NEW DELHI, July 21:
Asserting that India’s policy on Palestine issue remains unchanged, Government today refused to take sides over the Gaza conflict as it said Israel and Palestine should have peace talks and forestalled a resolution in Rajya Sabha which was demanded by the Opposition.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said the House should not be divided but send out a joint message that wherever there is violence, it is condemnable and both Israel and Palestine should accept Egypt’s offer of peace talks.
She was replying to a short-duration debate on Gaza situation during which Opposition condemned the violence in Gaza, pressed for adoption of a resolution, demanded suspension of all military purchases from Israel and wanted India to raise the issue at the UN.
Rejecting Opposition demand for a resolution, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien said the Rule 176 under which the discussion took place does not provide for a resolution or motion of any kind. Besides, he pointed out that the Government was not agreeable to a resolution or motion of any kind and there was no consensus, because of which he could do nothing.
Almost the entire Opposition, which had stalled the House last week by pressing for a discussion on the issue, was unhappy as none of the demands were met and staged a walkout. BJD, however, did not join them.
Earlier, responding point-by-point to the issues raised by the Opposition members during the debate, Swaraj asserted that the country’s policy on Palestine remains unchanged and attacked the Opposition for casting aspersions on the Modi Government.
“There is absolutely no change in India’s policy towards Palestine, which is that we fully support the Palestinian cause while maintaining good relations with Israel,” the Minister said and emphasised that this policy has been in vogue through various Governments including those of Congress, BJP and Coalition Governments headed by Deve Gowda and I K Gujral.
She also rejected the demand by some Opposition parties that India should stop purchase of military equipment from Israel.
The External Affairs Minister rejected the contention of Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad that India had been late in reacting to the Gaza violence as the debate was not allowed to take place last week.
She said while the debate had been listed in the House on July 16, India had already given its reaction on the matter a day earlier in the joint statement of BRICS attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Brazilian city of Fortaleza.
While specifying India’s policy on Palestine issue, Swaraj recited the poems of renowned lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi.
Noting that relations with Israel had improved over the last few years while India maintained strong support to the Palestine cause, the External Affairs Minister said “There is no change in this policy in Narendra Modi’s Government nor during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s time. NDA was for 5 years while Congress for 10 years. Even the Coalition Governments followed the same policy.”
Taking the attack to the Congress camp, Swaraj said India had established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992 during the P V Narasimha Rao Government.
While deftly opposing any resolution as demanded by the opposition, she said “You are asking for a resolution. But does the rule under which the discussion is taking place provide for any resolution? It does not provide for any resolution, motion or voting.”
To justify her contention, she cited a ruling by Chairman Hamid Ansari. Kurien also went by her contention.
“So what should be done? There should be one joint message that wherever there is violence, it should be condemned. We should tell both the nations — Israel and Palestine — to accept Egypt’s offer of talks. The same message should go from this House, the Government and the entire nation,” the Minister said.
Taking on CPI-M’s Sitaram Yechury for demanding suspension of arms purchase from Israel, the External Affairs Minister questioned why his party, which was supporting the UPA-1, had not made such a demand in 2008 when 1400 Palestinians were killed in a similar scale of violence.
“Two such similar incidents of violence had taken place in 2008 and 2012. You had supported the Government from outside but you never asked them to stop the purchase of arms. …Why did you change your stand with the change in the Government?” she said.
On this, Yechury said “We had given this suggestion, but it was not accepted. At least you accept it.”
While narrating the sequence of events concerning the Gaza violence, Swaraj said peace would have been restored by now had Hamas accepted the ceasefire proposal of Egypt.
An effort to form a unity Government by Palestine also failed as Israel refused to recognise a Government supported by Hamas even though from outside, leading to breakdown of the peace talks, she added.
Subsequently, three Israeli youths were kidnapped and killed, she said, adding while Israel is blaming Hamas for it, the latter has denied this.
Israel-Palestine dispute has remained an unresolved issue for long and several countries had over the years tried to bring peace in this region starting with the Oslo agreement in 1993, the Minister said.
Swaraj said a ceasefire proposal brokered by Egypt following escalation of violence was rejected by Hamas though Israel had accepted it.
“The ceasefire proposal is still alive …If the military wing of Hamas would have agreed to this easefire,then peace would have prevailed by now,” she said.
Responding to Congress leader Ananda Sharma’s insistance that the PM is obliged to make a statement, Swaraj questioned that how many times Manmohan Singh had made a statement during BRICS summits.
“Not a single time a statement has come from (previous) PM during the BRICS summit,” she said.
Swaraj said India gives USD 20 million as budgetary support to Palestine. This includes USD one million to United Nations Review for Works to support the Palestine refugees.
Rejecting the Opposition’s allegations that the Modi Government was lukewarm on Gaza because it involved Muslims, Swaraj said “We do not discriminate on the basis of religion”.
To support her statement, she said the Government had early this month rescued 40 Indians, who had already completed their prison term in Saudi Arabia, and all of them were Muslims.
“On July 2, I spoke to the Ambassador and he completed all formalities and on July 17th night… They were boarded on a flight to India. I did not see which religion they were from, they were all Indians.” she added.
She also said the Government rescued nurses from Iraq, most of them were from Christian community from Kerala.
“Till today, there are 39 Sikhs under captivity in Iraq. They are all from Punjab. We are working day and night to rescue them,” Swaraj said.
Earlier, strongly condemning the Israeli strikes on Gaza and calling for an end to massacres in Palestine, the Congress today called on the Government to bring a resolution condemning Israeli attack on Palestine.
Initiating a Short Duration discussion on the unprecedented spurt in violence in Gaza and West bank area of Palestine, causing death of scores of civilians in the Rajya Sabha , Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said, ”The House should condemn Israeli strikes on Palestine. The massacre of the Palestinians should end. ”I call on the Government to rise to the occasion and pass a resolution condemning the strikes.” Blaming the Government for a delay in the discussion on the issue in the House, Mr Azad said, ”If we had discussed the issue six days ago, we would have joined the list of nations condemning the attack.
”Today, India is considered a big nation and an emerging economic superpower in the world. But we are mute spectators to the strikes. It took us seven days to decide if we should debate the issue.”
Terming it as an ‘unequal war’ between a military giant like Israel and a small country Palestine, Mr Azad said, ”If the attacks by Israel on Palestine are not stopped, there will be a question mark on the existence of Gaza itself.” He said before 1947, the Palestinians and Arabs had almost 95-98 per cent of the land in the area while Israel had two to five per cent.
”However, today, as the situation stands, Israel has 92 to 98 per cent while Palestinians have 2 to eight per cent,” he said. He said according to information from the UN agencies and international news agencies, including Al Jazeera, the number of Palestinians who have died in the strikes is around 450. Almost 60,000 have been uprooted and 3,500 Palestinians, including women and children, have been injured.
He said the civilian causalities were about 80 per cent. ”Till today, 1,800 houses have been destroyed in the air strikes while several lakh Palestinians have taken refuge in UN shelters. In contrast, just 18 Israelis have died in the violence. This clearly shows that it is a one sided war,” Mr Azad said.
Mr Azad said National leaders, starting from Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi to India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Atal Behari Vajpayee had supported the cause of the Palestinians. “Former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, on an official visit to Syria during the NDA rule at the Centre, had said, ‘We fully support the Palestinian cause’. During the same visit, the then External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha had told the media that Mr Vajpayee had, in his meeting with Syrian leaders, said India was totally with the Palestinian cause,” Mr Azad said.
The Congress member said India’s interests were associated with West Asia as “almost half of the global earnings by way of remittances come from Indians in West Asia.” These remittances helped in a big way towards the growth of the Indian economy.
He said since the Prime Minister is a signatory to a BRIC’s resolution condeming the strikes, what was the problem in bring a resolution in the House. (Agencies)
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