The question looms large over whether India should continue providing Israel with weapons for the latter’s war in Gaza! Apart from the US and some European nations, the majority of countries do not support Israeli offensives in the Gaza Strip. The ongoing Israeli atrocities are widely considered as an attempt to wipe out innocent and helpless Palestinian civilians, especially women and children. Daniel Carmon, the former Israeli Ambassador to India, recently admitted to the media that the South Asian country was supplying arms to the Jewish nation. Interestingly, the Government of India has neither rejected his claim nor accepted it! Perhaps, India has remained silent on this issue as the Narendra Modi Administration has realised that it is uncomfortable for New Delhi to engage in the Israel-Hamas War at a time when the entire global community condemns the Israeli aggression.

In fact, India is in a cliffhanger situation. Israel had supplied arms to India during the latter’s wars against neighbouring Pakistan in 1962, 1965, 1971 and 1999. Israel has also emerged as a close (diplomatic) ally of India in recent times. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are also eager to strengthen ties with Israel. In that case, the influential American-Jewish lobby will take a positive attitude towards India, and the Indo-US relations will also become stronger.

Furthermore, the drones and missiles that India supplies to Israel are being manufactured in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad by two companies, Israel’s Elbit Systems and the Adani Group of India. Elbit Systems Limited is an Israel-based international military technology company and defence contractor. It is to be noted that the technology to make the weapons in Hyderabad is provided by Israel, while Elbit Systems owns half of the production system. Hence, it is not possible for India to refuse to supply arms to Israel.

Meanwhile, a section of the Indian political analysts has strongly criticised the Modi Government for supplying arms to Israel. They have argued that Israel sent arms to India (during wars against Pakistan) on the basis of an arms deal after winning an international tender (to sell arms to New Delhi). The Zionist Regime had also made a huge profit by selling weapons to India. Most importantly, India had used those weapons to fight the Armed Forces of an enemy country, and not against unarmed innocent civilians of that country. However, Israel is committing genocide in Palestine with technologically advanced weapons. So, India cannot support the Israeli atrocities.

Initially, some countries backed Israel’s decision to declare a war against Hamas, as the Palestinian Movement first carried out an attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, killing more than 1,100 Israelis. Hamas also took at least 250 Israeli hostages. Later, the Israeli Defence Forces started destroying Palestinian cities and infrastructure to put pressure on their enemies! Accordingly, Israel dropped 6,000 bombs on Gaza in the first six days of the ongoing war! Explaining the situation, David C Hendrickson, the Emeritus Professor of Political Science at Colorado College, reportedly said: “Israel does not know how to destroy Hamas while minimising harm to innocent civilians.“

It is also a fact that India has always supported the Palestinian cause. From Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, all spoke in favour of the Palestinians’ right to a land of their own. India also wants to maintain the image of a peace-loving nation to the international community and to establish itself as the leader of the Developing World. The question arises here: How does it define India’s stand on global peace?

Israeli Attacks, Threats Spark Another Gaza Exodus
(TRT World) Riding donkey carts or bicycles or on foot, thousands of Palestinians fled their tents, temporary refuges and homes in Gaza on July 8, 2024 after Israel issued a third threat, warning the enclave’s residents to leave or suffer the consequences amid the Israeli Army’s intense and ongoing shelling and bombardment.

Civilians were forced out of most of Gaza City, the enclave’s largest city, where thousands of families had sought refuge from Israeli attacks in other parts of the Palestinian territory. An Israeli Army spokesperson warned residents of the Sabra, Rimal, Tal Al-Hawa and Al-Daraj areas of Gaza City to flee to so-called humanitarian zones, while tanks, backed by warplanes and drones, entered the city centre.

The civil defence agency in the besieged enclave said that even before the latest ultimatum that it had reports of dozens of fatalities and injuries in different parts of the city. The Israeli military also issued an ultimatum to Gaza’s al-Ahli Arab Hospital after it assaulted a nearby area with “a large amount of firing from drones” on July 7 (2024), according to the Episcopal Church‘s Jerusalem Diocese.

Exhausted by months of suffering and forced to flee time and time again, displaced Palestinians voice their anguish and despair.

With inputs from TRT World.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das