INDIA PALESTINE SOLIDARITY FORUM CONDEMNS THE SIGNING OF THE ‘INVESTMENT DEAL’ BETWEEN INDIA AND ISRAEL IN PALESTINE
India Palestine Solidarity Forum
India Palestine Solidarity Forum (IPSFP) categorically condemns the signing of the ‘Investment Deal’ between India & Israel by the BJP-led government, even as the Netanyahu Zionist apartheid occupation regime continues to commit a Genocide and War Crimes in Gaza and faces global outrage and isolation.
By inviting the religious far-right Bezalel Smotrich, a racist, genocidal fanatic, India further betrays its anti-colonial traditions and harms its image. This will further deepen its isolation in the international community.
It is indeed shocking to note, that even as the entire world, the overwhelming majority of the nations stand in condemnation of the ongoing genocide in Gaza being committed by Israel, the BJP-led government signs an investment agreement, wherein the most far-right and Jewish extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich met his Indian counterpart Nirmala Sitaraman to sign this deal.
This is another manifestation of the long-term harm to India being caused by a narrow sectarian short-term vision that clouds our foreign policy, which itself has left us without any true friends in the international realm.
Bezalel Smotrich is an extremely fanatical far-right political leader and is one of the key factors, apart from PM Netanyahu (himself a war criminal with an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court), for the failure of any political solution to bring an end to this genocidal war & colonial occupation.
Smotrich is currently facing sanctions and is unwelcome in UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand & Norway, leave alone the fact that the overwhelming majority of leaders of the nations of the Global South, the Global Majority, wouldn’t want to be seen with him either. This is for the simple reason that Bezalel Smotrich is on record making the most vile, racist statements, openly advocating and calling for the genocide & ethnic cleansing of the Gazan population.
The following are some of the statements as below, due to which Smotrich is a much-hated figure – as Hitler.
Advocated the weaponisation of starvation of the entire population:“Nobody will let us cause 2 million civilians to die of hunger, even though it might be justified and moral, until our hostages are returned.” (Times of Israel, 5 August 2024)
Advocated Genocide by the total destruction of Gaza: “There are no half measures, Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat – total annihilation.” Haaretz itself described it as “a call to genocide.” (Wikipedia, 29 April 2024).
Called for total ethnic cleansing and the forced removal of the Gazan population: “Gaza will be totally destroyed; they will leave in great numbers to third countries.” (The Guardian, 6 May 2025)
On West Bank Annexation: “Maximum territory and minimum (Palestinian) population.” (Reuters, 3 September 2025)
The very denial of a Palestinian people, which proves beyond doubt his racist colonial mindset: “There is no Palestinian history or culture and there is no such thing as a Palestinian people.” (Reuters, 20 March, 2023)
Therefore, Western governments said that Smotrich “incited extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights” and moved to sanction him. (Joint sanctions announcement, 10 June 2025). The Dutch government imposed a travel ban as Smotrich “repeatedly incited violence” and “called for ethnic cleansing.” (Reuters, 29 July 2025).
On the matter of Israel committing a genocide in Gaza, the Amnesty International (December 2024, 296-page report), B’Tselem & Physicians for Human Rights Israel (July 2025) and Human Rights Watch (184-page report, December 2024) all arrived at the same conclusion.
Jewish Holocaust scholars & historians have affirmed the same & have made the following statements:
Amos Goldberg: “What is happening in Gaza is a genocide because Gaza does not exist anymore. The level and pace of indiscriminate killing, destruction of houses, mass displacement, deliberate famine, create an overall picture of genocide”. (Haaretz, January 2025)
Daniel Blatman: “I never imagined in my worst nightmares that the Jewish state would bomb starving children to death.” (Wikipedia, May 2025)
Omer Bartov: Wrote an article titled, “I’m a Genocide Scholar, I Know It, When I see It”. (New York Times, 15 July 2025)
India’s continued alliance with Israel, even as it stands condemned for Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing by the leading human rights organisations, is itself a matter of grave national concern. India’s growing strategic and corporate alliance with Israel, an increasingly universally reviled and isolated entity, bodes ill for India’s international standing in the comity of nations. Moreover, it’s a total betrayal of our historic support for the Palestinian cause, a betrayal of all the values that our country stands for, and a betrayal of the legacy of our freedom struggle.
https://countercurrents.org/2025/09/india-palestine-solidarity-forum-condemns-the-signing-of-the-investment-deal-between-india-and-israel/ has the names o the signatories