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Context: Diplomatic relations between India and Israel have just completed 30 years.

 

Background:

• Israel opened its embassy in Delhi on February 1, 1992. The Indian Embassy in Tel Aviv opened on May 15 that year.
• India had recognised Israel as far back as 1950 but normalisation took another four decades.
• From 1992, while there were defence deals, and co-operation in science, technology and agriculture, India was reticent about its ties with Israel as it balanced this with its historical support for the Palestinian cause, its dependence on the Arab world for oil, and the pro-Palestinian sentiments of the country’s Muslim citizens.
• These 30 years of partnership mark deep cultural connection and economic and military co-operation.
• In 2000, L K Advani became the first Indian minister to visit Israel. The two countries set up a joint anti-terror commission.
• And in 2003, Ariel Sharon became the first Israeli Prime Minister to visit India.
• Modi visit in 2017 was the first by an Indian Prime Minister.
• With the 2020 Abrahamic Accords that saw UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco normalising relations with Israel, and India’s own newly strengthened ties with the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

 

 

India & the Palestinian cause

 

• India-Israel closeness has affected the New Delhi’s unequivocal support for the Palestinian cause.
• India walks a tightrope, between its historical ties with Palestine and Israel.
• Last year in the UN Security Council on the Israel-Palestine violence India held Israel responsible for the violence, and expressed India’s “strong” support to the “just Palestinian cause” and “unwavering” support for the two-state solution.
• Earlier, the relationship with Palestine was almost an article of faith in Indian foreign policy for over four decades.
• India backed the Palestinian right to self-determination and rallied behind the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).
• In 1975, India invited PLO to open an office in Delhi, giving it diplomatic status five years later.
• In 1988, when the PLO declared an independent state of Palestine with its capital in East Jerusalem, India granted recognition immediately.
• As India opened a diplomatic mission in Tel Aviv, it set up a Representative Office in Gaza, which later moved to Ramallah.
• India voted for Palestine to become a full member of UNESCO in 2011, and co-sponsored the UN General Assembly resolution that enabled Palestine to become a “non-member” observer state at the UN without voting rights.

 

Shift in policy

 

• The first big shift in India’s policy in 2017 when India in a statement dropped the customary line in support of East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state.
• Even India abstained at UNESCO in December 2017, India voted in favour of a resolution in the General Assembly opposing the Trump administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.
• At the UNHRC’s 46th session in Geneva earlier in 2021, India voted against Israel in three resolutions –
  • on the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people
  • on Israeli settlement policy; and
  • on the human rights situation in the Golan Heights.
• It abstained on a fourth, which asked for an UNHRC report on the human rights situation in Palestine, including East Jerusalem.
• The Indian statement in the UNSC was another disappointment for Israel. But it did not affect the relationship.

 

Conclusion:

• Both countries weigh their long term interests against the fast changing geopolitics of West Asia.
• Both will be hoping that the Pegasus episode will similarly blow over without any major impact on bilateral ties.

 

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/the-india-israel-relationship-modi-bennett-7753938/