India voted in the United Nations condemning Israeli settlements in Palestine

A resolution was passed at the United Nations condemning Israeli settlements in Palestine. Photo: AFPIndia has voted in the United Nations to support the resolution condemning Israeli settlements in Palestine. The resolution was voted on last Thursday condemning settlements in the “Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem, and the Syrian Golan”. The resolution was passed with 145 countries voting in favour.

The United States, Canada, Hungary, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru and Israel—these seven countries voted against the condemnation resolution. 18 countries abstained from voting.

Earlier, India abstained from voting on a UN resolution calling for an immediate sustainable and effective humanitarian ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, according to a report by Indian media NDTV. Explaining the decision, an Indian government source said at the time that while India is concerned about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, it does not believe in making any concessions against terrorism.

Sources told Indian news agency PTI that the UN General Assembly resolution did not include any explicit condemnation of the October 7 ‘terrorist attack’. An amendment was therefore brought before the vote to include this point in the original proposal. We abstained from voting because the final proposal did not contain all the elements.

Eighty-eight votes were cast in favor of that motion of censure, but it fell short of a two-thirds majority. Explaining the vote, India’s current representative to the UN, Yojana Patel, said, ‘We have sympathy for the prisoners held by Hamas. We call for their immediate and unconditional release. This humanitarian crisis needs to be addressed. We welcome the increasing efforts of the international community and the delivery of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. India has also contributed to this effort.’

Israel continues to attack Gaza indiscriminately as a countermeasure to the attack by Hamas on October 7. The death toll in the last 36 days of Israeli ground and air strikes in Gaza has exceeded 11,000. Most of them are children and women. The United Nations says a child is killed every 10 minutes in Gaza. There is strong criticism about this in the international community.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first world leaders to condemn the Hamas operation as a ‘terrorist attack’ and express solidarity with Israel, shortly after the Hamas attack entered Israel. The Indian government’s unequivocal support for Tel Aviv was also announced at the time, without any mention of Palestine.

In a subsequent statement on this issue, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said that India has always supported the establishment of a sovereign, independent and viable Palestinian state through direct negotiations.