When Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman clasped hands with her Israeli counterpart Bezalel Smotrich in New Delhi last week to ink a new bilateral investment pact, the image was meant to project economic dynamism and “strategic partnership.” But the timing and symbolism could not have been worse. As Israel faces charges of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and arrest warrant applications at the International Criminal Court (ICC), India has chosen not neutrality, but open alignment with a state accused of international crimes.
The agreement, hailed by India’s Finance Ministry as a “historic milestone,” promises expanded trade in infrastructure, fintech, and digital payments.
Smotrich—sanctioned by multiple Western countries for his role in inciting settler violence—called it a “strategic step” towards joint prosperity.
Yet outside the negotiating halls, over 66,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, have been killed in Gaza since October 2023.
Entire neighbourhoods have been erased, and starvation has been used deliberately as a weapon of war.
By hosting Smotrich, a man infamous for describing Palestinian villages as deserving “erasure,” the Modi government has not merely ignored Israel’s crimes—it has legitimized them which prompted Opposition leaders to call the deal “despicable” and “shameful,” underscoring that India now stands complicit in genocide.
As war criminal Smotrich and Minister Sitharaman inked the document, a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi stared down at them. Gandhi, writing in Harijan in 1938, was unequivocal: “Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English, or France to the French.” While he expressed sympathy for Jewish suffering under Christian persecution, he insisted that “it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home.” Gandhi’s words, rooted in universal justice, make the Modi government’s embrace of Israel’s genocidal regime all the more shameful.
The ICJ has already declared Israel’s prolonged occupation of Palestinian territories illegal, ordering an end to settlement activity and withdrawal without delay
It further noted in an interim ruling that Israel’s actions in Gaza may amount to genocide, obligating all states to prevent complicity.
Signatories to the Genocide Convention, have not only a duty not to aid Israel, but a positive duty to act to stop its atrocities. Instead, India deepens financial and military ties, becoming Israel’s largest weapons buyer and even supplying rockets during the ongoing assault.
This is more than political expediency; it is a violation of peremptory norms of international law. By bolstering Israel while the ICJ, ICC, and UN condemn its conduct, India risks state responsibility for complicity in genocide.
India has long styled itself as a leader of the Global South, champion of decolonization, and advocate for Palestinian self-determination. Yet under the Hindu nationalist government of Narendra Modi, that legacy has been abandoned.
India abstained on key UN resolutions demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, even as it cracked down on pro-Palestine demonstrations at home while permitting pro-Israel rallies. This posture reflects not merely a double standard but a calculated alignment: reshaping India’s foreign policy to mirror ethno-nationalist regimes while sidelining universal human rights. It is no coincidence that the Modi government, under whose rule accusations abound of deepening repression of India’s own minorities, finds natural kinship with Netanyahu’s apartheid state. At the same time, India voted in favour of a UN resolution reaffirming support for a two-state solution on Friday — a gesture that sits uneasily alongside its material and political embrace of Israel.
Spain, Ireland, and several other countries have moved towards sanctions and recognition of Palestinian statehood in response to Israel’s war. The ICJ and UN have made clear: states must not aid Israel’s unlawful occupation and must cooperate to bring it to an end
History will not remember the trade statistics or the rhetoric of “innovation”. It will remember who stood with the victims of genocide and who signed contracts with the perpetrators. India had an opportunity to honour its founding principles of justice and solidarity with the oppressed. Instead, it has betrayed both the Palestinians and international law.
The bilateral pact is not merely a trade agreement. It is a stain on India’s conscience—a deal signed in the shadow of genocide, and one that future generations will rightly condemn.