Israel, Palestine, And Iran: Weakening Moral Stature Of India

The Indian National Congress always opposed the British machinations and supported a free nation for the Palestinians. Mahatma Gandhi had been pleading for Palestinian freedom, and opposed the settling of Jews without the consent of the Arabs

The Iranian missile attack on Israel has pushed the Middle East into another phase of turmoil. It is almost certain that Israel will respond against it. The US has already lent its support to a restrained response, with the only condition that the military response should exclude nuclear facilities in Iran. It means that Americans want an escalation and are not keen on any ceasefire. This is ominous for world peace. The US has long been trying to do an Iraq with Iran. Israel wants it to happen swiftly because Iran is the only country in the Middle East that poses a real military threat to Israel with its nuclear capabilities. The experts are just watching whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be able to drag the US into a full-fledged war with Iran.

However, India under Modi's rule has proved itself to be the most indecisive country in the world, which is unable to take a clear stand on the entire issue. Why is India vacillating? Has it to do anything with geopolitical compulsion? Is Prime Minister Modi’s response not inspired by his ideological orientation? These are the questions we need to discuss because Indian interests in the Middle East are huge and cannot be sacrificed for the sake of promoting some views that are yet to prove beneficial for the nation.

While discussing Israel, we must bear in mind that it is a product of colonial projects. The British created it as they did by carving Pakistan. The State was created to protect British interests in the Middle East, particularly the Suez Canal. The British wanted a client State in the Arab world to balance Arab politics. In addition to creating a Jewish nation, they created kingdoms and countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Iraq. Their prime target is to block the emergence and growth of Arab nationalism. The Palestinian issue is closely linked to Arab nationalism.

How colonialism works on different narratives and plays with the lives of its subjects could also be seen in Palestine. Jews had been one of the most persecuted communities in the world. They were treated as untouchables by the Christians. Hitler just continued the persecution and did it most cruelly. Otherwise, the Jews had always been a pariah in European society. In the era of fierce nationalism in Europe, the Jews never fit in with the concept of a nation-state based on one language, one religion, and one ethnicity.

The Zionist movement was searching for a land on the planet to carve out a country for themselves. This search was not limited to Palestine. However, the colonial masters found it best suited for their interests to settle them in Palestine. The narrative of the Jewish homeland with Jerusalem as its centre was created for its sake. It started with the expulsion of the Palestinian Arabs. Their land was snatched, and they became refugees in their homeland.

The Indian National Congress always opposed the British machinations and supported a free nation for the Palestinians. Mahatma Gandhi had been pleading for Palestinian freedom, and opposed the settling of Jews without the consent of the Arabs. Though he was in favor of unrestricted travel to Jerusalem for Jews, he never supported a homeland for them on the Palestinian land.

“Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs. What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct. The mandates have no sanction but that of the last war. Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home,” Gandhi ji wrote in Harijan in April 1938.

“And now a word to the Jews in Palestine. I have no doubt that they are going about it the wrong way. The Palestine of the Biblical conception is not a geographical tract. It is in their hearts. But if they must look to Palestine of geography as their national home, it is wrong to enter it under the shadow of the British gun. A religious act cannot be performed with the aid of the bayonet or the bomb. They can settle in Palestine only by the goodwill of the Arabs,” he writes.

Jawaharlal Nehru also had the same opinion on the issue.

"Palestine was not an empty land fit for colonization by outsiders. It was a well-populated and full land with little room for large numbers of colonists from abroad. Is it any wonder that the Arabs objected to this intrusion? And their objection grew as they realized that British imperialism aimed to make the Arab-Jew problem a permanent obstacle to their independence. We in India have sufficient experience of similar obstacles being placed in the way of our freedom by British imperialism,” Nehru says. This has been the basis of Indian policy on Palestine and has been adopted by successive governments, including that led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. However, the Modi government has been showing vacillations that only speak of a weakly formulated foreign policy. India abstained from voting on a UN resolution asking Israel to vacate illegally occupied territories in Palestine. However, it supported a resolution for a free Palestinian nation. Prime Minister Modi addressed Prime Minister Netanyahu as a friend. It is a message to the world that he enjoys a cordial relationship with Israel. Does it not weaken our position on the massacres in the Gaza Strip and other parts of Palestine? It weakens our moral stature. The world sees us as a nation built on the principles of Gandhi. The Modi government is reducing our moral stature.

(The author is a senior journalist. He has experience of working with leading newspapers and electronic media including Deccan Herald, Sunday Guardian, Navbharat Times and Dainik Bhaskar. He writes on politics, society, environment and economy)