despite the…