“You are a brother,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi when both leaders addressed the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, as Al Jazeera reported. Against the backdrop of a grinding regional conflict that has killed at least 74,000 Palestinians, including at least 21,000 children over three years, India under Modi has accelerated a dramatic pivot toward Jerusalem that breaks decades of traditional foreign policy.
Trade Delegations and Diplomatic Shifts Amid International Isolation
While nations such as Norway, Canada, France, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom moved to block entry of extreme-right Israeli officials over calls for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza and the annexation of the occupied West Bank, New Delhi rolled out the red carpet. In September 2025, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich—facing impending European Union sanctions—was welcomed in India with garlands.
This visible embrace stands in sharp contrast to India’s historical posture. For decades following its own anti-colonial struggle, New Delhi stood as one of the world’s staunch supporters of Palestinian statehood.
Yet, the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) transformed a pragmatic, largely covert security relationship into an open, publicly celebrated strategic partnership. That evolution culminated in February 2026, when Modi visited Israel just days before the launch of the Iran War.
India Becomes Largest Customer of Israeli Military Hardware
Military and intelligence ties anchor this deepening bilateral bond. According to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), India received 29 percent of Israeli major arms exports between 2021 and 2025, making it Israel’s largest customer of military hardware. New Delhi acquired systems such as Heron surveillance drones, Phalcon airborne early-warning systems, and SPICE precision-guided weapons.
Rasheed Kidwai told Al Jazeera that the framing of Israel as a state under siege from Islamist extremism helps reinforce domestic political narratives.
The Battle Over Historical Memory and Global Standing
This shifting foreign policy has triggered intense diplomatic friction. The Palestinian Authority’s mission in New Delhi delivered a five-page official letter to the Indian government in June, expressing deep concern over what it described as Israeli attempts to rewrite, distort and politicize the historical record of Palestine. The diplomatic spat targeted the annual commemoration of “Haifa Day”—celebrating Indian soldiers who captured Haifa from the Ottomans—which Modi’s administration has transformed into a source of national pride and a central element of India’s “soft power”.
The Palestinian ambassador to India, Abdullah Mohammad Abu Shawesh, voiced frustration over New Delhi’s silence regarding civilian casualties in Gaza. In an interview with The Federal, Shawesh remarked that while nations were quick to condemn the October 7, 2023, attacks led by Hamas, they remained largely silent as tens of thousands of Palestinians perished. “Our main and legitimate concern is that countries condemned October 7, but then remained silent as 73,000 people were killed in Gaza,” Shawesh told The Federal.
Despite growing international isolation facing Netanyahu’s government, New Delhi has avoided concrete punitive measures, issuing only nominal verbal support for the two-state solution.
