India Supports Israel at the UN Vote

World war two ended with a major cost to lives and peace around the globe. Mutual feeling amongst the countries at the time was to avoid any such situation to occur again and hence the intergovernmental organisations were set up on a world stage to address conflicts and issues and stop before the situations escalate to a war like situation and demand others to join as it happened during the two world wars. But what sounded good in theory didn’t necessarily translate to reality in the late twentieth and then the twenty-first century. War-like situations if not wars still exist in multiple countries across continents and people are still suffering generational trauma getting reinforced every generation because of these. One of the notable examples of conflict like this is of course Israel and Palestine. It came to light recently with the Indian context when Palestine accused India of supporting Israel at the UN vote when India chose to abstain from one of the voting against Israel.

Brief description of Israel- Palestine Issue

The struggle between Israel and Palestine has been present since the late 1800s. Resolution 181, also known as the Partition Plan, was enacted by the United Nations in 1947, with the goal of dividing the British Plan for the then state of Palestine into two separate Arab and Jewish states. The country of Israel came into existence on May 14, 1948 which led to the first ever Arab-Israeli War. The conflict concluded with Israel’s victory in 1949, although  a quarter less than a million  Palestinians were displaced because of it, and the land was divided into three parts: Israel, the West Bank (along the Jordan River), and the Gaza Strip.

Tensions soon escalated in the region in the years after that, especially between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. 1956 Suez Crisis and Israel’s invasion in the Sinai Peninsula encouraged the countries of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria to sign mutual defence accords in the event if Israel’s military were mobilised in future to be prepared for it. Following a number of tactics by Egyptian President Abdel Gamal Nasser, Israel launched a preemptive strike on Egyptian and Syrian air forces in June 1967, kicking off the well renowned Six-Day War. Israel took control of the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria after the war. Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack six years later, known as the Yom Kippur War or the October War on two fronts against Israel to regain some of the lost territory however remained mostly unsuccessful in doing so. 

A major breakthrough to curb these tensions occurred in 1979 when Egypt and Israel participated in the Camp David Accords, a peace treaty which concluded a three decade long conflict between the two. 

The Camp David Accords helped in improving Israel’s relations with its neighbours especially Egypt, Palestinian still aimed for self-determination and self-governance and those conflicts remained unsolved. The first intifada occurred when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians residing in the West Bank and Gaza Strip rose up against the Israeli government in the later half of 1980s. 

The two Oslo accords were signed in order to bring some peace between the two. The Oslo I Accords, signed in 1993, settled the conflict by establishing a framework for Palestinian self-governance in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as mutual recognition between the Palestinian Authority and Israeli government. The Oslo II Accords, signed in 1995, added to the first accord by demanding Israel’s complete withdrawal from six cities and hundreds of communities in the West Bank. This provided less relief as the second intifada happened soon after. The US tried to resolve the issue in 2013 but Hamas came into existence then. Hamas is the more renowned and powerful party of two major Palestinian political parties and was classified a foreign terrorist organisation by the United States in 1997. It first came into existence in 1987 following the first intifada.

The tensions have been constantly present since with Israel having more international recognition and an upper hand in development and advancements. 

Currently, only four countries in the region Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain and UAE have agreed on having somewhat normal relations with Israel. 

What was the vote for and India supports Israel on the UN vote

When the two resolutions regarding the most recent round of violence occurring in the region were first introduced last year, India voted in favour of the one condemning human rights atrocities in Palestine, but abstained on the other seeking accountability and justice that gave the inference that India supports Israel at the UN vote. While India had not explained its vote, the second resolution did include a reference to the International Criminal Court’s current proceedings, to which India has not acceded.

India-Israel and India- Palestine relations

India recognised Israel as a nation in 1950 but also India was the first non-Arab country to recognise the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as the only representative of Palestinians.   

In 1988, India was also one of the first countries to recognise Palestine as a sovereign state.

Conclusion

India has attempted to maintain its image as a long-time moral supporter of Palestinian self-determination while also maintaining good military, economic, and other strategic ties with Israel.

The world needs to join together for a peaceful settlement in this highly sensitive area, but the Israeli government’s and other participating parties’ hesitancy in having diplomatic talks instead of display of military power has only worsened the situation every time. As an outcome, a balanced approach may benefit in the maintenance of positive relations with both Arab countries and Israel. The Abraham Accords, the peace treaties which established normalisation relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco, are all steps in the right path. All regional powers should plan for a peaceful resolution between the two countries following the spirit similar to the Abraham Accords and mutually peaceful co-existence.