India Under Modi Chooses Israel (Without Saying So) |
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Under Modi’s rule, Indo-Israeli rapprochement accelerated in 2017 with the prime minister’s visit to Tel Aviv, a first for an Indian prime minister. India has long been a leader in the Palestinian cause. Historically, it opposed the creation of the State of Israel, with Nehru advocating for the creation of a secular state where the Jewish minority would enjoy protections. However, New Delhi recognised the State of Israel in 1950, before providing financial support, from 1951 onwards, to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and, from the 1970s onwards, to the Palestine Liberation Organization. India was then the first non-Arab country to recognise the State of Palestine when it was proclaimed in 1988. Things changed when India and Israel established diplomatic relations, allowing embassies to open in 1992, with New Delhi quickly sourcing weapons from Tel Aviv, particularly during the Kargil War (1999) against Pakistan. But New Delhi strove to keep its distance from Israel.
Narendra Modi, who had already visited Israel as chief minister of Gujarat, changed the status quo on this issue. Although Atal Bihari Vajpayee had received Ariel Sharon in New Delhi in 2003, the prime ministers of the two countries had not met since then. Modi, the second prime minister from the BJP, resumed this practice at the first opportunity, the United Nations General Assembly in September 2014. His Israeli counterpart, Netanyahu, then welcomed the promise of this collaboration between two “ancient civilizations“. A few weeks later, the Union home minister Rajnath Singh visited Tel Aviv to explore avenues of cooperation with the Israeli prime minister to combat the terrorism facing India. The following year, for the first time in its history, India chose to abstain rather than vote on a resolution condemning Israel at the United Nations Human Rights Commission. This resolution, passed by 45 countries, condemned strikes on Gaza as war crimes, and the Palestinian Authority ambassador to New Delhi said he was “shocked” and “affected” by this decision, which broke with India’s “traditional position” .
But New Delhi worked to reassure him and restore balance. In fact, after his 2017 visit to Israel, Modi invited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to New Delhi, and during that visit, he reiterated his support for a two-state solution and called for “a sovereign, independent, united and viable Palestine, coexisting peacefully with Israel.” In December 2017, just before Netanyahu’s visit to New Delhi in 2018, India also supported a vote by the United Nations General Assembly against the unilateral declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel by then-US President Donald Trump. In 2018, continuing to demonstrate his own brand of diplomatic activism (aimed at attracting attention, perhaps), Modi became the first Indian head of government to visit Ramallah. Finally, in 2020, India decided to quadruple its aid to UNRWA and voted in favor of a resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Between 2014 and 2023, by drawing closer to Israel without betraying the Palestinian cause, India has maximised its national interest by gaining access to the civil and military technologies mastered by the Israelis. Admittedly, contracts had already been signed to this effect since the 1990s,........