Opinion On Israel-Palestine, India’s domestic identity politics must not drive approach

Tell me what I did wrong?” The question by nonagenarian former Jan Sangh (the precursor to the BJP) MP Sheikh Abdul Rehman has special resonance in the aftermath of Hamas’s horrific terrorist attack on October 7 and Israel’s ongoing disproportionate response. Rehman was placed in “preventive detention” over a proposed solidarity meeting in Jammu for the victims of violence in Gaza. While Rehman’s case stands out, protestors have been detained by police from Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka to Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. Such crackdowns are problematic on at least two levels. First, as Rehman pointed out, there is a fundamental problem with curbing the right to assembly and expression, especially because Prime Minister Narendra Modi, like all his predecessors, has expressed sympathy with Palestinians. Days after he condemned the terror attacks and affirmed solidarity with the people of Israel, he underlined support to the cause of the Palestinian state. Second, the detentions threaten to undermine the careful nuance that India’s foreign policy has maintained on the conflict.

New Delhi has made subtle but essential distinctions between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority and condemned the attacks and kidnappings by the former while maintaining ties with the latter. There are also strategic and economic imperatives at play in the ties with Tel Aviv. Players in the region have recognised this complexity. In an interview to this newspaper, Jordan’s ambassador to India Mohamed El Kayed said, “We think India has an important role to play concerning humanitarian aid and the historic Indian position regarding the problems Palestinians face for long.” That’s why UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s warning against “any activity contrary” to the views of the Centre on Israel-Palestine a day after a students’ protest in Aligarh strikes many a discordant note. At the same time, the Jamaat-e-Islami’s youth wing’s decision to invite a former Hamas chief for a virtual address needs strong condemnation given the blood on Hamas hands. Similarly, the decision by some organisations to practically boycott Shashi Tharoor after the Congress leader described Hamas as a “terrorist” organisation hardly does any service to the cause for peace in the region. Rehman’s question of the Jammu and Kashmir police could well be asked of them.

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The complex legacy of strife and violence in Palestine should not be belittled by over-simplified political rhetoric. Nor should the rights of Indian citizens to express solidarity or protest be curtailed. The suffering of innocent children, women and men in Gaza needs all support, moral, political and material. A support that makes it clear that terror is no bargaining chip. Given the myriad fault-lines, this is no easy terrian to navigate. Using the Israel-Palaestinian crisis in the wake of the Hamas’s attack to sharpen the divides in domestic politics makes the terrain more tricky — and New Delhi’s next steps more fraught.