India – Israel Bilateral Relationship

What’s in today’s article?

• India’s Attitude Towards Israel After Independence
• Change in India’s Approach Towards Israel
• India-Israel & the Kargil War
• Diplomatic Relationship
• Growing Economic Partnership
• Water & Agriculture
• Defence & Security
• India’s Stand on the ongoing War between Israel & Palestine
• News Summary

India’s Attitude Towards Israel After Independence

• Post-independence, Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi vowed to support the Palestinian cause as they rejected the idea of two nations on the basis of religion.
• While they had sympathy for the Jews, both were of the view that any State based on religious exclusivity could not sustain on moral and political grounds.
• This was in sync with their opposition to the partition of India.
• India’s position with regard to Palestine was also guided by the general consensus in the Arab world, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the United Nations.
• When the partition of Palestine plan was put to vote at the UN in 1947, India voted against, along with the Arab countries.
• When Israel applied for admission to the UN, India again voted against.
• India, however, recognised Israel in 1950, after two Muslim-majority countries, Turkey and Iran, did so.
• In 1953, Israel was allowed to open a consulate in Mumbai, but no diplomatic presence was granted in New Delhi.

Change in India’s Approach Towards Israel

• By the late 1980s, there were critics within India of the country’s Palestine policy and its outright support to the Arab world.
• The Arab countries’ neutral position during the 1962 India-China war and their support to Pakistan during the 1965 and 1971 wars did not go down well with many.
• On the other hand, Israel helped India with arms and ammunition in the 1962 and 1965 wars.
• Meanwhile, the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the weaking of the Non-Alignment Movement reduced India’s ideological hostility towards Israel.
• In 1992, India established full diplomatic relations with Israel.

India-Israel & the Kargil War

• Establishing full diplomatic ties with Israel came in especially handy during India’s Kargil conflict with Pakistan in 1999.
• The Indian Air Force (IAF) desperately needed precision target bombs as Pakistani intruders were hiding in caves and bunkers atop mountains in Kargil.
• Israel helped the IAF with their requirements immediately. Israel used their emergency stockpiles and shipped the weapons to India, which proved to be decisive in the hour of need.

Diplomatic Relationship

• Between 1998 and 2014, the foreign minister’s visits in 2000 and 2001 were the highest-level visits ever made to Israel.
• In 2015, late Pranab Mukherjee became the first Indian President to visit Israel followed by the breakthrough visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2017 and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reciprocal visit in 2018.
• These visits marked a paradigm shift in bilateral ties and a growing strategic partnership expanded from strong military cooperation to one focusing equally on economic development and technology.

Growing Economic Partnership

• Bilateral trade has increased and diversified (to include electronic machinery, nuclear products and medical equipment) from US$900 million in 2000 to US$7.86 billion in 2021.
• Offices of big Indian tech firms like TCS, Infosys, and Wipro have found their way to Israel’s capital Tel Aviv.

Water & Agriculture

• A unique aspect of Indo-Israel ties is their growing collaboration in the areas of water and agriculture since 2017.
• Currently, there are over 30 Israeli projects in India looking at various aspects including water distribution and management, leak detection, wastewater treatment, desalination, and water security.
  • Israel’s has an impressive track record of reusing 90 percent of its wastewater.
• India is the only country where Israel has stationed a water resources specialist as the Water Attaché at its embassy in Delhi who spearheads Israel’s participation across four pillars—agriculture, industry, nature, and urban consumption.
• With respect to agriculture, the Indo-Israeli Agricultural Project (IIAP) operates 29 Centres of Excellence (CoEs) across 21 states in India.
• Their main focus areas include vertical farming, soil solarisation, and increased productivity.

Defence & Security

• India is one of the largest importers of weapons from Israel, contributing to about 40 percent of its annual arms exports.
• Their defence partnership also extends to sharing of crucial technologies by Israel for missiles, electronic warfare systems, radar systems, navigation systems, and weapon control systems designed and produced by DRDO.
• State-of-the-art arms systems such as Barak 8 surface-to-air missiles, Skystriker drones, and Travor Assault Rifles are some of the products of the co-production and development initiative undertaken by the two countries.
• In 2020, Israel’s National Cyber Directorate (INCD) and Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT- In) signed an MoU to exchange information on cyber threats and build a framework to enhance capacity-building initiatives.

India’s Stand on the Ongoing War between Israel & Palestine

• When Hamas, a terrorist-organisation based in Palestine, targeted civilians in Israel, Prime Minister Modi said that India stands in solidarity with Israel in this difficult hour and it strongly and unequivocally condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.
• Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Prime Minister Narendra Modi and provided him an update about the ongoing situation.
• Diplomatic Challenge for India is Likely to Face:
  • For India, the diplomatic challenge is to come up with a statement at a time when cracks are visible in the Arab world, for the first time, over the Hamas attacks on Israel, especially the killing of civilians.
  • The Ministry of External Affairs is yet to release an official statement on India’s stand on the ongoing war.
  • At least three diplomats from the Arab countries, including an ambassador, said they were expecting a more balanced and nuanced statement from the MEA.
  • In West Asia, India has deep strategic ties with Israel on the one hand, and Saudi, UAE, Qatar, Iran and Egypt – to name a few – on the other hand.
  • So, it has to strike a balance between the two sides in the deeply divided and polarised West Asia region.

News Summary

• With the ongoing war between Israel and Palestine, there is concern in India about its expatriate population in Israel.
• An estimated 18,000-odd Indians are employed in Israel, and the vast majority of them, perhaps up to 14,000 individuals, are caregivers to the elderly.
• Reason Behind Presence of Indian Caregivers in Israel:
  • As Western countries age, nursing offers career opportunities for Indians around the world.
  • What makes the job of a caregiver in Israel especially attractive is the pay and other benefits, some of which are not available in other countries.
  • A caregiver in Israel has a take-home salary of at least Rs 1.25 lakh a month. Food, accommodation, and health care expenses of the caregivers are free.
  • Also, most caregivers in Israel are required to look after only a single person, whereas their counterparts in other countries have a rather heavy workload.
  • Hence, the number of healthcare workers wanting to travel to Israel as caregivers is high.

Q1) Where is the Gaza Strip located?

The Gaza Strip, or simply Gaza, is a Palestinian exclave on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The smaller of the two Palestinian territories, it borders Egypt on the southwest for 11 km and Israel on the east and north along a 51 km border.

Q2) What is the Barak 8 Missile?

Israel Aerospace Industries describe Barak 8 as "an advanced, long-range missile defense and air defense system" with its main features being: Long Range.

Source: Why is Israel an attractive destination for Indian caregivers? | IE