India's silence on Palestine is equivalent to abandoning human values: Sonia Gandhi
India's silence on Palestine is equivalent to abandoning human values: Sonia Gandhi
M.U.H
25/09/2025433
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Written by: Sonia Gandhi
France has joined the United Kingdom, Canada, Portugal and Australia in recognising Palestinian statehood — the first step in the fulfilment of the legitimate aspirations of the long-suffering Palestinian people. One hundred and fifty-plus of the 193 countries that are members of the United Nations have now done so. India had been a leader in this regard having formally recognised Palestinian statehood way back on November 18, 1988, after years of support to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). India’s decision was fundamentally a moral one and in keeping with our world view.
A voice that stood out in the past
Even before Independence, India raised the issue of Apartheid South Africa in the UN and cut off trade relations with the apartheid regime. During the Algerian struggle for independence (1954-62), India was one of the strongest voices for an independent Algeria, ensuring that the international community could not forget that decisive battleground in the crusade against imperialism. In 1971, India intervened firmly to prevent genocide in what was then East Pakistan, midwifing the birth of modern-day Bangladesh. When much of the world merely stood by amidst the bloodshed in Vietnam, India was the voice of moral clarity, seeking peace and opposing foreign brutality against the Vietnamese people. Even today, India contributes one of the largest contingents to the UN’s Peacekeeping Forces. The promotion of ‘international peace and security’ is one of the Directive Principles of State Policy enshrined in the Constitution of India.
On the critical and sensitive issue of Israel-Palestine as well, India has long maintained a delicate but principled position, emphasising its commitment to peace and the protection of human rights. India was among the first countries to recognise the PLO in 1974 and has consistently supported a two-state solution that guarantees Palestine’s right to self-determination while encouraging peaceful coexistence with Israel. Over the years, India has backed numerous UN resolutions affirming Palestinian rights and condemning the occupation and settlement expansion in the West Bank. At the same time, India has maintained full diplomatic relations with Israel. Through multilateral forums such as the UN, the Non-Aligned Movement, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) observer platforms, India has urged negotiated settlements, adherence to international law, and a cessation of violence. India has also provided humanitarian and development aid to Palestine, including scholarships for students, support for education and health care, and capacity-building for institutions in Gaza and the West Bank.
India’s stand today
In the last two years, since the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Palestine in October 2023, India has all but relinquished its role. 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 raised, more than 55,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed, including 17,000 children. The residential, schooling and health infrastructure of the Gaza Strip has been obliterated, as have agriculture and industry. Gazans have been forced into a famine-like situation, with the Israeli military cruelly obstructing the delivery of much-needed food, medicine, and other aid — a ‘drip-feeding’ of aid amidst an ocean of desperation. In one of the most revolting acts of inhumanity, hundreds of civilians have been shot down while trying to access food.
The world has been slow to respond, implicitly legitimising the Israeli actions. The recent moves by several countries to recognise Palestine as a sovereign state are a welcome and long-due departure from the policy of inaction. This is a historical moment, and an assertion of the principles of justice, self-determination and human rights. These steps are not merely diplomatic gestures; they are affirmations of the moral responsibility that nations bear in the face of prolonged injustice. It is a reminder that in the modern world, silence is not neutrality — it is complicity. And here, India’s voice, once so unwavering in the cause of freedom and human dignity, has remained conspicuously muted.
The Modi government’s response has been characterised by a profound silence and an abdication of both humanity and morality. Its actions appear to be driven primarily by the personal friendship between the Israeli premier and Mr. Modi rather than India’s constitutional values or its strategic interests. This style of personalised diplomacy is never tenable and cannot be the guiding compass of India’s foreign policy. Attempts to do the same in other parts of the world — most notably, in the United States — have come undone in the most painful and humiliating ways in recent months. India’s standing on the world stage cannot be wrapped up into the personal glory-seeking ways of one individual, nor can it rest on its historical laurels. It demands persistent courage and a sense of historical continuity.
Meanwhile, it is appalling that just two weeks ago, India not only signed a bilateral investment agreement with Israel, in New Delhi, but also hosted its highly controversial far-right Finance Minister who has invited global condemnation for his repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank.
Act now
Most fundamentally, India must not approach the issue of Palestine as merely a matter of foreign policy but as a test of India’s ethical and civilisational heritage. The people of Palestine have endured decades of displacement, prolonged occupation, settlement expansion, restrictions on movement and repeated assaults on their civil, political and human rights. Their plight echoes the struggles that India faced during the colonial era — a people deprived of their sovereignty, denied a nationhood, exploited for their resources, and stripped of all rights and security. We owe Palestine a sense of historical empathy in its quest for dignity, and we also owe Palestine the courage to translate that empathy into principled action.
India’s historical experience, its moral authority and its commitment to human rights should empower it to speak, advocate and act in favour of justice — without delay or hesitation. The expectation is not of partisanship in this conflict, of choosing between Israel and Palestine. The expectation is of principled leadership, consistent with the values that have long guided India, our nation, and on which its freedom movement was anchored.
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Written by: Sonia Gandhi