Modi’s Twitter-finger, however, did not come to the rescue of the Palestinians as quickly as before. When he tweeted again, he described calling Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to express his grief over the loss of innocent lives in the Al-Ahli Hospital bombing.
Abbas (whose party Fatah was ousted from Gaza by Hamas in 2007) is based in Ramallah and has no control over the Gaza Strip. Still, Modi apparently thought his phone conversation with Abbas would strike a balance with his leaning toward Israel in earlier tweets.
According to Modi’s tweet, he has now ‘reiterated India’s longstanding policy position on the Israel-Palestine issue.’ But the reality is that when the UN General Assembly called for a vote to declare an ‘immediate humanitarian ceasefire’, India abstained from voting on the motion.
India said the resolution failed to condemn the October 7 Hamas attack. Many other countries have also criticized the UN proposal for this reason. But in the end they voted.
In this respect, India has behaved more pro-Israel than Israel’s long-time ally France.
This shows how far India has moved away from its traditional position on the Palestine issue.
Translated from English, courtesy: Project Syndicate
