Why Congress Is Under Fire for Its Israel War Statement Is Explained
The Congress expressed its “dismay and anguish” over the war and underlined its support of the Palestinian people’s right to “land and self governance”.
New Delhi: Without mentioning the attack on Israel, the Congress has come under fire for supposedly endorsing Hamas and the Palestine cause. In the most recent conflict between Israel and Hamas, more than 3,000 individuals have lost their lives.
Ten facts about the congressional dispute over the Israel-Palestine conflict are as follows:
1. The highest-ranking decision-making body inside the party, the Congress Working Committee, declared its “dismay and anguish” over the war and emphasized its support for the Palestinian people’s right to “land (and) self-government, and to live with dignity and respect”.
2. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which asserted that the Congress was backing Hamas, sharply criticized the comments. The opposition party was accused by the BJP of being a “hostage to minority vote bank politics” and of sponsoring terrorism.
3. “Congress’s CWC resolution on the Israel war is a classic example of how Indian foreign policy was hostage to Congress’s minority vote bank politics, until Modi happened,” Tejasvi Surya, a BJP legislator, said In an apparent jab at Congress in front of the 2020 election, the firebrand MP said, “A reminder of how quickly things will go back to zero if we aren’t vigilant in 2024.”
4. India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has expressed India’s solidarity with Israel and strongly denounced the heinous assaults.
5. According to sources, the Congress statement reveals party divides, and not everyone at the CWC meeting agreed with the section on the Israel-Hamas fighting. Additionally, sources indicated that the statement’s inclusion of that section—which was not included in the original draft—was a major issue of contention.
6. Jairam Ramesh, general secretary of the Congress, stated that his party has long held the view that Israeli national security concerns must be taken into consideration while pursuing the justifiable goals of the Palestinian people through dialogue.
7. The Congress declared on Sunday that violence is never a solution and denounced the attacks on the Israeli people. After Hamas fired 5,000 rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip, a full-scale conflict broke out.
8. The Congress defended themselves by claiming that there are no party divisions about the current Israeli war and that the BJP was attempting to deflect public attention. “These are simply rumors, and there is no animosity. It is unfortunate that many are using the Congress resolution as a political platform. We want Indian citizens to be protected, whether they are in Gaza or Israel. The main focus should be on getting them back,” senior Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi stated.
9. Additionally, Mr. Gogoi stated that BJP leaders had to keep in mind Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Mr. Vajpayee frequently supported the cause of the Palestinian people while serving as the head of the BJP government from 1999 to 2004.
10. The Israeli military announced that it is constructing a base for thousands of soldiers in anticipation of the next round of its retribution, as the total death toll from the conflict surpassed 3,000. Late on Monday, Hamas declared its readiness to execute the captives it had abducted in the event of an Israeli attack.
