- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was awarded the “Knesset Medal.”
- Both agreed to deepen so-called “defence ties,” valued at nearly $10bn in deals.
On Wednesday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was conferred with the “Knesset Medal” for his “contribution to the Israeli and Jewish people.”
India and Israel signed several MoUs during Modi’s visit. These covered artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, agriculture, education, and commerce.
Within hours, Indian media headlines proclaimed that Israel had presented Modi with its highest parliamentary honour. “The committee that selected Prime Minister Modi to be the first recipient of the medal stated that he ‘significantly strengthened ties between India and Israel and deepened strategic cooperation between the countries’,”
“His policy is an expression of a courageous, consistent and sincere friendship with the State of Israel, and of a firm stand by its side even in complex and challenging times,” speaker of the Knesset Amir Ohana said.
According to the Knesset, the medal features Israel’s state emblem, the Knesset building, and the flags in the Knesset plaza. It is also said to feature the biblical verse, “Hast crowned him with glory and honour” (Psalms 8:6), alongside olive branches.
On X, Modi wrote:
“This is a great honor for me to receive the Knesset Medal. I accept it with humility and deep gratitude.
“This is not an award for a single individual, but an expression of the strong and enduring friendship between India and Israel. It reflects the shared values that guide both our nation.”
The Shared Values of India and Israel: Both are Terrorist States with Expansionist goals
During their exchange, Netanyahu and Modi agreed to deepen so-called “defence ties.” between India and Israel.
Some analysts suggest these could amount to nearly $10bn in deals in the coming years
In India, harassment against Muslims, hate speech targeting them, mob violence, lynchings of Muslims and cow vigilantism continue to occur across India.
Yogi Adityanath, a prominent BJP leader known for his strong Hindutva ideology and his advocacy for “bulldozer justice” has drawn attention and criticism, as it involves the forceful demolition of houses belonging to minorities under the pretext of addressing illegal constructions or corruption.
Akhand Bharat envisions an expanded India stretching from Afghanistan to Myanmar involving nations such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. This concept is rooted in the RSS’s Hindutva ideology.
Support for Israel remains incredibly strong in India, particularly among Modi’s base and among business and media elites. However, there have been small pockets of criticism pertaining Modi’s recent visit.
In Kashmir, a legal framework has been created in which ordinary civilians can be arrested, imprisoned, tortured, or killed with minimal oversight or recourse. Human rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have repeatedly documented instances of abuse under these acts. The U.S. State Department’s 1992 Country Report on Human Rights Practices found credible reports of mass rapes and extrajudicial killings by Indian security forces in Kashmir.
Since October 7th 2023, India has offered diplomatic and material support to Israel in its ongoing genocide in Gaza. 72,000 Palestinians have been brutally killed by the Israeli regime. A world affairs specialist from the University of Bradford characterised the onslaught as “equivalent to six Hiroshimas” and “unparalleled in the post-Second World War era”. The alignment of Netanyahu’s government with Trump-era evangelical politics has altered the regional strategic landscape. The language of biblical entitlement is not confined to religious rhetoric; it increasingly overlaps with strategic doctrine for Israeli expansionist goals. On Monday, Yair Lapid expressed his support for expanding the state’s borders to their “biblical” extent “when the security situation allows.” During the press conference, he was also asked about US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee’s comments two Tucker Carlson that the country had a religious right to seize all the land between the Euphrates and Nile rivers, the leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party said he backed a Greater Israel.
Amnesty International has documented indiscriminate attacks, obstruction of aid, and conditions calculated to bring about “slow death” for the civilian population of Gaza, concluding that these actions amount to genocide and grave breaches of international law. The United Nations has reported mass civilian murders from attacks on residential areas and food-collection points, with over 25,500 Palestinians killed and tens of thousands injured in the past year alone, many of them civilians including children and aid workers. Palestinian journalists have been massacred and innocent Palestinian babies have been beheaded.
