JOIN USIndia’s reluctance to condemn the unabated Israeli aggression in Gaza signals a deplorable pusillanimity, moral bankruptcy and lack of principles in Delhi’s conduct of foreign policy.
As the world mutely watched, Israel has followed up its aerial strikes of the last two weeks with a ground invasion of Gaza. Almost 600 Palestinians – mainly civilians – have been killed, with over 150 people being slaughtered on a single day. This is a one-sided war in which Israel is clearly the aggressor. Yet the Indian government, in its belated statement, just maintained silence on the aggression. New Delhi’s position of equidistance between Israel and the Palestine, in the midst of a huge human tragedy, is indefensible. How can Delhi equate the violence of occupation and aggression to the resistance against occupation?
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj defended the Modi government’s so-called equidistance position by claiming that this is a continuation of India’s policy of extending support for the Palestinian cause and building diplomatic relations with Israel. However, the question in the present tragic situation on the ground in Gaza should not have been about the need to build and strengthen diplomatic ties with Israel, it should have been on the unspeakable violence that Tel Aviv is unleashing on the Palestinian people, which is far in excess of any provocation by extremist Hamas group against Israeli interests. India should have made this distinction and condemned the Israeli excesses.
What makes India’s silence on Israeli aggression all the more deplorable is that it is alone in its failure to condemn Israel’s pounding of Gaza. Even Israel’s strongest supporter, the US appears less accommodating of Israel’s atrocities. US secretary of state John Kerry expressed exasperation with Israel’s bombing of civilians. The UN Human Rights Council chief Navi Pillay has said that Israel’s actions in Gaza could amount to war crimes. Yet, India is unmoved. This is a shameful fall for a country that once prided itself as being a friend of the world’s oppressed and a fierce defender not only of an independent Palestinian state but the rights of the Palestinian people.
Israel’s military offensive is escalating by the day and no place in Gaza is safe from its bombing and gunfire. Even hospitals, mosques, homes and schools are being targeted. A ceasefire to allow humanitarian relief to reach injured Gazans must be put in place immediately. The US has promised $47 million to Gaza as humanitarian relief. This will have meaning only if Washington immediately reins in its foremost ally in the West Asian region.