Modi govt’s atypical policy on Palestine

KP Nayar

Strategic Analyst

One of the big surprises of Narendra Modi’s foreign policy has been the Prime Minister’s steadfast support for Palestine. When Sunil Kumar, India’s Representative to the State of Palestine, handed over a cheque for $1 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), four days after the death of Saeb Erekat, it proclaimed louder than words that India’s relationship with Israel is not a zero sum game.

Erekat, one of the most recognisable faces around the world, representing the Palestinian leadership for almost 25 years, died from Covid-19-related complications earlier this month. The death of the long-time Chief Palestinian Negotiator is yet another instance of the Palestinian leadership withering away. It would be an understatement, therefore, to say that India’s contribution to the UNRWA is timely and fulfils a crying need. The money will be earmarked specifically for education, healthcare and social services for Palestinian refugees.

Modi has changed the way India assists Palestine. The emphasis is no longer on just disbursing assistance. Now, the focus is as much on monitoring projects, as making sure they are being implemented and are carried out well. The PM has also changed the way India engages Palestine. He is the first Prime Minister to visit Palestine. His government initiated the first presidential visit to Palestine in 2015.

Once, there was little accountability for the way the assistance given by New Delhi benefited the Palestinians who needed help the most. At one point, Palestine was among the biggest recipients of scholarships for its students to study in India. Over the years, at least 12,000 Palestinian students have graduated from Indian universities through such scholarships.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) used to receive feedback that these scholarships were corruptly given to the highest bidder or that New Delhi’s offers to admit students through such schemes to medical colleges in India were cornered by the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) for their family or relatives. The few times when the MEA informally tried to voice its concerns, the PLO leadership bristled in self-righteous indignation.

Systems are weak, if not non-existent, in Palestine. Opportunities are few, and they tend to be cornered by those who have the power to take decisions or influence them. Circumstances are ripe for dispensing patronage and tailor-made for corruption.

It is not that nothing worked. When TS Tirumurti was India’s Representative to the State of Palestine, he ensured that the Jawaharlal Nehru Library at the Al Azhar University in Gaza City was built, furnished and stocked suitably with books, according to New Delhi’s plans. There were no creases. But that was not always the case.

The PM surprised everyone, even carping critics of his foreign policy, when he quadrupled India’s contribution to the UNRWA to $5 million a year, starting with 2018. It flew in the face of an assumption that the BJP-led government was firmly in the Israeli orbit to the exclusion of Palestine.

For many years, New Delhi’s annual contribution for Palestinian refugee relief was $1 million. In December 2016, MJ Akbar, then Minister of State for External Affairs, travelled to Palestine with a cheque for the UNRWA that enhanced India’s contribution by 25 per cent. He established the first ever joint commission between the two sides.

When Donald Trump became the US President, Washington’s generous funding for refugee relief in Palestine through the United Nations was cut. Israel had long accused the UNRWA of improprieties and successfully lobbied in Ottawa during Stephen Harper’s time as PM to cut Canada’s contribution to the UN agency for Palestine refugees, which had done commendable humanitarian work for 71 years.

India’s decision to quadruple refugee assistance to Palestine was also surprising because it ran counter to the decisions of the US and Canada. Here again, the presumption was that since Trump shared a good personal chemistry with Modi, the two men would work in tandem, especially on an issue where Israel had concerns.

The decision to break with the US on this matter represented an assertion of the Indian government’s strategic independence on an important issue. In addition to financing the UNRWA, India has been providing direct development assistance to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), currently to the tune of $72 million.

Four projects are now under way. The most beneficial of these will be for Palestinian children — a scheme to renovate schools. India is building a new hospital and an information technology centre. The MEA is also helping the PNA to set up an institute to train its diplomats.

Four weeks ago, the international community formally recognised India’s role in Palestine as a catalyst for development and in mitigating the sufferings of Israeli occupation. The UN’s Special Political and Decolonization Committee adopted a nine-country sponsored resolution “to invite India…to become a member of the Advisory Commission of the UNRWA.” The General Assembly will give its nod to this resolution in its ongoing session.

The commission has 28 members, including the US, France, Germany and Australia. With the United Arab Emirates assuming the commission’s chair five months ago, India is gearing up to play a more prominent role, especially in education and health services in refugee locations.

India guaranteed that its diplomatic presence in Gaza — and later in Ramallah — made deep inroads by choosing the right people for the post there, solid Arabists who also volunteered to work under harsh conditions that are the lingering consequences of prolonged Arab-Israeli conflicts. Tirumurti, who opened the Indian representation 24 years ago, was followed by two others whose understanding of the region’s history and sensitivities is deep: P Harish and B Balabhaskar.

Their personal rapport with Yasser Arafat reverberated through Arab chanceries during the years when Palestine was in the forefront of the global agenda. Erekat once admitted that one of the biggest challenges in his social role as Chief Palestinian Negotiator was to prepare a pure vegetarian meal for Tirumurti whenever he drove four hours from Gaza to his home in Jericho.

A big challenge for India will be to find new interlocutors in Palestine as the dwindling band of aging leaders is replaced by a generation of unknown leanings and convictions.

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