Delhi can help where US and Europe can't given friendship of government and Muslim community with Israel
At a recent conference in New Delhi, a Palestinian diplomat, while lauding India’s burgeoning relations with Israel, pleaded for its help in reach a just and sustainable peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The sentiments were a far cry from the days when Palestinians would feel alarmed or uneasy at India’s growing ties with Israel.
They had, after all, watched as Arab countries like Egypt and Jordan established peace and full diplomatic relations with Israel and as Qatar and Tunisia set up business ties with Tel Aviv. In addition, a host of other Gulf monarchies, including Saudi Arabia, engage covertly with the Jewish state.
And now, India has announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit to Israel later this year. The emerging bilateral relationship is based on a perceived quid pro quo: Israel (as well as China and Japan) stood by Modi when, as Gujarat Chief Minister, he was shunned by the West. He is expected to return the favor by cementing ties.
In the past, Israel has shared sensitive technology with India, besides acting as an honestBROKER
with the United States to sell India military hardware – the airborne Phalcon AWACS. The Jewish lobby in Washington played an active and effective role in furthering India-US relations. The nuclear breakthrough with the US was in part an outcome of this engagement. The good news, more recently, is that New Delhi’s warm ties with Tehran – Israel’s bitter enemy – have not deterred Tel Aviv.
with the United States to sell India military hardware – the airborne Phalcon AWACS. The Jewish lobby in Washington played an active and effective role in furthering India-US relations. The nuclear breakthrough with the US was in part an outcome of this engagement. The good news, more recently, is that New Delhi’s warm ties with Tehran – Israel’s bitter enemy – have not deterred Tel Aviv.
India established and subsequently upgraded diplomatic relations with Israel under successive Congress governments and it is only logical for Modi's National Democratic Alliance, which favors the Jewish state for many different reasons, to advance the ties.
The close people-to-people ties have become warmer thanks to India’s status as a soft power which has many backers in Israel. Since an increasing number of Indian Muslims are a part of these ties, the argument that relations with Israel will alienate the minority community would be a disservice to the latter.
There is no denying that Muslims, like many non-Muslims, are concerned about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and during times of heightened tensions occasionally take to noisy demonstrations.
And yet the gathering momentum of unofficial dialogue between Israelis and representatives of the Indian Muslim community testifies to the deepening understanding and mutual trust. The numerous Israeli tourists and other visitors to India move freely across the country, including Muslim-majority Kashmir.
Many Muslim academics, media personalities, representatives of arts and culture and students visit Israel. The first Muslim to be elected head of a students’ body at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem earlier this year is incidentally an Indian. Numerous Muslims go on pilgrimage to the Al-Aqsa mosque – Islam’s third holiest site – and other sites holy to them in Israel. If this pilgrimage, denied to many from other Islamic countries, is available to them, it’s because India has good relations with Israel.
Likewise, the argument that engaging with Israel may impact negatively on Indian expat communities working in Arab countries is also specious. It does a great disservice to the countries which have graciously hosted these communities for decades and have benefited from them in turn. Much of the development in the Gulf States is due to Indian labor.
Moreover, this argument is oblivious of the dynamics in the region. India upgraded ties with Israel to full diplomatic recognition only after Egypt and Jordan established diplomatic relations.
With a receding US role in the region, a weakening Europe with its baggage of centuries of anti-Semitism and more recent Islamophobia and inner fissures increasingly marking intra-Arab relations, India could play a stabilizing role in the region in future. The recent disclosure that Israeli and Saudi officials have been meeting regularly in different countries, including in India, therefore does not come as a surprise. Bridge-building is more effective than boycotting, and Palestinians are also beginning to acknowledge that.
Aditi Bhaduri is an award-winning journalist & researcher based in New Delhi. This article was first published in The Quint.
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