Actions On Palestine Issue Driven By PM, Netanyahu Friendship: Sonia Gandhi

Congress leader Sonia Gandhi.

India needs to exhibit leadership on the Palestine issue, emphasized Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Thursday as she criticized the Modi government's approach, describing it as marked by "profound silence" and an abandonment of both humanitarian principles and moral responsibility.

She argued that the government's position seems primarily influenced by the personal relationship between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rather than by India's constitutional values or strategic interests.

"This personalized diplomacy approach is unsustainable and cannot guide India's foreign policy effectively. Similar attempts in other regions, particularly in the United States, have recently collapsed in painful and humiliating ways," Gandhi stated in her article published in The Hindu.

This represents Gandhi's third publication in a national newspaper regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict, in which she has strongly condemned the Modi government's stance on the matter.

She asserted that India's international standing cannot be reduced to one individual's personal glory-seeking, nor can it rely solely on historical achievements. It requires consistent courage and historical continuity, she wrote in her piece titled 'India's muted voice, its detachment with Palestine'.

Gandhi highlighted that France has joined the United Kingdom, Canada, Portugal and Australia in recognizing Palestinian statehood -- "the first step in fulfilling the legitimate aspirations of the long-suffering Palestinian people."

More than 150 of the 193 United Nations member countries have now recognized Palestine, she noted.

Gandhi emphasized that India had previously shown leadership by formally recognizing Palestinian statehood on November 18, 1988, following years of support for the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

She referenced historical examples of India's principled positions, including raising the issue of Apartheid in South Africa before Independence and strongly supporting Algeria during its independence struggle (1954-62).

In 1971, India intervened decisively to prevent genocide in East Pakistan, facilitating the creation of modern Bangladesh, she pointed out.

The former Congress chief noted that India has historically maintained a balanced yet principled stance on the Israel-Palestine issue, emphasizing peace and human rights protection.

India needs to demonstrate leadership on Palestine, which has become a struggle for justice, identity, dignity and human rights, Gandhi insisted.

Since hostilities erupted between Israel and Palestine in October 2023, India has essentially abandoned its role, she suggested.

"The brutal and inhumane Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, were followed by an Israeli response that has been nothing less than genocidal. As I have previously mentioned, more than 55,000 Palestinian civilians have perished, including 17,000 children," she stated.

Gaza's residential, educational, and healthcare infrastructure has been destroyed, along with its agriculture and industry, Gandhi observed.

"Gazans face famine-like conditions, with Israeli military cruelly obstructing essential food, medicine, and aid delivery -- merely 'drip-feeding' assistance amid overwhelming desperation," she said.

In one of the most appalling acts of inhumanity, hundreds of civilians have been shot while attempting to access food, she highlighted.

Gandhi stated that the international community has responded slowly, implicitly legitimizing Israeli actions.

The recent recognition of Palestine as a sovereign state by several countries represents a welcome and overdue departure from inaction, she remarked.

"This is a historic moment asserting principles of justice, self-determination and human rights. These actions aren't merely diplomatic gestures but affirmations of nations' moral responsibility in the face of prolonged injustice. In today's world, silence doesn't represent neutrality but complicity," she said.

India's voice, once unwavering in supporting freedom and human dignity, has remained "conspicuously muted," Gandhi said, criticizing the Modi government.

She expressed outrage that India recently signed a bilateral investment agreement with Israel and hosted its controversial far-right finance minister, who has faced global condemnation for repeatedly inciting violence against Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank.

Gandhi argued that India must approach the Palestine issue not merely as foreign policy but as a test of its ethical and civilizational heritage.

Palestinians have endured decades of displacement, prolonged occupation, settlement expansion, movement restrictions, and repeated assaults on their civil, political and human rights, she stated.

Their struggle echoes India's own colonial-era experiences -- people deprived of sovereignty, denied nationhood, exploited for resources, and stripped of rights and security.

"We owe Palestine historical empathy in its quest for dignity, and we also owe Palestine the courage to translate that empathy into principled action," she concluded.