India downplays criticism over abstention from UNHRC Israel probe vote

Relatives of Palestinian student Fadi Wahha, who was reportedly shot by Israeli security forces during a protest, mourn during his burial on Wednesday. (AFP)

• We have departed from our time-tested commitment to Palestine, says Congress Party

NEW DELHI: The Indian government on Thursday downplayed criticism over its recent abstention from a vote on a United Nation Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution calling for a probe into possible Israeli war crimes against Palestinians.
The UN agreed last week to launch an investigation into Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip at a special session of the UNHRC after airstrikes between May 10 and May 21 killed 270 people.
By a vote of 24 states in favor and nine against, with 14 abstentions — including India — the 47-member council adopted the resolution, presented by Pakistan at the behest of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). 
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki sent an open letter to his Indian counterpart saying the abstention had stifled the UNHRC’s work, but the New Delhi stood by its position.
“Regarding the letter from the Palestinian foreign minister, I understand that Palestine has written similar letters to all the countries that abstained during the UNHRC vote,” India’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi, told reporters during a press conference.
“The position that we took was not a new position and we have abstained on previous occasions, and that explains our position quite clearly,” he told Arab News.
But members of India’s civil society and political opposition say the change in India’s Palestine stand is diametric.
“We have departed from our time-tested commitment to Palestine and thrown our support entirely to Israel,” the main opposition Congress party, which ruled the nation from independence in 1947 until 2014, said in a statement.
“India has always been on the side of Palestinians and voted against the creation of Israel at the UN General Assembly in 1947,” India-Palestine Friendship Forum founder Nadeem Khan told Arab News.
“We strongly condemn India’s abstention and ask the government of India to review its policy of supporting Israel,” he said.
For Prof. Apoorvanand Jha, renowned public intellectual and lecturer at the University of Delhi, the Palestinian foreign minister’s letter was both an “indictment” and indication of India’s moral fall.
“India has sadly drifted from its earlier moral position which was to not only support the Palestinian cause, but to oppose racial and apartheid policy,” he said. “This letter from the Palestinian foreign minister is a serious indictment of India’s position, and also an indication of the fall of India in the eyes of all people who love justice, who fight for justice and who fight for equality.
“Palestine is the litmus test for every country now; earlier, it was South Africa. The international solidarity against the apartheid policy of South Africa helped South Africa turn into a democratic country,” Jha told Arab News.
Tensions in Israel escalated when Israeli forces tried to expel Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem.
“Israel is doing everything to turn non-Jews, especially the Arab Muslim community, (in)to second class citizens,” He added. “This is the same tool the present regime in India is also using.”
Prof. Sheikh Showkat Hussain of the Central University of Kashmir said India’s support for Israel was an “extension” of the anti-Muslim ideological position of India’s ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). 
“The BJP’s ideological position is anti-Muslim,” he said. “India under the BJP is scared that if it supports (the) UNHCR resolution against Israel, it might have to face (a) similar resolution tomorrow related to Kashmir.”