India- Israel Relations

2022 FEB 8

Mains   > International relations   >   India and Global Powers   >   India & West Asia

WHY IN NEWS?

  • On January 30, 2022 India and Israel marked 30 years of full diplomatic relations. Israel opened its embassy in Delhi in February 1992. The Indian Embassy in Tel Aviv opened in May that year.

BACKGROUND

  • Israel was founded in 1948. India had voted against formation of Israel by partitioning Palestine at UN.
  • Reason for India’s objection is that partition was based on religious lines. Israel was to become a country of Jews. India was fresh from its wounds of the partition in 1947 on religious lines.
  • However India recognised Israel in 1950 but normalisation took another four decades.
  • In the wake of the first Gulf War, equations in West Asia underwent big shifts. Arab support for the Palestinian cause began to weaken due to PLO’s backing for Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.
  • Then came the breakup of the Soviet Union, which was until then India’s go-to country for military hardware.
  • From 1992, while there were defence deals, and co-operation in science, technology and agriculture, India was reticent about its ties with Israel as it balanced this with its historical support for the Palestinian cause, its dependence on the Arab world for oil, and the pro-Palestinian sentiments of the country’s Muslim citizens.
  • First high-level visits took place only in 2000. That year, the two countries set up a joint anti-terror commission.

COOPERATION:

  • Arms trade:
    • Between 2015-2019, weapons imports from Israel increased by 175%.
    • Today, Israel is second only to Russia as India’s largest weapons supplier.
    • India is also the largest buyer of Israeli weapons, buying 46 % of Israel’s exports.
  • Security-defence cooperation:
    • Besides arms trade, both countries are part of the Joint Working Group on Counterterrorism and have signed agreements on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, cooperation in homeland security, protection of classified material, and cybersecurity.
  • Trade and commerce:
    • India is the tenth-largest trade partner of Israel, and the third-largest from Asia.
    • Bilateral trade has increased from USD 200 million in 1992 to USD 5.84 billion in 2018.
    • Israel is interested in participating in India’s Make in India Program and has also expressed a keen interest to invest in India’s IT sector.
  • Technological cooperation:
    • The countries have set up the India Israel Innovation Initiative fund (I4F) to support initiatives in areas like surgical devices and water, energy and cellular phone.
    • Israel Space Agency and the ISRO are partnering in the development of electric propulsion systems for small satellites, among other systems for outer space.
    • India’s Premas Biotech and Israel’s Oramed jointly develop oral vaccine for COVID-19
  • Human resource development:
    • Israel is opening 30 centres of excellence across India.
    • Indian Police Service trainees visit the Israel National Police Academy every year for training.
  • Diplomatic:
    • India opened its embassy at Tel Aviv in 1992.
    • Following Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Israel visit in 2017, the first by a sitting Indian PM, several top levels visits have occurred between the two countries.
  • Cooperation in agriculture:
    • In 2006, India and Israel signed a Memorandum of Understanding, leading to the Indo-Israeli Agricultural Project which focused on increasing India’s agricultural productivity and water use efficiency.
  • Cooperation with states:
    • Israel is cooperating with several Indian states in areas such as power, horticulture, irrigation, and agriculture
    • For eg: In 2020, Uttar Pradesh and Israel governments signed a ‘plan of cooperation’ to resolve water crisis in Bundelkhand region.
  • Cultural:
    • Yoga and Bollywood are used as a means to promote people-to-people participation in India.
    • In fact, some bollywood movies shot in Israel were partly funded by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Tourism, with the expectation that a positive portrayal of Israel in Hindi films would boost tourism from India.
  • Diaspora
    • There are approximately 85,000 Jews of Indian-origin in Israel (with at least one Indian parent), who are all Israeli passport holders.
    • The main waves of immigration into Israel from India took place in the fifties and sixties.
  • Renewable energy:
    • Israel is joining the India-led International Solar Alliance (ISA), which aligns very well with the objectives of both countries to scale up their cooperation in renewable energy and partner in clean energy.
  • Cooperation at International Fora
    • India abstained in the voting on the resolution at the Human Rights Council (which is aimed at securing Israel’s compliance with international human rights) in May 2021 that came up in the backdrop of conflict between Israel and Palestine

ISSUES:

  • Pegasus issue:
    • The Pegasus controversy broke out in July 2021 when a group of news publications reported that Pegasus was being used to snoop on journalists, politicians and activists in several countries, including India.
    • Pegasus is surveillance software made by the Israeli company NSO. The company has said it sells the licence for use only to governments, and only after approval from the Israeli government’s Defense Export Control Agency.
    • The New York Times recently reported that Pegasus and a missile system were the “centrepieces” of a package of sophisticated weaponry and intelligence equipment that India purchased in 2017.
  • Bilateral Trade and investment still below potential
    • Trade has stagnated around USD 5 billion and it is mainly confined to diamonds and defence. Talks on Free Trade Agreement are stagnated for many years.
  • Emerging fissures in the West Asian region
    • With Israel and Saudi Arabia coming close with an aim to  stop the rise of Iran, it will be tough for India to balance its relations with the three main  poles of the West Asian region
  • Connectivity between two countries still poor
    • It has led to limited People to People ties and very minimal tourist arrivals.
  • Israel’s close ties with China
    • China is attracted to Israel’s technology sector, and Israel welcomes China’s investments and potential as a research collaborator.
  • Issues with Israel domestic politics:
    • Political instability >> Ideological and cultural divisions in Israel politics >> have resulted in an offensive and antagonistic politics.
    • Human Rights  violation by Israel against Palestine has been difficult for India to turn a blind eye

 

INDIA AND THE PALESTINIAN CAUSE

  • Stage 1: Unequivocal support for the Palestinian cause
    • Earlier, the relationship with Palestine was almost an article of faith in Indian foreign policy for over four decades.
    • India backed the Palestinian right to self-determination and rallied behind the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and its leader Yasser Arafat as the sole representative of the Palestinian people.
    • In 1975, India invited PLO to open an office in Delhi, giving it diplomatic status five years later.
    • In 1988, when the PLO declared an independent state of Palestine with its capital in East Jerusalem, India granted recognition immediately. Arafat was received as head of state whenever he visited India.
    • And even as India opened a diplomatic mission in Tel Aviv, it set up a Representative Office in Gaza, which later moved to Ramallah as the Palestinian movement split between the Hamas (which gained control of Gaza) and the PLO.
    • India voted for Palestine to become a full member of UNESCO in 2011, and a year later, co-sponsored the UN General Assembly resolution that enabled Palestine to become a “non-member” observer state at the UN without voting rights.
    • India also supported the installation of the Palestinian flag on the UN premises in September 2015
  • Stage 2: Shift in policy
    • The first big shift in India’s policy came during the visit of Mahmoud Abbas in 2017 when India in a statement dropped the customary line in support of East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state.
    • When Modi visited Israel, his itinerary did not include Ramallah, as had been the practice by other visiting dignitaries.
    • But the balancing act continued. Modi made a separate visit to Ramallah in February 2018, and called for an independent Palestinian state.
    • Even as it abstained at UNESCO in December 2017, India voted in favour of a resolution in the General Assembly opposing the Trump administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.
    • At the UNHRC’s 46th session in Geneva earlier in 2021, India voted against Israel in three resolutions – on the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people; on Israeli settlement policy; and on the human rights situation in the Golan Heights.
    • It abstained on a fourth, which asked for an UNHRC report on the human rights situation in Palestine, including East Jerusalem.
    • In February 2021, the International Criminal Court claimed jurisdiction to investigate human rights abuses in Palestinian territory including West Bank and Gaza and named both Israeli security forces and Hamas as perpetrators.
    • Then PM Netanyahu wanted India, which does not recognise the ICC, to take a stand against it, and was surprised when it did not come.

CHANGING TRENDS

  • Abrahamic Accords:
    • With the 2020 Abrahamic Accords that saw UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco normalising relations with Israel, and India’s own newly strengthened ties with the UAE and Saudi Arabia, New Delhi is now more confident about its key relationships in West Asia than at any other time.
  • India's de-hyphenation policy:
    • In the past, progress in the Israel-Palestine dispute was a key factor for India’s rapprochement with Israel.
    • But since 2014, the Narendra Modi led NDA government has instituted a policy toward Israel called de-hyphenation.
    • Dehyphenation implies that India’s relationship with Israel would stand on its own merits, independent and separate from India’s relationship with the Palestinians.
    • It would no longer be India’s relationship with Israel-Palestine, but India’s relationship with Israel, and India’s relationship with the Palestinians.
    • Examples of this strategy is seen in:
      • Diplomatic visits: Previous prominent visits by top Indian leaders combined Israel and Palestine in a single tour. However, this was not followed when PM Modi visited Israel in 2017.
      • Voting in the UN: In 2014, India voted against Israel and in favour of the UNHRC resolution that instituted an inquiry report into the Gaza violence. But in 2015, India abstained from a UNHRC vote against Israel.

 

CONCLUSION:

  • Former Israeli PM Netanyahu gave the relationship the form of an equation: IT X IT= I2 T2 (It means Indian Talent X Israeli Technology=India Israel Ties (for) Tomorrow)

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Q. ‘While Israel ties are on a strong footing, India cannot ignore the Palestinians for historic, moral, legal and realist reasons’. Critically analyse