Indian Left Decries BJP Govt for Hosting Israeli Minister

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and several other Opposition groups, intellectuals, and activists condemned the Indian government for hosting Israel’s ultra-right-wing leader and finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich. 

The CPI (M) and others demanded that India instead cut all ties with Israel. They reminded the Indian government that it has been the country’s foreign policy legacy to oppose occupation and support anti-colonial movements, such as the Palestinian struggle.

Smotrich was in India for a three-day visit. During his stay in India, he met several top officials and signed several deals, including a bilateral investment agreement with his Indian counterpart, Nirmala Sitharaman, on Monday, September 8. 

Smotrich, a leader of the violent and racist settlement movement in the occupied West Bank, has been one of the main backers of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and a key obstacle to ceasefire negotiations. He, along with Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, have been pushing for the mass starvation of the Palestinians in Gaza to force them out of the besieged territory for Israel’s annexation of it.

Smotrich and Ben Gvir have been banned by several countries from visiting for their incitement of violence against Palestinian citizens, including in West Bank settlements. Some of the countries which have imposed such bans and sanctions against Smotrich include the UK, New Zealand, Norway, and Canada.

According to reports, there is an arrest warrant pending against Smotrich and Ben-Gvir at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for their support and promotion of apartheid policies in the occupied territories.     

Talking to the Indian press on Monday, Smotrich praised the Indian government, claiming that his government values relations with India as it is “a growing economic powerhouse, and cooperation with it provides “tremendous opportunity for the state of Israel”. He also tried to justify the war and genocide in Gaza calling it a fight against terrorism. 

However, India’s political opposition and progressive sections rejected Smotrich’s claims, arguing that cooperation between the zionist regime in Israel and India’s right-wing government is shameful and humiliating for the people in the country who have always stood for the rights of the Palestinian people. 

Architect of genocide in Gaza    

“Smotrich belongs to a far right racist party who is the leading advocate in the Netanyahu government for occupying the Gaza strip by forcibly displacing the Palestinian people. He is also a prime mover of proposals to annex the occupied West Bank,” CPI (M) said in a statement on Tuesday. 

“It is shameful that the [Narendra] Modi government has hosted such a person and signed agreements with the Israeli government at a time when the people of Gaza are being massacred every day. This episode highlights the deep and entrenched ties that the Modi government has forged with the Netanyahu government, and its complicity in the ongoing horrific genocide in Gaza,” the statement further reads. 

Reacting to Smotrich’s visit to India, chief minister of India’s southern state of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan said that “at a time when genocide is unfolding in Gaza, entering into agreements with representatives of Netanyahu regime is nothing short of a betrayal of India’s historic solidarity with Palestine.”

Contrary to India’s long-term support of the Palestinian cause, the ultra-right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has adopted a pro-Israel policy since coming to power in 2014. 

It has abstained on various resolutions in the UN demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, has signed agreements to supply labor to replace Palestinian workers from the occupied territories, and tried to curb the pro-Palestinian mobilizations in India by filing cases against demonstrators.  

Vijayan described Smotrich as a “chief architect of Israel’s brutal occupation and expansionist agenda” and called it “deplorable” that India “maintains military, security, and economic ties with Israel while the path to a just and lasting peace for Palestinians remains unpursued.” 

Several academics and journalists also took to social media to condemn Smotrich’s visit to India. People questioned the BJP government’s intentions behind inviting Smotrich at the time when Israel is calling for the expansion of the occupation. 

Some of the activists argued that the growing closeness between Israel and India is a reflection of ideological parity between the BJP’s Hindu supremacism and the Jewish-only vision of an Israeli state.

Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch