The road still runs through Ramallah

The road still runs through Ramallah

Context

NarendraModi’s visit to Israel  last year, the first by an Indian Prime Minister, stood out for his decision not to visit the Palestinian territories. Two months before Mr.Modi’s visit, even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s closest ally, U.S. President Donald Trump, had coupled his visit to Jerusalem with a trip to Bethlehem to meet the Palestinian leadership

Author’s contention

Advocating the Israel-Palestine peace process is vital for India to restore its influence in West Asia

Strengthening ties: Towards de-hyphenation

Author states that during Indian PM”s visit to Israel last year both India and Israel focussed on strengthening bilateral ties, most notably the defence and strategic partnership, while Palestine issue didn’t figure in the list of matters to be discussed

Indo-Israel bilateral relations

• Defence trade: By one estimate, India accounts for 41% of Israel’s defence exports, and a possible sale of Spike anti-tank missiles during Mr. Netanyahu’s visit to India will give this steadfast relationship an added fillip
• Counter-terrorism cooperation remains a cornerstone of India-Israel cooperation and there will be a powerful joint remembrance ceremony during Mr. Netanyahu’s visit to Mumbai’s Chabad House, one of the targets of the 26/11 attack
• MoU’s to be signed: The biggest growth areas in bilateral ties will also come from memorandums of understanding in agriculture and water technology, given Israeli expertise in this area
• Desalinization vehicles: During Mr. Netanyahu’s visit to Ahmedabad, where he and Mr.Modi will undertake a roadshow together, he will hand over two desalinisation vehicles that Mr.Modi saw in Haifa

De-hyphenate

It means a forging relations with one country without linking them with any other country

Diverting from de-hyphenation

Author points out that however, the decision to de-hyphenate doesn’t seem quite as set in stone as it had just a few months ago

• Two-state solution issue to be raised: Expectations are that unlike in Jerusalem, Indian PM will raise the need to pursue the two-state solution with Mr. Netanyahu directly during the India visit
• Indian PM’s visit to Palestine: is also expected to travel to Palestine in the next few months, and receive Jordanian King Abdullah II in New Delhi, during which the need for the peace process will be highlighted
• Separate Palestinian state: In a letter ahead of the UN International Solidarity Day with the Palestinian People in November, Indian PM wrote that India’s vision for the creation of a separate Palestinian state remains, and called for an “early resumption of dialogue”.

Biggest policy shift

Author states that the biggest shift from what seemed to be a set trajectory for the Modi government, however, came on the floor of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on December 21, when India chose to vote for a resolution criticising the U.S. for recognising Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, and also called on Israel to end its “occupation that began in 1967”

Policy reversal: From Pro-Palestine to Abstention

While India maintains that its voting at UNGN resembles its past policy stance but it is far from truth because

• In the past three years, barring a vote at the UNGA in 2014, India has turned from its traditional pro-Palestinian stance, to one of abstention
• In 2015, India abstained on a UN Human Rights Council resolution criticising Israel for an aerial bombing of Gaza that had left 2,200 people dead
• India repeated its abstention in 2016
• Also in 2016, at UNESCO in Paris, India changed its vote from voting ‘for’ to an abstention on a resolution criticising Israel for encroachments at the Western Wall and near the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem

What this new policy stance means?

India’s new position can only be explained by a desire to reassert its leadership role on the multilateral stage, and to regain its leverage on the Israel-Palestine issue, a re-hyphenation of sorts. This is in keeping with the special place and moral position India has always assumed on the peace process, and its support to a just solution. It is also a rejection of the false equivalence often built between Palestine and Kashmir, or comparisons between de-hyphenating the India-Pakistan relationship and the Israel-Palestine issue