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 stood aside from 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.”
“A country like India which itself is a victim of terrorism, if we understand the fact that we play down and ignore terrorism, it is not in our interest to do so, so we look at any resolution, we look at the words that we take. There is a very mature approach about it and I am of principle. To put it bluntly, we condemn terrorism, we condemn hostage-taking,” he said.
Responding to complements on aid sent to Palestine, Jaishankar said that India has sent humanitarian aid to Palestine through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) with an annual contribution of $5 million. India sent 70 metric tons of aid to Palestine in 2023, of which 16.5 was medicine.
“In October and November 2024, we have delivered about 65 tons of life-saving medicines to UNRWA and the Palestinian Ministry of Health,” the minister’s written statement was tabled in the House.
“In terms of our support and contribution to UNRWA, this is a decision we have taken as a government and we stand by that decision and in fact we have just released a recent tranche through UNRWA,” he added.
“In terms of the two-state solution, we supported the two-state solution. We are public and unequivocal about this. There should be no reason for confusion regarding the two-state solution,” the Union minister said.
On India’s stand on the International Court’s warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and a Hamas leader for war crimes, the minister said, “India is not a member of the International Criminal Court. When the International Criminal Court was formed, the question of our membership was considered. For very good reasons and after much discussion, India decided not to become a member. As regards any decision passed by the ICC, it is not binding on us. ” (with PTI)