The India-Israel Relationship vis a vis Palestine : Daily Current Affairs

Relevance: GS-2 : Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Indian diaspora

Key phrases : India- Israel Relationship, Abraham Accords, Palestine, Shift In India’s policy

Why in News ?

Recently, diplomatic relations between India and Israel have just completed 30 years.

Key Highlights

The anniversary comes at a time when the steadily growing relationship is in the spotlight over Pegasus.
- It is a surveillance software made by the Israeli company NSO.
PM of Israel Bennett addressed “all the people of India” on “30 years of a wonderful partnership, deep cultural connection and economic and military cooperation”, and described as “endless” the opportunities for collaboration between the two countries.
PM of India Modi spoke about setting new goals to take the relationship forward, and referred to Jewish communities in India who had lived here without discrimination for centuries.

About India - Israel Relations

1948- Israel was founded in 1948 and India had voted against the formation of Israel by partitioning Palestine at the UN.
- Because partition was based on religious lines and Israel was to become a country of Jews.
1950- India had recognised Israel as far back as 1950 but normalization took another four decades.
1990- In the wake of the first Gulf War, equations in West Asia underwent big shifts.
- Arab support for the Palestinian cause began to weaken due to PLO’s (Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)) backing for Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.
Then came the breakup of the Soviet Union, which was until then India’s go-to country for military hardware.
1992- Israel opened its embassy in Delhi on February 1, 1992. The Indian Embassy in Tel Aviv opened on May 15 that year.
From 1992, while there were defense deals, and co-operation in science, technology and agriculture, India was reticent about its ties with Israel due to following reasons-
- India balanced this with its historical support for the Palestinian cause
- India’s dependence on the Arab world for oil
- The pro-Palestinian sentiments of the country’s Muslim citizens.

Diplomatic Visits

The first high-level visits took place only when the NDA-1 under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee took office.
In 2000, L K Advani became the first Indian minister to visit Israel.
The same year, Jaswant Singh visited as Foreign Minister.
In 2000, the two countries set up a Joint Anti-Terror Commission.
In 2003, Ariel Sharon became the first Israeli Prime Minister to visit India.
With the 2020 Abraham Accords that saw UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco normalizing relations with Israel, and India’s own newly strengthened ties with the UAE and Saudi Arabia, New Delhi is now more confident about its key relationships in West Asia than at any other time.

Abraham Accords

The Abraham Accords are a joint statement between the State of Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States, reached on August 13, 2020.
It also refers to the agreement reached between Israel, Bahrain and the UAE to normalize relations between the three.
The Abraham Accords stipulated that the UAE and Bahrain would establish their respective embassies in Israel and work together with Israel across a range of sectors, including tourism, trade and security.
The religious significance is that it would allow for Muslims to one of the holiest sites in Islam, the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
Following the signing of the accords, Sudan and Morocco also normalized relations with Israel in the same year.

About India - Palestine Relations

While the India-Israel embrace has eroded what once used to be New Delhi’s unequivocal support for the Palestinian cause, India does continue to walk a tightrope, between its historical ties with Palestine and its newfound love for Israel.
An indication of this came last year in India’s statement in the UN Security Council on the Israel-Palestine violence.
- The statement virtually 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.
India backed the Palestinian right to self-determination and rallied behind the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and its leader Yasser Arafat as the sole representative of the Palestinian people.
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.
Arafat was received as head of state whenever he visited India.
And even as India opened a diplomatic mission in Tel Aviv, it set up a Representative Office in Gaza, which later moved to Ramallah as the Palestinian movement split between the Hamas (which gained control of Gaza) and the PLO.
India voted for Palestine to become a full member of UNESCO in 2011.
In 2012 India co-sponsored the UN General Assembly resolution that enabled Palestine to become a “non-member” observer state at the UN without voting rights.
India also supported the installation of the Palestinian flag on the UN premises in September 2015.

Shift In India’s policy towards Israel and Palestine

The first big shift in India’s policy came during the visit of Mahmoud Abbas (President of the State of Palestine) in 2017 when India in a statement dropped the customary line in support of East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state.
When the PM of India visited Israel, his itinerary did not include Ramallah, as had been the practice by other visiting dignitaries.
- But the balancing act continued. Indian PM made a separate visit to Ramallah in February 2018, and called for an independent Palestinian state.
India’s Stand at UNESCO and UNGA
- Even as it 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.
India’s Stand at UNHRC
- 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.
India’s Stand at ICC
- In 2021, International Criminal Court claimed jurisdiction to investigate human rights abuses in Palestinian and blamed the Israeli security forces and Hamas for the same, India refused to take any stand on the same.
India’s Stand at UNSC
- The Indian statement in the UNSC was another disappointment for Israel.
  - But it did not affect the relationship as both countries weigh their long term interests against the fast changing geopolitics of West Asia.

Conclusion

India has been very keen to preserve a pragmatic balancing act between regional players in the West Asian region like Saudi Arabia and Iran. On similar lines, India should be cautious enough while backing Israel and should adopt a more balanced and pragmatic approach while dealing with Israel and Palestine.
India and Israel will be hoping that the Pegasus episode will similarly blow over without any major impact on bilateral ties.

Mains Question:

Q. India is trying to establish balance between its old ties with Palestine and growing relations with Israel. Evaluate. (250 Words)

Source: Indian Express