The story so far: On October 26, nearly three weeks after the terror strikes by Hamas on Israel, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) voted on a resolution calling for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce” in the hostilities, that was voted for by 120 member countries, while 14 countries voted against it. India was amongst 45 countries that abstained, a vote for which the government has received criticism from the Opposition, with many calling India’s vote a “break from the past”. Israel, that has conducted an incessant bombardment of the Gaza Strip over the past month, where two million civilians are trapped, rejected the UNGA vote, calling it “despicable”.
Why did the government abstain?
Explaining India’s vote this week, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said that India’s vote was consistent with its stand on terrorism, adding that India takes a strong position on it because Indians are “big victims of terrorism”. In particular, government sources said that UNGA resolution (A/ES-10/L.25) lacked an “explicit condemnation” of the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas, in which 1,405 Israelis were killed, and about 240 were taken as hostages by Hamas militants. The UNGA resolution did condemn acts of violence against Palestinian and Israeli civilians “including terrorism”, and also called for the immediate unconditional release of the hostages. However, India had wanted more, voting in favour of an amendment authored by Canada, that would have inserted more specific references, that was not passed by the UNGA.
Significantly, none of the government’s own formal statements since October 7, including India’s “Explanation of Vote” delivered after the resolution was passed, have named Hamas directly, nor have readouts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s conversations with foreign leaders since the attacks referred to Hamas. New Delhi has also not as of yet designated Hamas a terror group, something Israeli Ambassador to India Naor Gilon has demanded.
Is India’s vote a break from the past?
India’s vote on the UNGA resolution is no doubt a break from its past voting record at the United Nations. Historically, India voted against the partition of Palestine and the creation of a separate state of Israel in 1948, and was the first non-Arab state to recognise the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as the representative of the people, and to recognise Palestine in 1988, and consistently voted against Israel at the United Nations. However, in the 1990s, especially once India established full diplomatic ties with Israel, its votes at the UN grew more nuanced, abstaining on many votes that directly criticised Israel, or called for international tribunals on its treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories of West Bank and Gaza.
In December 1991, just weeks before India and Israel opened their embassies, India was part of a majority that voted at the UNGA to revoke an earlier resolution that equated Zionism with “racism and racial discrimination”. In subsequent decades, India continued to condemn Israeli bombardment and its blockade of Gaza during UN resolutions, but tempered its votes on other anti-Israel resolutions, especially at other forums. After 2014, and more perceptibly post 2019, a more pointed shift has followed, where on resolutions critical of Israel where India would have in the past voted “for”, it now began to “abstain”, and to even vote against them, if they involved more intrusive international enquiries. The rule however seemed to be to stand with Palestine on all votes relating to Palestinian rights against the occupation and Israeli bombardment. India even raised its annual contribution to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) from a million dollars each year to five million dollars a year. As a result, India voted against the U.S.’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and move its embassy there at the UNGA, but abstained from voting on a UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution in 2015 on a report that held more criticism of Israel than Hamas for violence in Gaza. In 2016, India even voted against a UNHRC resolution that called for an International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into Israeli war crimes, and voted with Israel at the United Nations Economic and Social Council in 2019 in stopping a Hamas-linked NGO from receiving observer status.
Given the wide breadth of these issues, India’s record may seem like comparing “apples and oranges”. The present shift is therefore best seen by comparing India’s vote at the UNGA last month during the 10th emergency special session on Israeli actions, with India’s vote at the UNGA at the 9th emergency special session in 2018, where India voted in favour of a resolution that deplored “the use of any excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate force by the Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and particularly in the Gaza Strip”. At the time, Israeli bombardment of Gaza had left more than 220 dead. Now, with more than 9,000 dead, including 3,000 children, with Israeli forces bombing hospitals and refugee camps alike in their search for Hamas leaders and Israeli hostages, India has chosen to abstain.
EDITORIAL | Lost voice: On India’s abstention on the Gaza vote at the UN
What does India’s stand signify?
India’s abstention at the UNGA was welcomed by Israel, whose foreign ministry spokesperson said that although they would have wanted India to vote against the resolution, as U.S., the U.K., and other Israeli allies did, it appreciated the “support”. Among countries that abstained were India’s other Quad partners Australia and South Korea, and NATO members, including Canada and European countries. However, among the large majority of 120 countries that voted for the resolution were India’s South Asian neighbours, including Bhutan, ASEAN countries (except Philippines, that abstained), all other 11-members of the newly extended BRICS grouping, the entire Arab world (except Tunisia) and most countries of the ‘Global South’. If India’s abstention is a signal of a decided shift in favour of Israel for future votes, it is clear which groupings India would find itself closer to.
On the other hand, some have pointed out that India’s abstention is not as much a sign of its commitments to any policy, but in line with a growing desire to equivocate on global issues, in order to keep a “tightrope balance” between conflicting sides, both of which India has close ties to. In that sense over the past decade, India has consistently abstained from all resolutions critical of Russia’s operations in Ukraine both in 2014 and 2022, a 2016 resolution calling for a ceasefire by Syria, all resolutions from 2017-2022 that condemned the Myanmar military junta for the expulsion of Rohingya and its coup toppling the elected government. This would explain India’s stand last month at the UNGA as more of a decision not to antagonise either side in an increasingly polarised world.
