The 2021 Israel–Palestine conflict commenced on May 10, 2021, though some had already taken place on May 6when Palestinians protested in East Jerusalem over an anticipated decision of the Supreme Court of Israel on the eviction of six Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah. As per International Law, the area, which is effectively annexed by Israel, is a part of the Palestinian territories that Israel currently holds under belligerent occupation where Israel applies its laws. On May 7, Palestinians threw stones at Israeli police forces and Jewish protesters at the compound of the al-Aqsa Mosque. In retaliation, police entered the compound of the al-Aqsa Mosque and used tear gas, rubber bullets, and stun grenades. The violence coincided with Qadr night, observed by Muslims, and Jerusalem Day (May 9–10), an Israeli national holiday. Over 300 people were injured, mostly Palestinians, drawing international condemnation, and the Supreme Court ruling was also delayed for 30 days as the attorney general of Israel sought to reduce tensions.
On May 10, Hamas gave Israel an ultimatum to withdraw security forces from the Temple Mount complex and Sheikh Jarrah or otherwise face an attack. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad had been provocatively firing rockets towards Israel from Gaza Strip since April. Some rockets had hit residences and a school. Consequently, Israel began a campaign of airstrikes against Gaza and with some 950 targeted attacks demolished, completely or partially 18 buildings including four high-rise towers, 40 schools, and four hospitals, at least 19 medical facilities along with the al-Shati refugee camp. The al-Jalaa Highrise, housing offices of the Associated Press and Al-Jazeera as well as 60 condominiums, was destroyed on May 15, prompting outcry. As per the United Nations estimates, Israel demolished some 94 buildings in Gaza, comprising 461 housing and commercial units. This bombardment led to at least 248 Palestinians’ death, including 66 children. On the other hand, Palestinian rockets killed 13 in Israel, including one child.
On May 18, France, with Egypt and Jordan, announced the filing of a United Nations Security Council resolution for a ceasefire. Ans a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect on May 21, 2021, ending 11 days’ fighting.
On May 17, 2021, India’s Permanent Representative to UN, Ambassador T.S. Tirumurti delivered a statement at the United Nations Security Council “open debate” on the situation in the Middle East balancing India’s position vis-a-vis Israel and Palestine amid the ongoing conflict between the two sides. The debate came after two closed meetings of the Security Council on the developments, in which India had expressed “deep concern” over violence in Jerusalem, especially on Haram Al Sharif/ Temple Mount during the holy month of Ramzan, and about the possible eviction process in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, an area which is part of an arrangement facilitated by the UN.
The statement, the first India has made on the issue, appears to implicitly hold Israel responsible for triggering the current cycle of violence by locating its beginnings in East Jerusalem rather than from Gaza. India’s request that both sides refrain from “attempts to unilaterally change the existing status quo including in East Jerusalem and its neighbourhoods” seems to be a message to Israel about its settler policy. Moreover, the statement stressed that “the historic status quo at the holy places of Jerusalem including the Haraml al Sharif/ Temple Mount must be respected”. The site is revered in both Islam and Judaism. Though Jewish worshippers are not allowed inside, they have often tried to enter forcibly.
Some Highlights of the Statement
Some of the highlights of the statement are as follows:
- At the very outset, Ambassador Tirumurti spoke of the immense suffering caused by the violence, including the killing of Indian national Soumya Santhosh, in Rocket Fire in Israel’s Ashkelon. She, 30, was killed in a rocket attack by Palestinian militants from Gaza, and hailed from Kerala’s Idukki district, worked as a caregiver attending to an old woman at a house in the southern Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon.
- The statement reiterated India’s “unwavering” commitment to the two-State solution, and also “condemned” the “indiscriminate” rocket firing from Gaza, calling the Israeli strikes “retaliatory” in nature.
- “The events of the last several days have resulted in a sharp deterioration of the security situation. He reiterated India’s strong support to the just Palestinian cause and its unwavering commitment to the two-State solution.
- He also stressed India’s strong condemnation of all acts of violence, provocation, incitement, and destruction.
- He said, “Immediate de-escalation is the need of the hour, so as to arrest any further slide towards the brink. We urge both sides to show extreme restraint, desist from actions that exacerbate tensions, and refrain from attempts to unilaterally change the existing status-quo, including in East Jerusalem and its neighbourhood.”
- He voiced support for the diplomatic efforts of the Quartet and other members of the international community, especially the countries in the region, to “calm” the situation and put an end to the ongoing violence.
- He said, “These incidents have once again underscored the need for immediate resumption of dialogue between Israel and Palestinian authorities. The absence of direct and meaningful negotiations between the parties is widening the trust deficit between the parties, which will only increase the chances for similar escalation in future.”
- He also expressed India’s apprehension at the spread of violence to other parts of West Bank and Gaza.
India’s Policy on the Conflict
India has been an unequivocal supporter of Palestine for the first four decades with a tense balancing act with its three-decade-old friendly ties with Israel. However, in recent years, India’s position has also been perceived as pro-Israel.
In 1992, India decided to normalise ties with Israel, which came against the backdrop of the break-up of the Soviet Union, and massive shifts in the geopolitics of West Asia on account of the first Gulf War in 1990. The Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) lost much of its clout in the Arab world in 1990 as it went with Iraq and Saddam Hussein in the occupation of Kuwait. As a result, India opened its embassy in Tel Aviv in January 1992, which marked an end to four decades of giving Israel the cold shoulder.
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had recognised Israel to avoid rancour between two UN members. For long, there was just a consulate in Mumbai, established in 1953, mainly for issuing visas to the Indian Jewish community and to Christian pilgrims. This too was shut down in 1982, when India expelled the Israeli Consul General for criticising India’s foreign policy in a newspaper interview, and was permitted to reopen only after six years.
In 1948, India was the only non-Arab state among 13 countries that had voted against the UN partition plan of Palestine in the General Assembly in order to create Israel. As per scholars, various reasons can be ascribed for this—India’s own partition along religious lines as a new nation that had just thrown off its colonial yoke; solidarity with the Palestinian people who would be dispossessed; and warding off Pakistan’s plan to isolate India over Kashmir; India’s energy dependence on the Arab countries; and, of course, the sentiments of India’s own Muslim citizens.
Relationship between India and PLO (1948-2014)
India’s relationship with PLO was almost an article of faith in Indian foreign policy for over forty years. India co-sponsored the draft resolution on the right of the Palestinians to self-determination at the 53rd UN session. India lashed out at Israel as the aggressor in the 1967 and 1973 wars, and rallied behind the PLO and its leader Yasser Arafat as the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people in the 1970s. Not only that, India became the first non-Arab country to recognise the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinian people in 1975, and invited it to open an office in Delhi, which was accorded diplomatic status in 1980. The PLO declared an independent state of Palestine with its capital in East Jerusalem in 1988, which was immediately recognised by India. Arafat was received as head of state whenever he visited India.
In 1992, the Narasimha Rao government established a diplomatic mission in Tel Aviv. India opened 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 remained firmly on the side of the PLO, as it seemed ready for a political solution—the two-State solution.
In 2003, India voted against Israel’s construction of a separation wall in the UN General Assembly. Then in 2011, India voted for Palestine to become a full member of UNESCO,and co-sponsored the UN General Assembly resolution enabling Palestine to become a “non-member” observer State at the UN without voting rights in 2012. In 2015, India also supported the installation of the Palestinian flag on the UN premises.
Scenario after 2014
The India-Israel relationship continued to grow, mostly through defence deals, and in sectors such as science and technology and agriculture from 1992 to two-and-a-half decades. But India never acknowledged the relationship fully. Also, there were few high-profile visits, under the BJP-led NDA-1 government led by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Israel is Hindutva’s ideal of a “strong State” that deals “firmly” with “terrorists”. In the 1970s, Jana Sangh, the BJP’s forerunner, had also made the case for ties with Israel. And in 2003, Ariel Sharon became the first Israeli Prime Minister to visit India.
The balancing act intensified during the UPA’s two full terms in office, and Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority that administers the West Bank, visited India in 2005, 2008, 2010, and 2012.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi government decided to take full ownership of the relationship with Israel. As a result, India did not participate at the UN Human Rights Council on a resolution welcoming a report by the Human Rights Council High Commissioner, which had evidence of alleged war crimes committed by Israeli forces and Hamas during the 2014 airstrikes against Gaza, killing more than 2000 people.
The abstention was conspicuous because in 2014, India had voted for the resolution through which the UNHRC inquiry was set up. Again in 2016, India abstained on a UNHRC resolution against Israel. But the big change was the status of the historic city that both Israel and Palestine claim.
De-hyphenation of Israel-Palestine Relationship
In 2017, PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas visited India. On this occasion, New Delhi signalled the substantive shift. India had always included a line in support of East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state expressing its support for a two-state solution. Pranab Mukherjee, who in 2015 became the first Indian President to visit Israel, with a first stop at Ramallah, also reiterated India’s position on the city as the capital of an independent Palestine. However, the reference to East Jerusalem went missing in Modi’s statement during Abbas’s visit. In 2018, Modi became the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel, but he did not visit Ramallah. The word then was that India had “de-hyphenated” the Israel-Palestine relationship, and would deal with each separately. India improved ties with Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and felt vindicated by the decision of some Arab states to improve ties with Israel.
India’s Balancing Act
In fact, the de-hyphenation is actually a careful balancing act, with India shifting from one side to another as per the situation. For instance, though India abstained at UNESCO in December 2017, New Delhi 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 this year, India voted against Israel in three resolutions—one, on the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people; second, on Israeli settlement policy; and third, on the human rights situation in the Golan Heights. It abstained on a fourth, which asked for an UNHRC report on the human right situation in Palestine, including East Jerusalem.
In February, the International Criminal Court (ICC) 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. Prime Minister Netanyahu wanted India, which does not recognise the ICC, to take a stand against it on the issue, but India did not because India’s own balancing act is a constant work of progress.
As for the latest statement, it is no different. Though it was not pro-Palestine, it hardly pleased Israel. Netanyahu tweeted his thanks to all countries that “resolutely” stood by Israel and “its right to self-defence against terrorist attacks” by posting all their flags, but the Tricolour was not there.
Historical Background
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict dates back to the late 19th century when Jews started fleeing from anti-Semitism in Russia and central Europe and had started emigrating to Palestine. In 1917, the British capture Palestine from the Ottomans and, in the Balfour Declaration of November 2, promised the Jews a “national home” there. But in 1919, opposition emerged first from the Palestinians at a congress in Jerusalem. The League of Nations set out the obligations of a British mandate in Palestine in 1922, including securing “establishment of the Jewish national home,” and the British crushed the great Arab revolt in Palestine in 1936–1939.
Palestine’s Split: In 1947, Palestine is partitioned into Jewish and Arab states under United Nations Resolution 181, which was approved in November 1947. Jerusalem is put under international control. The West Bank including east Jerusalem went to Jordan and the Gaza Strip to Egypt. Thereafter, the state of Israel was finally created on May 14, 1948, which provoked an eight-month war with Arab states. In this war, more than 400 Palestinian villages were razed by Israeli forces and around 7,60,000 Palestinian refugees had to flee to the West Bank, Gaza, and neighbouring Arab countries. In 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) was created.
Occupation and War: In 1967, the war lasted for six days in which Israel defeated Egypt, Jordan, and Syria and occupied east Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights. Soon, Jewish settlement of the occupied territories started and continued in the West Bank, east Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. In 1973, Arab states attacked Israel on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur but the attack was repelled by Israel. Then Israel invaded civil war-wracked Lebanon in 1982 to attack Palestinian militants after initially sending in its forces in 1978. Israeli-backed Lebanese militias killed hundreds of Palestinian refugees in Beirut. Israeli troops remained in southern Lebanon until May 2000. Then came the Palestinian uprising or the first Intifada against Israel which raged the region from 1987 to 1993.
Abortive Peace Process: Israel and the PLO signed a declaration in 1993 on principles for Palestinian autonomy after six months of secret negotiations in Oslo, and launched an abortive peace process. PLO leader Yasser Arafat returned to Gaza in July 1994 to create the Palestinian Authority. Self-rule was established for the first time in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho. In 2000, the right-wing Israeli opposition leader and future prime minister Ariel Sharon visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in east Jerusalem, a site holy to both Muslims and Jews. It is referred to as the Temple Mount by Jews. This visit sparked the first clashes of the second intifada. Responding to a wave of suicide bombings, Israel invaded the West Bank in 2002 in its largest operation since the 1967 war. In 2004, Yasir Arafat died and moderate Mahmud Abbas took over the leadership of the Palestinian Authority in January 2005. The last Israeli forces left Gaza after a 38-year occupation in 2005.
Palestinian Factions: Islamist movement Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007 after ferocious fighting with its rivals in the Fatah faction led by Abbas, who remained in power in the West Bank. Israel launched a new operation against Gaza in 2014 attempting to stop rocket fire and to destroy tunnels from the Palestinian territory. Then in 2017, Hamas and Fatah signed a reconciliation accord with a view to ending a decade of discord.
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