INDIA ISRAEL RELATIONS -संबंधों के विविध आयाम-25 years of diplomatic ...

INDIA ISRAEL RELATIONS -संबंधों के विविध आयाम-25 years of diplomatic ties-international relations







International Relations - india israel diplomatic relations - 25 years of full diplomatic relations recently completed !

Modi in Israel: All that happened during PM’s historic trip

Narendra Modi became the first Prime Minister from India to visit Israel in the last 70 years. Seven agreements were signed between the two countries. Post his three day historic visit to Israel, the Prime Minister is scheduled to fly to Germany to attend the G20 Summit.

history of israel india relations :- India voted against the Partitioning of Palestine plan of 1947 and

voted against Israel's admission to the United Nations in 1949.On 17 September 1950, India officially recognised the State of

Israel

In 1953, Israel was permitted to open a consulate in

Bombay (now Mumbai)









HISTORY PADH LO THODI:-

India voted against the Partitioning of Palestine plan of 1947 and

voted against Israel's admission to the United Nations in 1949.

Various proponents of Hindu nationalism supported or

sympathised with the creation of Israel. Hindu Mahasabha leader

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar supported the creation of Israel on

both moral and political grounds, and condemned India's vote at

the UN against Israel.Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader

Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar admired Jewish nationalism and

believed Palestine was the natural territory of the Jewish people,

essential to their aspiration for nationhood.





On 17 September 1950, India officially recognised the State of

Israel.Following India's recognition of Israel, Indian Prime

Minister Jawaharlal Nehru stated, "we would have [recognised

Israel] long ago, because Israel is a fact. We refrained because of

our desire not to offend the sentiments of our friends in the Arab

countries." In 1953, Israel was permitted to open a consulate in

Bombay (now Mumbai). However, the Nehru government did

not want to pursue full diplomatic relations with Israel as it

supported the Palestinian cause, and believed that permitting

Israel to open an embassy in New Delhi would damage relations

with the Arab world



PRE-INDEPENDENCE

Mahatma Gandhi had clearly spelled out that though he was sympathetic to the Jews and was

aware of their persecutions, he was not in favour of a forced settlement between Israel and

Palestine, which was already home to the Arabs.

Although he blamed the Christian community for wronging the Jews, he believed that Palestine

belonged to Arabs in the same way as England belonged to English and France to French

Mahatma Gandhi was of the firm opinion that the Jews had erred grievously in seeking to

impose themselves on Palestine with the aid of America and Britain.



1947: THE INDEPENDENCE YEAR

India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru held the same belief and followed the line taken by

Mahatma Gandhi in saying no to Israel if it was not with the permission of the Arabs of

Palestine. He even refused Albert Einstein's appeal to vote in favour of the partition of

Palestine, an event that later led to formation of Israel on May 14, 1948. Other factors, too,

weighed heavily on Nehru's mind when he said no to Einstein and when India voted against the

United Nations General Assembly's (UNGA) resolution on partition of Palestine on November

29 1947.

India was already facing the trauma of partition on religious lines, ravaging its

geographies, and Nehru, probably, could not support another country's partition on religious

lines. To add to that India had a sizeable Muslim population that was traditionally opposed



to creation of Israel on the Palestinian land. Also, an immediate war with Pakistan was looming

large and Nehru needed the global community's support including the Arab nations.



AFTER INDEPENDENCE

India formally recognised Israel post independence in September 1950. However its Israel

policy was driven by the principled stand of solidarity with the Palestinian cause and India's

international approach on issues as aligned with its domestic needs. Nehru had mentioned this in

his reply to Einstein that national leaders needed to be selfish to see the interest of their

countries first when it came to geopolitics. So India continued with its pro-Palestine policy in

line with its principled stand and the sentiments of its large Muslim population, coupled with the

fact that more and more Indians were heading to the Gulf nations and it was fast emerging as a

major source of remittances.

In addition, India was also dependent on the Arab nations for oil supply to meet its energy

needs. Emergence of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in 1950s, of which Nehru was a

founding member, further drove India away from taking any pro-Israel stand openly. NAM had

its origin in the Cold War which had divided the world in two blocks, pro-USSR and pro-USA.

NAM countries proclaimed they would have neutral stand in global affairs instead of going with

any block of the nations.



1962 INDIA - CHINA WAR

The 1962 India China war was the first occasion when when Nehru wrote to Israeli Prime

Minister David Ben Gurion for shipments of arms and ammunition. Nehru had requested Ben

Gurion to ship weapons without the Israeli flag as it could have adversely affected India's ties

with the Arab nations. Though expressing sympathy and solidarity with India, Ben Gurion

refused help. Israel sent shipments to India only when India said it would accept them with the

Israeli flag. And that is when when Israel and India started communicating at strategic levels.



1971 INDIA PAKISTAN WAR

The 1971 war between India and Pakistan that led to formation of Bangladesh was the next

significant step in taking forward India-Israel strategic cooperation. Srinath Raghavan's book

1971, quoting Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's adviser PN Haksar, says even if Israel was not in a

position to supply arms to India, its Prime Minister Golda Meir diverted the shipment meant for

Iran to India. Israel also provided India with intelligence support. In return, Golda Meir asked

for full diplomatic ties.



1992 ESTABLISHMENT OF FULL DIPLOMATIC TIES

It was in 1992 when India finally established full diplomatic relations with Israel but only after

taking Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on board. Arafat was in Delhi and after meeting

Prime Minister Narasimha Rao, he announced that establishing embassies and maintaining

diplomatic ties were India's sovereign decisions and he respected it. There were two reasons

behind it.

The first was the peace process between Israel and Palestine was in an advanced state at that

time. State of Israel and Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) recognized each other

for the first time with the US mediated Oslo Accord signed in Washington in 1993. For their



peace efforts, Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin were jointly given the Nobel Peace Prize

of 1994.

 The second was the pressure from United States. The version in bureaucratic circles is as

India needed now a global interface for its economy after it decided to follow economic

liberalization in 1991 as well as new markets for to meets its defence needs after the USSR

collapse, its main defence supplier, it found America as the obvious choice. But in return,

America asked India to accommodate Israel in its foreign policy. And the timing was opportune

as the ongoing peace process helped India in convincing Arafat, something that helped India in

dealing with the Arab nations. What was sought by Golda Meir from Indira Gandhi in 1971

finally became a reality on January 29 1992 and Indira's foreign minister Narasimha Rao, who

was now the prime minister, drove the development.



1998 NUCLEAR TESTS

India's second series of nuclear tests in 1998 saw the US and other western countries imposing

sanctions. However, it didn't affect India much as Israel filled the gap effectively delivering the

US arms as it had close military ties .



1999 KARGIL WAR

The 1999 Kargil war was a leap in terms of India-Israel military cooperation. Israel provided

India with mortar ammunitions, surveillance drones and laser guided missiles along with

intelligence inputs that helped in winding up the war with a befitting reply to Pakistan. It is said

that the Kargil War pushed India to introspect on its security loopholes and the country decided

to modernise its forces. Next year, in 2000, India's Home Minister LK Advani and Foreign

Minister Jaswant Singh paid a visit to Israel beginning the series of ministerial level visits to

Israel.



2003 ARIEL SHARON VISIT

In 2003, Ariel Sharon became the first Israeli Prime Minister to visit India. Strengthening the

bilateral ties, the Delhi Statement of Friendship and Cooperation was signed. Though Sharon

had to cut short his visit due to terror attacks in Tel Aviv, his Deputy Prime Minister Yosef

Lapid had, for the first time on record, accepted that "India and Israel had closes ties in defence

and Israel was the second largest supplier of weapons to India."



2017 MODI VISIT :-

India hosted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in May 2017

and reasserted India’s traditional support for an independent

Palestinian nation “at peace with Israel”.

Though ministerial and other bilateral visits between India and Israel continued unabated all this

while, it is said that the Manmohan Singh led UPA government was not in favour of speaking

much about India-Israel defence and strategic ties and rather focused on agriculture, science and

technology for mutual areas of cooperation.

Confirming this line of thought, Israeli Ambassador to India, David Carmon, had said last year

when Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj was leaving for Israel that "though India-Israel ties had

evolved over the last 25 years, it had been more visible under the Modi government."

And now to take that "visibility" to the next level of bilateral cooperation, Narendra Modi is

visiting Israel in the first ever prime-ministerial visit to Israel and what is the defining moment

here is he has dehyphenated the Palestine ties with the Israel ties, unlike any previous official

visit when Indian leaders made it a point to include both Palestine and Israel in their itinerary.

During his visit in October 2015, first by an Indian President, Pranab Mukherjee first went to

Palestine and then to Israel. Sushma Swaraj followed suit during her January 2016 visit.





  Narendra Modi became the first Prime Minister

from India to visit Israel in the last 70 years.

  Seven agreements were signed between the two

countries.

  Modi is the first sitting Indian Prime Minister to visit the Jewish

state but also because significant agreements were signed between

India and Israel that could be beneficial to both the countries in the

long run

  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself

was at the Ben Gurion Airport to receive Modi

  Israeli Crysanthumun flower will now be

called “MODI” (Modi visited the Danziger “Dan” flower farm

along with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu)

  PM Narendra Modi pays homage to Holocaust victims

at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. As

leaders were required to wear Kippah, a brimless cap,

inside the Yad Vashem, Modi chose to wear the Himachal

cap (Pahari topi) during the remembrance ceremony for

the Holocaust victims.



  I for I. Which means India for Israel

and Israel for India

  PM Modi met Moshe Holtzberg, the Israeli child

who survived the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks,

and invited him to India. He also met Moshe’s

Indian nanny Sandra Samuels

  India and Israel then signed seven agreements

in key areas like space, water management,

energy and agriculture.

  A Memorandum of Understanding was signed

to set up $40 million worth India-Israel Industrial

Research and Development (R&D) and Technical

Innovation Fund

  Two agreements were signed in the sector to

increase cooperation on water conservation and

state water utility reform in India.

  Both the countries also agreed for India-Israil

Development Coopeartion, a three year work

programme in the agriculture sector. They also

launched a five-year technology fund



  Prime Minister Modi gifted replicas of two sets of

relics from Kerala that are “regarded as key

artifacts in the long Jewish history in India” to his

Israeli counterpart. Modi also presented him with a

Torah scroll donated by the Paradesi Jewish

community in Kerala and a metal crown from South

India.

  PM Modi along with PM Netanyahu paid homage to the soldiers in Haifa. He laid

a wreath at the cemetery that contains the graves of Indian soldiers who had died

during the First World War. He also unveiled a plaque commemorating Major Dalpat

Singh, known as the ‘Hero of Haifa’ for his critical role in