INDIA – ISRAEL FACT SHEET
(Source Wikipedia)
India did not subscribe to the Partitioning of Palestine plan of 1947 and voted against Israel’s admission in the United Nations in 1949.
Mahatma Gandhi opposed the creation of Israel as he was against the creation of countries based on religion.
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, ideologue of Hindutva, supported the creation of Israel and condemned India’s vote at the UN against Israel.
India recognized Israel as a nation in 1950.
Jayaprakash Narayan meets David Ben-Gurion, 1958.
India established official relations with Israel in 1992 during the Prime Ministership of Narasimha Rao.
Sushma Swaraj (now the Minister for foreign affairs), while in opposition in the previous government of Dr. Manmohan Singh called Israel as a reliable partner.
India is the largest customer of Israeli military equipment and Israel is the second-largest military partner of India after Russia. As of 2009, the military business between the two nations is worth around US$9 billion.
Israeli leader Ariel Sharon visits India in September 2003 and was welcomed by Vajpayee government.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) condemned the protest against Sharon. RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav demanded that Indian government deal with Islamic terrorism in the same manner as Israel.
In early 2006 Indian government ministers Sharad Pawar, Kapil Sibal and Kamal Nath visited Israel. Narendra Modi has also visited Israel.
In December 2009, Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, made a historic state visit to India to cement the defence ties between the two countries. He pledged every help to India in fighting terrorism.
In 1999-2000, Israel and India were involved in 22 joint research projects. Scientists from both countries visited the laboratories of their collaborators and short term exchange visits were organised.
In 2004, the Ministry of Science and Technology in India signed an MoU with Israel for jointly funding industrial R&D projects.
In 2008, Israel and India finalised a three-year plan to introduce crops such as olives, dates and grapes in Rajasthan and Maharashtra, to create an agricultural market that meets Western demand.
In March 2009, India launched the RISAT-2 satellite which is based on the technology employed in Israel’s TecSAR. The satellite has the capability to take high resolution images at night and can carry out reconnaissance operations even through a dense cloud cover. Most Indian satellites currently in operation lack these capabilities. The decision to purchase the satellite was taken in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
The center of Excellence for vegetables An Indo Israel project, Gharunda Karnal (Haryana) is the Ist project running successfully. Now this project will become the cluster Head for nine other states including Gujarat. This COE was inaugurated on Jan 17th 2011.
A multi-national study conducted by an international market research company, found India to be the most pro-Israeli nation.
In September 2011, Stas Misezhnikov, Tourism Minister of Israel and Union Tourism Minister, Shri Subodh Kant Sahai, met in Delhi and decided to collaborate in the sphere of destination management and promotion, as well as manpower development. Also discussed were an exchange program for teachers and students, and the exchange of information on teaching modules. Forty thousand Indians visited Israel in 2011, double the number of visitors in 2009.
The world’s first Jewish-Hindu interfaith leadership summit, spearheaded by Hindu organisations in India and Jewish organisations in Israel, as well as the American Jewish Committee, was held in New Delhi on February 2007. Second Hindu-Jewish summit took place in Jerusalem in February 2008.
In June 2009, another Hindu-Jewish interfaith meet was held in New York and Washington. The International Hindu-Jewish Leadership Dialogue was hosted by the American Jewish Committee, the Hindu American Foundation, and the Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha and was sponsored by the World Council of Religious Leaders. It began with a lunch and presentations amid saffron-robed swamis, dark-suited rabbis, and Hindu lay leaders wearing lapel pins combining the Israeli, Indian, and American flags.
The Bnei Menashe (“Children of Menasseh”) are a group of more than 8,000 people from India’s remote North-Eastern border states of Manipur and Mizoram who claim descent from one of the Lost Tribes of Israel. It is believed that the Assyrian Empire exiled the tribe of Manassah almost 3,000 years ago. Although they settled in Northeast India, tribe members kept their Jewish roots for more than 2,000 years. On March 31, 2005 Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar, one of Israel’s two chief rabbis, accepted the Bnei Menashe’s claim because of their exemplary devotion to Judaism. His decision was significant because it paved the way for all of the Bnei Menashe to enter Israel under Israel’s Law of Return. In the past two decades, some 1,300 Bnei Menashe have moved to Israel. Indian Jews including the Bnei Menashe have never suffered anti-Semitism in India, but they regard Israel as their homeland and decided to emigrate “on Zionist considerations.”
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