Authors: BDS India, People’s Dispatch and Newsclick.in
Organization/Publisher: Peoples Dispatch
Date/Place: January 2020/India
Type of Literature: Report
Number of Pages: 23
Keywords: India, Israel, Military Cooperation, BDS, Security
Brief:
Although India and Israel formally established diplomatic relations in 1992, their bilateral cooperation dates back for decades and is evident from Israel’s support to India during India’s war with Pakistan in 1971. After 1992, India has maintained closer military and security cooperation with Israel, which has increased and expanded into political components after right-wing Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi became prime minister of India in 2014. Citing defense and other data, this report by BDS India, Peoples Dispatch, and its media wing NewsClick traces the bolstering of India-Israel relations. The report identifies a boost in bilateral relations after Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party assumed power in the country, as India now procures almost 50% of Israel’s defense-industry exports. Post 2014, relations have also expanded to include civilian technological innovations, internal security, joint military exercises, and other areas of trade. The defense sales to New Delhi by Tel Aviv are nearly USD $1 billion post 2014. The report details Israeli armed forces training Indian police for crowd control, who are later deployed in Indian-occupied Kashmir and inside Indian provinces. There is high-level police training cooperation between the two countries where Indian police personnel are trained in Israeli tactics of controlling and surveilling Palestinians. The report exposes that the majority of arms imported from Israel are designed for crowd management, surveillance, and counter-insurgency. Since 2010 when Kashmiris protested against Indian occupation, New Delhi has bought and used shot guns; India committed the world’s first mass blinding in Kashmir as a result of the indiscriminate use of small pellet fire against civilian populations. The pellet guns were first used by Israel against Palestinians in the late 1980s but stopped after mass outcry. India has now bought the dumped pellets to control Kashmiris – 17 of whom have been killed, hundreds have been blinded, and thousands injured by the pellets. Along with Israel’s use of terror as state policy, Tel Aviv has gone further and helped India develop tools for deep state surveillance.
By: Riyaz Ul Khaliq, CIGA Nonresident Research Associate
