In an extraordinary development this week, Palestine’s Foreign Minister Riad Malki has written to his Indian counterpart, S Jaishankar, decrying India’s abstention from the latest United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution on the Palestinian issue as an act that “stifles” human rights.
Using terms seen as “unusually strong”, Malki declared that the “Republic of India missed an opportunity to join the international community at this turning point, both crucial and long overdue, on the path to accountability, justice and peace.” Those are tough words to use for a long-standing ally and patron of the Palestinian cause.
The resolution, Malki pointed out, was the product of “extensive multilateral consultations” and India’s “abstention stifles the important work of… advancing human rights for all peoples, including those of the Palestinian people.”
The UNHRC resolution was adopted with 24 votes to 9 against, with 14, including India, abstaining. Its passage sets up an independent commission of inquiry to investigate violation of international law by Israel. As with previous such commissions, Israel will not co-operate in its work.
Still, the episode confirms a perceptible shift in the Indian position that many had noticed between the Indian intervention in the UN Security Council on 16 May and our statement in the UN General Assembly on 20 May.