Payback Time

Mohammad Asif Khan

Indian defence companies, such as Adani-Elbit Advanced Systems India Ltd and the state-owned Munitions India Ltd (MIL) have supplied drones like the Hermes 900 and other arms and ammunition to Israel to be used in the ongoing war in Gaza as reported by Al Jazeera.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu

The ongoing onslaught in Gaza has left 37,718 dead, including more than 15,000 children. Over 86,377 people have been injured, and more than 10,000 are reported missing. The conflict has also caused widespread destruction of infrastructure, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the region.

Weapon supplies from India come at a time when Israel’s main weapons suppliers, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, are facing a backlash for supplying arms to Israel. The United Nations (UN) has been vocal in its criticism of arms transfers to Israel. UN experts have repeatedly called for an immediate halt to the transfer of weapons and ammunition to Israel, citing concerns about human rights violations and international humanitarian laws. They specifically highlighted the risk of state complicity in international crimes, including genocide

The US recently paused a shipment of weapons to Israel, including 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs, due to concerns about their potential use in densely populated areas.

The Spanish newspaper El Pais recently reported that Spain denied docking permission to a Danish-flagged merchant vessel named Marianne Danica, which was carrying nearly 27 tonnes of explosive materials from India to Israel. The ship had departed from Chennai and was en route to Haifa in Israel. Ships are opting for a longer route via the Cape of Good Hope in Africa because vessels passing through Bab el Mandeb in the Red Sea are frequently being targeted by Yemen-based Houthis. Houthis have declared that they will attack all cargo meant for Israel. The explosives were dispatched by the Indian company Siddharta Logistics Co and was intended for Israel Cargo Logistics (ICL).

This support by India is being reciprocated by Israel too. While it has postponed exports worth over USD 1.5 billion to other countries due to the ongoing conflict in Gaza and tensions with Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon, its exports of military hardware to India continued uninterrupted as reported by Al-Monitor.

In an interview with FORCE, political commentator and professor of Hindi at the University of Delhi, Apoorvanand said that India’s arms supply to Israel highlight Indian complicity in enabling the current Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip. “Indian companies are enabling the genocide by providing drones and other armaments; this highlights India’s hypocritical stance on the Palestine issue,” he says.

India has emerged as a key buyer and co-producer of Israeli weapons. In the past, the two countries have engaged in joint military exercises and facilitated police and army training programs and exchange visits. However, this close collaboration is relatively recent. Before 1992, India did not maintain diplomatic relations with Israel, but there were covert interactions and arms trade between the countries.

Clandestine Ties

The arms trade between India and Israel dates back to the Sixties and remained confidential for a long time. This was primarily because Indian governments did not want to be seen as aligning with Israel due to its political ideology and its relationships with the Arab states. India was part of the Non-Aligned Movement and had a close relationship with the Soviet bloc and the Arab world, while Israel was an ally of the United States and Nato.

As a former colony that suffered greatly under British rule, India was seen as a leader of anti-colonialism and a champion of the Palestinian cause. It supported decolonisation movements across Asia and Africa. Leaders like Nehru and Gandhi pledged support for the Palestinian cause and opposed partition, having already seen the horrors of partition in India.

Despite these factors, Israel provided India with small arms and ammu