The government of India was one of a small number of “global south” nations absent on a list of signatories to a letter released this week condemning Israel for declaring the head of the United Nations, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, persona non grata.
The Indian newspaper The Hindu reported on Sunday that the letter, circulated by Chile, boasted 104 signatory countries at the time of its publication, asking Israel to reconsider banning Guterres from the country out of respect for the U.N. as an institution. The ban, the letter read, “undermine[s] the United Nations’ ability to carry out its mandate, which includes mediating conflicts and providing humanitarian support.”
“As member states of the United Nations, we call for respect for the UN’s leadership and its mission,” the letter continued. “We reaffirm our full support and confidence in the Secretary General and his work.”
The Hindu observed that some of India’s closest allies, including BRICS partners China and Russia, signed the letter, as well as European states including France and Switzerland. On the list of those abstaining from participating in the letter were America, Israel’s top ally, as well as Japan and South Korea.
The Israeli government announced in early October that it would ban Guterres from the country in response to his lack of condemnation of Iran for a massive missile barrage against Israel. The Israeli Foreign Ministry noted that Guterres did not directly identify Iran as the aggressor.
“Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, as nearly all the countries of the world have done, does not deserve to set foot on Israeli soil,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said at the time.
The action culminated nearly a year of tensions between Guterres, the greater United Nations apparatus, and the nation of Israel following the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The October 7 attacks killed an estimated 1,200 people, resulted in the abduction of dozens, and featured documented atrocities. Hamas is a genocidal jihadist terrorist organization headquartered in Gaza that relies heavily on Iranian financial support; the State Department estimated in 2020 that Iran provides about $100 million a year to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and similar terrorist organizations.
Guterres initially offered statements following the October 7 attack demanding that “all parties… avoid any further escalation.” Before the end of the month, Guterres appeared to be blaming Israel for the attack on its own people.
“It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,” Guterres said in October 2023, failing to condemn Hamas. “The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.”
Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Gilad Erdan condemned Guterres’s remarks as “shocking” and “horrible.”
“His comments… constitute a justification for terrorism and murder,” Erdan decried. “It’s sad that a person with such views is the head of an organization that arose after the Holocaust.”
The head of the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, Yad Vashem, also condemned Guterres at the time for “failing” the “never again” test. Chairman Dani Dayan said:
However, it [October 7] puts to test the sincerity of world leaders, intellectuals and influencers that come to Yad Vashem and pledge “Never Again”. Those who seek to “understand”, look for a justifying context, do not categorically condemn the perpetrators, and do not call for the unconditional and immediate release of the abducted – fail the test.
UN Secretary General António Guterres failed the test.
The Indian government has been much more unequivocal in condemning Hamas and radical Islamic terrorism since the attack, lending clear support to Israel.
“People of India stand firmly with Israel in this difficult hour,” Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a statement shortly after the attack. “India strongly and unequivocally condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.”
RP Singh, a spokesman for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), issued a statement following the attack saying Hamas “has hijacked the Gaza strip and is worse than ISIS. They started it so we can’t say people from both sides have been killed.”
“It is not about supporting Israel or Palestine but condemning the act of terror. It is not a war between two countries,” Singh declared. “The way it has happened and done on the ground, children are killed and put in cages, and hostages have been taken up. Who has died, and who are the sufferers? Israelis.”
Former Israeli ambassador to India Daniel Carmon noted in an interview in June that Israel had supported India in a recent conflict with Pakistan, the 1999 Kargil War, and that New Delhi – while publicly declaring support for the creation of a state of “Palestine” – had maintained a diplomatic friendship with Jerusalem.
“The Indians always remind us that Israel was there for them during the Kargil War,” Carmon told YNet. “Israel was one of the few countries that stood by them and provided them with weapons. The Indians don’t forget this and might now be returning the favor.”
India’s lack of support for jihad prompted Iran’s “supreme leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to declare India an “enemy of Islam” in a statement in September.
“These [statements] are misinformed and unacceptable,” the Indian External Affairs Ministry denounced. “Countries commenting on minorities are advised to look at their own record before making any observations about others.”
The public disagreement was notable because Iran and India are both members of BRICS, the anti-American security and economic partnership named after its core members: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Iran – alongside Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – joined BRICS in January. Saudi Arabia also received an invitation but is not believed to be a full member of the group at press time.
BRICS has, as a collective, repeatedly condemned Israel for taking self-defense actions against Hamas and failed to condemn the terrorists for the October 7 attack.
