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Mahesh

05/11/23 12:19 PM IST

Why did India abstain from the call for truce?

In News
  • Recently, nearly three weeks after the terror strikes by Hamas on Israel, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) voted on a resolution calling for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce” in the hostilities.
  • India was amongst 45 countries that abstained.
Why India Abstained?
  • India takes a strong position on it because Indians are “big victims of terrorism”.
  • UNGA resolution (A/ES-10/L.25) lacked an “explicit condemnation” of the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas, in which 1,405 Israelis were killed, and about 240 were taken as hostages by Hamas militants.
  • The UNGA resolution did condemn acts of violence against Palestinian and Israeli civilians “including terrorism”, and also called for the immediate unconditional release of the hostages.
  • However, India had wanted more, voting in favour of an amendment authored by Canada, that would have inserted more specific references, that was not passed by the UNGA.
India's voting in the past
  • Historically,India voted against the partition of Palestine and the creation of a separate state of Israel in 1948, and was the first non-Arab state to recognise the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as the representative of the people, and to recognise Palestine in 1988, and consistently voted against Israel at the United Nations.
  • However, in the 1990s, especially once India established full diplomatic ties with Israel, its votes at the UN grew more nuanced, abstaining on many votes that directly criticised Israel, or called for international tribunals on its treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories of West Bank and Gaza.
  • After 2014, and more perceptibly post 2019, a more pointed shift has followed, where on resolutions critical of Israel where India would have in the past voted “for”, it now began to “abstain”, and to even vote against them, if they involved more intrusive international enquiries.
  • The rule however seemed to be to stand with Palestine on all votes relating to Palestinian rights against the occupation and Israeli bombardment.
  • India even raised its annual contribution to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) from a million dollars each year to five million dollars a year.
  • As a result, India voted against the U.S.’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and move its embassy there at the UNGA, but abstained from voting on a UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution in 2015 on a report that held more criticism of Israel than Hamas for violence in Gaza.
  • In 2016, India even voted against a UNHRC resolution that called for an International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into Israeli war crimes, and voted with Israel at the United Nations Economic and Social Council in 2019 in stopping a Hamas-linked NGO from receiving observer status.
  • India’s vote at the UNGA at the 9th emergency special session in 2018, where India voted in favour of a resolution that deplored “the use of any excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate force by the Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and particularly in the Gaza Strip”.
  • At the time, Israeli bombardment of Gaza had left more than 220 dead.
  • Now, with more than 9,000 dead, including 3,000 children, with Israeli forces bombing hospitals and refugee camps alike in their search for Hamas leaders and Israeli hostages, India has chosen to abstain.
Significance of Abstention
  • India’s abstention at the UNGA was welcomed by Israel, whose foreign ministry spokesperson said that although they would have wanted India to vote against the resolution, as U.S., the U.K., and other Israeli allies did, it appreciated the “support”.
  • Among countries that abstained were India’s other Quad partners Australia and South Korea, and NATO members, including Canada and European countries.
  • However, among the large majority of 120 countries that voted for the resolution were India’s South Asian neighbours, including Bhutan, ASEAN countries (except Philippines, that abstained), all other 11-members of the newly extended BRICS grouping, the entire Arab world (except Tunisia) and most countries of the ‘Global South’.
  • If India’s abstention is a signal of a decided shift in favour of Israel for future votes, it is clear which groupings India would find itself closer to.
  • On the other hand, some have pointed out that India’s abstention is not as much a sign of its commitments to any policy, but in line with a growing desire to equivocate on global issues, in order to keep a “tightrope balance” between conflicting sides, both of which India has close ties to.
  • India has consistently abstained from all resolutions critical of Russia’s operations in Ukraine both in 2014 and 2022, a 2016 resolution calling for a ceasefire by Syria, all resolutions from 2017-2022 that condemned the Myanmar military junta for the expulsion of Rohingya and its coup toppling the elected government.
Source- The Hindu

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