As part of the intensifying Hindutva-Zionist nexus, whose shared ideological basis is anti-Muslimness or Islamophobia, India has abstained from the 17 February Joint Statement by 85 Countries at the UN criticising Israel’s tightening illegal control over the West Bank. Among other things, the Statement says: “We strongly condemn unilateral Israeli decisions and measures aimed at expanding Israel’s unlawful presence in the West Bank.” This disgraceful position taken by India is linked with Modi’s scheduled visit to Israel on 25 February and also in view of the Hindutva regime’s renewed servility to the US, as the Trump-led Board of Peace is to meet in Washington.
No doubt, this is not an overnight development. Under the Modi regime, India has been abstaining from a series of UN Resolutions against Israeli criminalities on Palestinians. This has been more specific during the last two years. Instances are October 2023 UNGA that called for an immediate truce in the Israeli-Hamas conflict, December 2023 UN vote seeking legal opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Israel’s “prolonged occupation”, June 2025 UNGA calling for an “immediate, unconditional and permanent” ceasefire in Gaza, etc. Though there had been a post Cold war neoliberal dilution in India’s firm solidarity with Palestine, since the 1990s, the strategic shift in India’s alliance towards the Zionist regime took place with the ascendence of Modi regime in 2014 and Modi’s visit to Israel in 2017 – the first Indian prime minister to do so.
Of course, India had a glorious stance regarding the Palestine question that was inseparably linked up with India’s erstwhile anti-colonial position and solidarity with the oppressed peoples of the world. It was based on this perspective that Mahatma Gandhi, ‘Father of the Nation’, resolutely opposed the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine in 1938 itself , calling it “wrong and inhumane”. He argued that Palestine belonged to the indigenous Arabs and that forcing a state there with imperialist aid was a crime against humanity. Gandhi had unequivocally stated: “Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French”. Gandhi was against Zionism and viewed the Zionist project in Palestine as an imperialist, settler-colonial imposition. To be precise, during the anti-colonial struggle and in the Nehruvian period and as part of the Non-Aligned Movement, India consistently stood in solidarity with the Palestinians and oppressed Arab peoples. For instance, India was the first non-Arab country to recognise the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in 1974 and among the first to recognise the State of Palestine in 1988.
True, when the broad anti-colonial stream in India remained opposed to Zionism, the RSS, whose ‘cultural nationalism’ is a cover for colonial-imperialist servitude, has been upholding a Hindutva narrative regarding this from its very inception. Both Savarkar and Golwalkar were sympathetic to the Zionist cause and viewed Zionism or political Judaism as a model for the Hindu Rashtra based on the ideology of Hindutva or political Hinduism. Today under the Modi regime led by the BJP, the political tool of RSS, India’s strategic partnership, encompassing economic and military deals, with the Zionist regime are perfectly in tune with this Hindutva perception. And, the clamour for “Hindutva India” and ”Zionist Israel” and strengthening Saffron-Zionist nexus with deeper anti-Muslim ideological underpinnings have become the dominant political discourse in Indian neofascist situation.
Now the Joint Statement by 85 countries has, in essence, exposed Trump’s Board of Peace and opposes Israeli moves under its cover to alter the demographic composition and status of the entire Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem. However Modi regime’s refusal to join this initiative has become ignominious. Revealingly, India is the only founder-member of BRICS that stays out of the initiative which was endorsed even by European Union and Quad partners, including Japan and Australia.
Meanwhile, consequent on widespread criticism and isolation among the comity of nations, as a belated face-saving exercise, and as a second thought, even while remaining out of the Joint Statement by 85 countries, India is reported to have added its name to the list of countries criticising Israel’s unilateral moves on the West Bank. By this ‘face-saving’move’, India avoided a situation of antagonizing both the Zionist regime and the US imperialist master. And, Modi’s upcoming visit to Israel points to a further neofascist reinforcement of the Hindutva-Zionist nexus.
We appeal to all progressive-democratic forces who stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people to come forward against this condemnable pro-Zionist move by the Modi regime.
P J James
General Secretary
CPI (ML) Red Star
New Delhi
19. 02. 2026
