On April 5, the UN Human Rights Council voted on a resolution titled “Human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the obligation to ensure accountability and justice”.
Adopted by 28 votes in favour, 6 against and 13 abstentions, the 47-member Human Rights Council backed a call “to cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel, the occupying Power…to prevent further violations of international humanitarian law and violations and abuses of human rights”.
The resolution was introduced by Pakistan on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic states. It was co-sponsored by Bolivia, Cuba and the State of Palestine. The 28 countries which voted in favor of the resolution were Algeria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Burundi, Chile, China, Ivory Coast, Cuba, Eritrea, Finland, Gambia, Ghana, Honduras, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kirgizstan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Maldives, Morocco, Qatar, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, the UAE and Vietnam.
The governments of US, Germany and four other countries voted against the resolution.
The government of India abstained in the vote. This stand of the government of India is utterly shameful. It is a stand that strengthens the hands of the US, Germany, Britain and other warmongering states, who are arming Israel to the hilt and fully backing the Israeli state in its genocidal war against the Palestinian people.
India’s stand at the UN Human Rights Council shows its utter lack of empathy with the martyred Palestinian people. Over 40,000 Palestinian people, the majority of them women and children, have been killed over the past 6 months, and over a lakh of people injured. Over 2 million people, the bulk of the population of Gaza, have been forcibly displaced by the Israeli Army. Israel has deployed starvation as a method of warfare. It has deliberately destroyed hospitals and schools, and targeted health workers, journalists, and UN refugee camps. It has jailed and tortured tens of thousands of Palestinian youth. It has unleashed settler violence against the people in the occupied West Bank. These and other crimes against the Palestinian people have shocked the conscience of people world over. People in US, Canada, Britain, Germany, France and other countries have expressed their outrage at the genocide carried out by Israel. They have expressed their anger at the brazen support given by the US and its European allies to Israel. People of the world have been demanding that the US and its allies stop arming Israel and stop funding its genocide of the Palestinian people. The Resolution of the UN Human Rights Commission reflects this overwhelming sentiment of the world’s peoples.
The Indian government’s abstention on the resolution shows its utterly unprincipled and pragmatic approach on the question of defending the sovereignty of all peoples, big and small, and on world peace. India’s defence of the sovereignty of the Palestinian people is just lip service. How else can it be explained, that it watches as Israel carries out its genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people and then abstains from any condemnation of those carrying out the genocide?
The stand of the government of India is to be seen in the light of the strategic military relationship that the Indian state has been building with Israel. Israel is one the top defense partners of India. Indian and Israeli defence companies are collaborating in developing weapons systems, including drones, for both Israel and India. The Indian state is coordinating with the US and Israel to build the I2U2 alliance (Israel, India, US and UAE) as a strategic alliance in West Asia.
The people of India must demand that the Indian state terminate its military strategic alliance with Israel and the US. The government of India must unreservedly condemn Israel’s genocidal war. It must join other countries who are demanding a complete halt to all weapons supply to Israel.