The story so far: On October 26, nearly three weeks after the terror strikes by Hamas on Israel, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) voted on a resolution calling for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce” in the hostilities, that was voted for by 120 member countries, while 14 countries voted against it. India was amongst 45 countries that abstained, a vote for which the government has received criticism from the Opposition, with many calling India’s vote a “break from the past”. Israel, that has conducted an incessant bombardment of the Gaza Strip over the past month, where two million civilians are trapped, rejected the UNGA vote, calling it “despicable”.
Why did the government abstain?
Explaining India’s vote this week, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said that India’s vote was consistent with its stand on terrorism, adding that India takes a strong position on it because Indians are “big victims of terrorism”. In particular, government sources said that UNGA resolution (A/ES-10/L.25) lacked an “explicit condemnation” of the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas, in which 1,405 Israelis were killed, and about 240 were taken as hostages by Hamas militants. The UNGA resolution did condemn acts of violence against Palestinian and Israeli civilians “including terrorism”, and also called for the immediate unconditional release of the hostages. However, India had wanted more, voting in favour of an amendment authored by Canada, that would have inserted more specific references, that was not passed by the UNGA.
