one year in, India’s Approach to the Gaza War Reflects a Wider Foreign Policy Change
India’s tilt toward Israel didn’t happen on October 7, 2023 It reflects a policy shift nearly a decade in the making, in line with West Asia’s changing geopolitics, the region, in which Israel is perhaps more entrenched now than ever in its history as a modern state
India’s Response to the Gaza War
The tone for India’s initial response to the war was set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tweet immediately after Hamas’ brutal attacks, in which Modi,
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condemned the attacks and expressed total solidarity with Israel in its fight against “terrorism in all its forms”
The prime minister’s tweet was largely seen as a categorical tilt toward Israel although it’s notable India has avoided a similar statement of support since
During a press briefing on October 12, 2023, the Ministry of External Affairs’ official spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi,
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maintained that India considers the Hamas attack to be “a terrorist attack” but he also reiterated that India was committed to its long-standing policy of support for the establishment of “sovereign, independent and viable state of Palestine”
India's Arms export to Israel
The most unprecedented move in the context of the current Gaza war is that the Indian government has resisted calls from civil society organizations, human rights activists and former bureaucrats to stop some Indian companies from exporting arms to Israel, with the weapons allegedly being used in Gaza
Some analysts see this as complicity in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, the part of some Indian firms
The Supreme Court of India refused to entertain a lawsuit from a civil rights organization seeking to stop arms exports to Israel, saying this was a determination for the government to make
Palestinian cause
There has been some public outcry and also protests from India’s parliamentary opposition about the Modi government’s stances on the current Israel-Gaza war and alleged changes in India’s traditional support to the Palestinian cause
However, many of these criticisms were laid to rest earlier this year in the Parliament of India by External Affairs Minister Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. In an answer to a question, Jaishankar,
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defended the Indian government’s traditional stand on the Israel-Palestine conflict and reaffirmed support for the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state
Jaishankar also informed the Parliament,
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that contrary to popular perception, India’s support and aid to the people of Palestine has increased under the Modi government
In many subsequent public statements, Jaishankar has asserted the necessity of the two-state solution to end the conflict
This transformation in India’s approach toward the Israel-Palestine issue or the wider West Asian region didn’t come about overnight or on October 7, 2023
An important turning point that marked the beginning of the change of attitude toward the region was May 2014 when the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power
