A new found chemistry between India and Israel
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Recently, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that Israel was a cherished strategic partner of New Delhi's.
"We share and value the same principles of democracy,” Modi said in his post.
Last month, at a private gathering in New York, India’s consul general said: ‘I don’t know why we don’t follow it. If Israel can do it, so can we.’ He was referring to Israel’s model of building settlements in the Palestinian territories.
India's unilateral steps in Kashmir seems to be getting much of its confidence from how the world reacts to Israeli policies against the Palestinians -- knowing full well that international law, in the end, is a little more than an instrument used by stronger states in alignment with their own self-interest.
The newfound romance between India and Israel isn’t a product of individual chemistry between Modi and Netanyahu, but it finds its roots in the same right-wing supremacist ideologies that the two leaders so profoundly share.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a political wing of the infamous RSS (a Hindu nationalist organization) recognizes a strong strategic partner in Israel’s right-wing leader, who after narrowly winning the vote in the 2018 elections tightened the identity of the state to: ‘A nation-state of the Jewish people which respects the rights of all its citizens.’
In essence, Israel is a self-declared ‘democratic’ yet supremacist state and one that India wants to emulate.
Naila Mahsud
In essence, Israel is a self-declared ‘democratic’ yet supremacist state and one that India wants to emulate. It is a model in direct contradiction to the principles of secular liberal democracy.
Apart from the ideological similarities, both the states benefit massively from a bilateral arms trade. India is the largest customer of Israeli arms imports with sales worth $715 million. Also, under the BJP government, bans were lifted from Israeli companies (Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael advanced defense system) inflicted by the Central Bureau of Investigation, India.
Distinctions between members and non-members of their respective ethno-centered nations further strengthen their bond. Israel, through its nation-state law, has widely described the hegemony of Zionism over its Arab minority which makes up 20 percent of the Israeli population. A prototype of this ethnonationalism is seen widely in the Indian state through its amendment to Indian citizenship laws pushed by the BJP government since 2016.
The proposed legislation has now become law and will confer citizenship to Hindus and other non-Muslims living in India without legal status from three countries: Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Hindus and non-Muslims who have settled in India without a legal status now have a fast-track to getting Indian citizenship.
India is only moving in the right-wing trajectory under the BJP and has altered its long-standing post-independence position which was in favor of a two-state settlement in the Middle East, viewing both Israel and Palestine as equals. On June 6 this year, India voted in favor of Israel in the UN against allowing observatory status for the Palestinian NGO, Shahed.
This definitive step is in staunch contradiction with the stance of predecessor governments and also the forefathers of India. Mahatma Gandhi stood in staunch opposition to the Jewish people returning to Palestine. The first prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, in his foreign policy had refused to recognize Israel as long as there was no Palestinian state.
Perhaps Modi’s tweet would have made more sense had he written: Israel is a cherished strategic partner. We share the same values of settler colonialism, ethnonationalism, persecution and a massive appetite for the arms trade.
*Naila Mahsud is a Pakistani political and International relations researcher, with a focus on regional politics and security issues.