One day before foreign and defence ministers of India and the United States in Delhi last week jointly “expressed their support for humanitarian pauses” in Israel’s war in Gaza—but not an end to the conflict—New Delhi voted in favour of a UN General Assembly resolution condemning “Israeli settlements” in “Occupied Palestinian Territory”.
Certainly, the anti-Israel vote at the UN is to address the growing, but still largely unspoken, sentiment in India that Israel’s war against the Palestinians in Gaza has become revengeful. What else would you call the bombing of hospitals, schools, and UN compounds—ostensibly because Hamas fighters are hiding somewhere beneath those buildings? More than 11,000 people have been killed in fighting over the last month.
There are two parts to the Modi government’s response to the current Israel-Palestine conflict. The first is his tweet within hours of the horrific 7 October massacre by Hamas — as many as 1,200 were killed and another 200 taken hostage — expressing “solidarity” with Israel. This must be understood as the government’s fundamental belief that terrorism must be opposed at all costs.
The second part of New Delhi’s response is aimed at moderating the view that India has abandoned its moral and diplomatic support of Palestine — and by implication, cares little for Arab opinion — because it firmly believes in the Israeli cause.
That is why, despite being pretty much stunned into silence for a full five days after Modi’s 7 October tweet, the Ministry of External Affairs has been trying to re-balance its posture on this very grave and sensitive issue so as not to appear too pro-Israel in public.
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UN abstentions
The 27 October abstention on the Jordanian-sponsored resolution is a case in point. India understood that abstaining, at a grave and sensitive time as this, made it look like it had fallen between two stools — unable to fully support its fast friend Israel and advocate for the Palestinian cause. Moreover, an abstention at the UN made it look both somewhat helpless and irrelevant because abstentions don’t count in the UN system.
But some would argue that India has abstained several times in the past and made its point, for example, on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. That “abstention” was pretty much a pro-Russia vote in reality.
The big difference between the Ukraine and Gaza abstentions is that more people have been killed in Gaza (above 11,000) in the past month than in the year and a half since Russia went to war with Ukraine (9,614).
Moreover, the simple act of counting body bags goes beyond moral outrage. Especially when about half of those are children.
Still, there remains the simple matter of India and Israel being special friends — from defence to agriculture cooperation as well as ideological proximity between PM Modi and his counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu. Under the circumstances, how could Modi be seen as unsupportive of Bibi?
In the last month, though, things have changed drastically even in the Western world. The US, which largely keeps Israel afloat, has found that its allies are falling off. France was the first to distance itself in the 27 October resolution by voting against Israel.
Similarly, the UK has been forced to allow huge protests in the heart of London every weekend since the war began, with people chanting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine should be free” — despite former Home Minister Suella Braverman describing them as “hate marchers”. Pro-Palestine sentiment has taken such a sharp turn in the UK that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was forced to sack Braverman Monday afternoon for her comments.
Also Read: Why Modi govt shifted from pro-Palestine position in 2018 to pro-Israel in 2023 at the UN
Arab response
And so, S Jaishankar, one of India’s most eloquent external affairs ministers, has been pushed to moderate India’s position and return it from the far-Right that favoured Israel to the Centre. He called Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on the Gaza crisis last week, knowing full well that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei only recently met the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Here, then, is the deal: India voted against the Israel resolution at the UN, hours before US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defence Minister Lloyd Austin arrived in Delhi for the 2+2 dialogue, knowing full well that few care about UN General Assembly votes. All in all, it was a small price to pay for creating a diplomatic fog about where India’s sympathies really lie.
While it’s clear that the Modi government’s sympathies lie with Israel, few can look the other way when Israel is bombing Gaza back into the Stone Age.
There’s a third side to the story too, and that is the reaction of the Arab streets to the relentless bombing of Gaza. Except for Qatar, most Arab nations are pretty much going about their business, as usual. The Saudis, the custodians of the two holy mosques, are going ahead with their film and music festival — “lighting up Riyadh with pulsating beats, mesmerising lights, and an all-star line up” — in the weeks to come. No one cancelled the Future Investment Initiative, the investment conference dubbed “Davos in the desert”.
Delhi very well understands the cynical behaviour of the Arab elite, the volatile streets, the need to take a strong position on the Israeli bombing of Gaza, its continuing need for Israel’s friendship, and the need to have the US on its side.
If you can see it this way, you will understand that there is no real contradiction between India’s anti-Israel vote at the UN and its strong, public support for Israel. Both are simply different sides to the same evolving story.
As they say in parts of India, “Picture abhi baaki hai” (The film is not over yet) for a full understanding of the situation.
Jyoti Malhotra is a senior consulting editor at ThePrint. She tweets @jomalhotra. Views are personal.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)