A photo published by the Shafi Israel organization of Indians who joined the Israeli occupation army
Between the past and the present, Indian policy towards the Palestinian issue changed from one extreme to the other, and New Delhi’s support for a people suffering under occupation turned into support for the occupation itself.
Support had not only political and economic dimensions, but also military dimensions.
How did this happen?
And why?
In 1947, India voted against the partition of Palestine in the United Nations General Assembly, and was the first non-Arab country to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization as the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people in 1974. It was also one of the first countries to recognize the State of Palestine in 1988, and although India recognized Israel in 1950, It did not establish diplomatic relations with it until 1992.
Benjamin Netanyahu (left) holding the hand of his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel (Reuters)
Political support
But unlike all of the above, India was quick to provide rapid and significant political support to Israel as soon as the Al-Aqsa Flood operation, which was launched by the Palestinian resistance on October 7, was carried out.
Only hours later, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was one of the first world leaders to condemn this attack, a position also adopted by his Foreign Minister Subramaniam Jaishankar, claiming that “India may face the same fate if it does not stand up to extremism,” he said.
In line with its position of unconditional support for Israel, India abstained from voting in favor of a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza at the United Nations on October 27.
This support was reflected in the position of extremist Hindu nationalists who launched a campaign to spread misleading information on social media about what is happening in the Gaza Strip, in favor of the Israeli narrative - according to what a report by The Diplomat website revealed - with the aim of promoting anti-Islamic discourse targeting the Indian Muslim minority.
The Indian authorities also allowed demonstrations in support of Israel throughout the country, in exchange for suppressing protests in support of the Palestinians.
A pro-Israel rally in Ahmedabad, India, on October 16, 2023 (Associated Press)
Indian labor
Despite the intensification of the war, with the danger it poses to their lives, the number of Indian workers heading to Israel is increasing, especially in the construction sector, after the war caused the departure of thousands of Asian workers, the mobilization of many Israeli reserve soldiers, and the cancellation of work permits for more than 130 thousand Palestinian workers.
The head of the Lucknow Industrial Training Center, Raj Kumar Yadav, points out that Israeli employment offices are now looking for at least 10,000 construction workers, with monthly salaries of up to 140,000 rupees (about 1,688 dollars), indicating that this program has the support of the Indian authorities.
In a lengthy investigation published by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz a few days ago, it said that millions of Indians dream of obtaining a work visa in Israel thanks to the close alliance between their Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but at the expense of daily sustenance for tens of thousands of Palestinian workers who were expelled by Israel from the labor market.
She continued that despite the extreme cold, hundreds of people between the ages of 24 and 46 were queuing in long lines, waving their CVs, all hoping to win a work visa in Israel.
What is interesting about this process is that Israeli experts supervise the tests in India and select the candidates, according to the Chargé d'Affaires of the Indian Embassy in Tel Aviv.
Indian workers wait for their turn to apply for a work visa in Israel (French)
From India, Israeli Transport Minister Miri Regev wrote on the X platform last week that Israel wants to reduce its dependence on Palestinian labor.
A month earlier, Netanyahu urged his Indian counterpart to implement the 2023 agreement, which facilitates the employment of 40,000 Indians in the construction and nursing sectors.
Last December, two Indian states, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, announced the opening of 10,000 jobs for some specializations, in a campaign that was widely promoted on pro-government channels, many of which spoke of the helping hand that India should extend to the Israeli ally.
But the most important thing in this campaign was the statement that Indian Muslims should not bother applying for the advertised positions, which means that they will be excluded.
In this context, the Israeli newspaper Globes, which specializes in economics, said that a batch of an estimated 1,000 workers from India arrived recently as an experiment at the forefront of the first wave of a plan to bring in at least 65,000 workers.
"Israel" hired Hindu mercenaries who volunteered to fight alongside it in the ongoing war in Gaza. Netanyahu did not find anyone more loyal or more sincere than the Hindus in their hostility towards Muslims. Who else was creative in ways of tormenting Muslims in India?
Now it's their turn in Gaza!
pic.twitter.com/4JjKSCfAm9
- Towards Freedom (@hureyaksa) January 26, 2024
Mercenaries on the battlefront
As the raging Israeli war on the Gaza Strip continued, it was noteworthy that the law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, Khaled Abu al-Fadl, accused Hindus of fighting in the ranks of the Israeli occupation forces.
Abu Al-Fadl said that Hindu soldiers contribute to the massacres and massacres committed by the Israeli occupation army against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, noting that "Hindu nationalists openly celebrate what the Israeli occupation is doing to the Palestinians."
Here, the editor-in-chief of the Indian newspaper Milli Gazette, Zafarul Islam Khan, confirms that there are about 215 Indians fighting with the Israeli army, according to reports published by the Indian press.
Khan explains that the pictures published by Israel show that these Indians are from northeastern India who claimed to be from the defunct Jewish "Bnei Menashe" tribe, and thousands of them converted to Judaism and immigrated to Israel in recent years.
Zafarul Islam Khan: About 215 Indians are fighting with the Israeli army, according to reports published by the Indian press (Al Jazeera)
While Khan points out what he describes as a great exaggeration on the part of Israel about the participation of Indians in the ranks of its army fighting in Gaza, “in an attempt to show that the world stands with Israel,” he also points out that large numbers of Indians have expressed their desire to Going to Israel to “fight Hamas,” in addition to significant Hindu support for the occupying state on social media.
Indian newspapers raced to talk about the Indians' readiness to fight alongside Israel.
The newspaper "India Today" says, "People from India are not only armed and ready for war against Hamas; they have also come in the direct line of attack to confront the terrorists."
The newspaper quotes W. L. Hangsingh, head of the Supreme Council of Bnei Menashe in India, saying, “We are a small minority caught up in the unrest in the state of Manipur, and the only hope for the community is to immigrate to Israel.”
The Jews of Bnei Menashe
The number of members of the "Bnei Menashe" community in India is estimated at approximately 10,500 people, and they consider themselves descendants of "Menashe", one of the ten tribes that were expelled from Palestine more than 2,700 years ago by the Assyrians.
Asaf - a member of the tribe - says that the people of Menashe in the states of Mizoram and Manipur "hold special candlelight prayer sessions in their synagogues every night for the divine protection of those in Israel."
According to Hansing, about 200 Bnei Menashe are actively serving in the Israeli army, in addition to 200 reserve soldiers who were called to serve after the attacks launched by Hamas, while stressing that the exact numbers of Bnei Menashe serving in the Israeli army are not available to the public.
The Jerusalem Post newspaper confirms that they were summoned either to perform active or reserve military duties, in addition to some of them volunteering, citing Shafi Israel, a Jerusalem-based organization concerned with “strengthening Israel’s relations with Jewish diaspora communities around the world.” As she defines herself.
Among these soldiers, 75 soldiers were new immigrants from India who volunteered for military service after the Al-Aqsa Flood, while 140 were called to military service from their settlements throughout Israel.
According to Shafi Israel, 99% of all men of military age who immigrated from India joined Israel's war on Gaza, while 90% of women joined national service.
The founder of the "Shafi Israel" organization, Michael Freund, confirms that "since the outbreak of the war, the organization has received hundreds of requests from members of the Bnei Menashe community asking to immigrate to Israel immediately."
"Not only that, they are asking to join the Israeli army immediately to fight alongside their brothers and sisters," he added.
The Jerusalem Post report indicates that Netanel Tuthang (26 years old), from Bnei Menashe, was injured by shrapnel from a missile fired by the Lebanese Hezbollah into northern Israel, where he was serving in the Givati Brigade.
But the Indian newspaper "News 9" reported on the killing of 4 Indians fighting mercenaries in the Israeli army fighting in Gaza.
What has changed?
To try to understand the reasons for the major change in Indian policy towards Palestine, most analyzes point to two basic factors:
They:
The rise of Hindu nationalism
Ashok Swain, head of the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University in Sweden, says that Hindu nationalism has been growing since Modi came to power, although the researcher believes that the majority of Indians still support the Palestinian struggle for independence.
The Indian media is also largely influenced by the Hindu nationalist government, and therefore tends to adopt a more hostile rhetoric towards Palestine.
Hostility to Islam
Ashok Swain points out that the Narendra Modi government believes that as long as the war in Gaza continues, media attention will be directed towards condemning Hamas, “an opportunity to further inflame Islamophobia within Indian society.”
As for the prominent journalist and researcher based in Delhi, Pamela Philipose, she concluded that the Indian government believes that it can benefit from portraying Hamas as a “representative of Islamic terrorism” and its support for Israel is part of its anti-Islamic political orientation.
A picture published by the Shafi Israel organization of Jews from Bnei Menashe in India performing their rituals in support of the occupation army.
Swain sees great commonalities between Zionism and Hindu nationalism.
“Both ideologies have in common that their goals are expansionist and exclusionary.”
Both movements describe India and Israel as having originally been Hindu and Jewish civilizations, respectively, but having been “polluted” by outsiders, specifically Muslims, and their ambition now is to return them to their former glory as Hindu and Jewish states, respectively.
In this context, the French newspaper Le Monde indicates that some Hindu extremists have expressed their willingness to take up arms alongside the Israelis.
Israel's ambassador to India, Naor Gilon, proudly announced that he was able to form an army of Indian volunteers.
Thus, religion, nationalism, and the “common enemy,” as well as economics and populism, were reasons to shift India’s compass toward a cause that it had long championed.
Source: Al Jazeera