Countries have the right to respond to situations but they must pay attention to civilian casualties and they must follow humanitarian laws, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said during question time in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
The minister said it sided with some UN resolutions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because “they were not well-drafted, balanced and did not refer to terrorism or hostage-taking”.
The minister also said that India supports the two-state solution. On India’s stand on the International Court of Justice warrant for war crimes against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the minister said “any decision passed by the ICC is not binding on us” as India is not a member of it.
Jaishankar was replying to questions and complements raised by CPI’s PP Sunir, DMK’s Tiruchi Siva and TMC’s Saket Gokhale on India’s position on the Palestine issue.
“We believe that countries have the right to react to situations, but countries must pay attention to civilian casualties, they must abide by humanitarian law and we want a ceasefire and an early end to violence,” Jaishankar said. Gokhale sought to know why India abstained from the UN resolution against illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and what was India’s position on it. Shiva asked why India boycotted the October 27, 2023 UN resolution on protection of civilians and compliance with legal and humanitarian obligations.
Jaishankar said resolutions have impact and their words matter. “For example, the resolution on (humanitarian obligations) had no reference to terrorism, there was no reference to hostage-taking, so in our mind, a resolution that does not reflect the entirety of the resolution is not a balanced resolution.”
On aid sent, Jaishankar said India has sent humanitarian aid worth $5 million annually to Palestine through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). India sent 70 metric tons of aid to Palestine in 2023, of which 16.5 was medicine.