Over the past decade, India and Israel have grown increasingly closer as partners and allies, so much so that both countries have begun to resemble each other.

And it’s in India’s occupation of Kashmir and Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories that the similarities are most stark.

They both adopt similar tactics when seizing lands, displacing people, criminalising dissent, muzzling journalists, and controlling people’s movements, argues Middle East Eye journalist Azad Essa.

“For both Israel and India, and Zionism and Hindutva, controlling Palestine and Kashmir are existential questions,” Essa said.

“However, whereas Israel wants to erase Palestinians and Palestine, India has for decades used assimilation as a tactic to control Kashmir. Now it is a lot more open to erasing Kashmiris.”