Opinion: What India can do to calm Israeli-Palestine tensions

The killing of 17 Palestinians protester last Friday by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has further vitiated the already fragile region.

The Palestinian Authority had called the national mourning day on the next day. The Palestinians were observing the 42nd Land Day since March 30, 1976, when six unarmed Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed by Israeli forces during protests against the Israeli government's decision to expropriate massive tracts of Palestinian owned land.

Dubbed as the 'Great Return March' thousands of Palestinian marched peacefully towards Gaza - Israel border to symbolically reclaim their territory and keep the agenda of their 'Right to Return to their Land' alive on international table.

The Israeli government reacted violently and the IDF killed 17 and wounded hundred of peaceful Palestinians protestors. The Israeli accused them of members of Hamas, whom they called as a terrorist organisation and claimed that as a sovereign nation. Israel has a right to defend itself against any attack including a terrorist attack.

The IDF, in the operation, also blew the Gaza - Egyptian Tunnel, which Palestinians used to buy the daily living products from Egypt in case of the embargo of Gaza by the Israeli authority.

Worst, this time the Israeli government has flatly refused to give the bodies back to the Palestinian families to perform their last rites to the departed souls!

The IDF wants to exchange the dead Palestinian bodies with its two soldiers who are considered to be under the control of Hamas.

Notwithstanding this political posturing what is evident is that since the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel by the United State in last December and US’s repeatedly veto in the security council including over this incident, the Israeli's use of violent methods against Palestinians and disregard for any negotiated settlement for conflict has tremendously increased.

It is true that the Israeli government have historically disregarded any negotiated settlement under any international mediation except the Oslo Treaty (1992), which paves the way for the formation of Palestinian Authority in West Bank and Gaza under the overall political control of the Israeli State.

However, the implementation of Oslo Treaty is replete with repeated violations by the Israeli authority. Seen in this background the current escalation and Israeli disproportionate actions have all implications for creating further unrest in the region and may give fillip to the extremist voice in the region.

The international response to this incident has by and large been muted. Except a few Middle Eastern Arab countries, who condemned the Israeli atrocities, the international community did not react much on this incident.

The Kuwaiti government moved a resolution in the Security Council for an international investigation under UN of this incident which was vetoed by the United States. The hawk Turkish President, Erdogan, called Israel as terrorist state, While Qatar condemned the Israeli actions.

It is intriguing that India preferred not to respond and till date did not issue any statement regarding the current Israeli - Palestine conflict.

The visit of Modi to Palestine has raised the prestige of India among Arab’s eyes and could have been emerged as a potential interlocutor between Israel - Palestinian conflict, more so after the credibility of US as mediator following the US’s declaration of recognition of Jerusalem as Israeli Capital has dipped down.

What factors weigh before government of India to remain a spectator of the events one does know however, given the high stake India has in the Arab world in terms of uninterrupted supply of oil and gas, remittances, investment and trade, a symbolic gesture in favour of Palestinian right to self determination and calling upon Israeli government to restrain its disproportionate military actions against hapless Palestinians will go a long way to cement the relationship with people and government of the Arab World.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the authors and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)