Why India-Israel Relations Took Until 1992

1947–1953: A vote against partition, then recognition and a consulate

On 29 November 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 181 on the future government of Palestine by 33 votes to 13, with 10 abstentions. India was among the 13 states that voted against. [1] Indian nationalists had identified with the Arabs of Palestine since the early 1920s, and in 1947 India opposed partition and put forward a federal Palestine as its alternative. [2] Israel declared independence in May 1948 and joined the United Nations in 1949. India announced its recognition of Israel on 17 September 1950. The Jewish Agency then opened an immigration office in Bombay, which became a trade office and later a consulate. [3] Israel dates its consulate in Mumbai to 1953. [4] The Bombay office served a practical need. The main waves of Jewish emigration from India to Israel took place in the 1950s and 1960s. Most emigrants were Bene Israel from Maharashtra, with smaller numbers of Cochin Jews from Kerala and Baghdadi Jews from Kolkata. Israel today has more than 100,000 citizens of Indian origin. [3] The Israeli government states that Jews in India were never persecuted. [4] Recognition, however, stopped at the consulate. No embassy opened in either capital for another four decades. **1950–1977: Recognition without relations, and quiet help From 1950 onward, New Delhi kept Israel at a formal distance. Governments led by the Congress party weighed ties with Arab states, India's role in the Non-Aligned Movement, and the views of India's large Muslim minority. Indian leaders had treated the Palestinian question as part of their own anti-colonial record since before independence. [2] Contacts between the two states continued below the surface. The clearest case came in 1971, as India prepared for war with Pakistan over East Pakistan. The papers of P. N. Haksar, principal secretary to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, now held at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, record that in July 1971 Prime Minister Golda Meir secretly arranged for an Israeli arms maker, Shlomo Zabludowicz, to send India mortars, ammunition, and a few instructors. [5] Meir asked in return for official diplomatic relations. India accepted the weapons, and no agreement on relations followed. [5] Pressure for change also came from inside India. The Bharatiya Jana Sangh, forerunner of the BJP, had long demanded that Nehru and his successors normalise relations. After the Janata government of Morarji Desai took office in 1977, Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan travelled to India incognito in August that year to explore normalisation. The visit did not succeed. [2] Israel had now asked for relations at the level of prime minister and foreign minister, and India had declined both times.

1974–1991: The PLO tie and the United Nations record

As Israel's requests went unanswered, India deepened its ties with the Palestine Liberation Organization. In 1974, India became the first non-Arab state to recognise the PLO as the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. [6] At the United Nations, India voted with the Arab bloc on the most damaging resolution of the period. On 10 November 1975, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 3379 by 72 votes to 35, with 32 abstentions. India voted in favour. Israel voted against. [7] The resolution determined that Zionism was a form of racism. It stood for sixteen years. In 1988, India became one of the first countries to recognise the State of Palestine. [6] Through these years, the consulate in Bombay remained Israel's only official presence in India. India's position rested on two outside supports. The first was Arab goodwill. The second was the Soviet Union, India's main arms supplier and diplomatic partner. The Indian Communist parties had followed the Soviet line on the Arab-Israeli conflict since the June 1967 war. [2] When the Soviet Union itself changed course in 1991, the foundation of India's policy shifted with it.

October 1991–January 1992: The Rao decision

P. V. Narasimha Rao became prime minister in June 1991, at the head of a minority Congress government facing a balance-of-payments crisis. Moscow agreed to normalise relations with Israel just days before the Madrid Peace Conference opened, and the Soviet Union then dissolved. [2] The United States and the Soviet Union invited Israel, its Arab neighbours, and the Palestinians to a conference that convened in Madrid on 30 October 1991. [8] The first Indian move came at the United Nations. On 16 December 1991, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 46/86, revoking the finding of Resolution 3379 that Zionism is a form of racism, by 111 votes to 25, with 13 abstentions. [9] India voted in favour. Two days later, Congress member Mani Shankar Aiyar told the Lok Sabha he was amazed by the vote and called it "a very major departure from our foreign policy." [10] The decisive step followed within six weeks. Yasser Arafat visited New Delhi in January 1992 and said repeatedly that an exchange of ambassadors was a matter of sovereignty and that he would respect India's decision. Less than two weeks later, Foreign Secretary J. N. Dixit announced that India would establish full diplomatic relations with Israel, with embassies to open as soon as "physically feasible." Dixit said Rao had decided after meetings with leaders of his own party and of the opposition. [11] The domestic arithmetic favoured the decision. The main opposition party, the BJP, supported it with enthusiasm, and Indian socialists welcomed it. Only smaller parties shared the objections of the Left. [2] According to the scholar P. R. Kumaraswamy, relations with the United States formed one of Rao's calculations. The announcement came hours before Rao left for a UN Security Council summit in New York. [2]

1992–2026: What changed

Israel opened an embassy in New Delhi, upgraded its Mumbai consulate to a consulate-general, and later opened a consulate in Bangalore. [4] Shimon Peres visited India as foreign minister in 1993. The two governments signed agreements on agriculture and on science and technology that year. President Ezer Weizman visited in December 1996. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon followed in September 2003, when the two sides signed the Delhi Statement on Friendship and Cooperation. [3] Defence became the core of the relationship. In May 2007, India's defence minister told the Rajya Sabha that purchases from Israel during 2002–07 exceeded US5 billion. In July 2007,the Cabinet Committee on Security approved a US 2.5 billion project to develop a missile defence system jointly with Israel. [2] Visits at the highest level came later. President Pranab Mukherjee visited Israel in October 2015. [3] Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Israel from 4 to 6 July 2017, the first visit by an Indian prime minister, and the two governments raised relations to a strategic partnership. [12] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited India from 14 to 19 January 2018. [3] On 25 February 2026, Modi addressed the Knesset. He noted that he was born on 17 September 1950, the day India recognised Israel, and said India stands with Israel firmly, with full conviction. [13] He was the first Indian prime minister to address the Knesset. [14] Trade and people followed. India's Ministry of External Affairs reports bilateral trade of US $3.75 billion in financial year 2024–25 (April to March):Indian exports of US $ 2.1 billion and imports of US$1.6 billion. The ministry attributes the fall from earlier years to regional security issues. More than 42,000 Indian citizens live in Israel, including about 1,000 students. [3] **1992–2026: What did not change India kept its recognition of Palestine and its formal support for Palestinian statehood. In May 2017, hosting President Mahmoud Abbas, President Mukherjee recalled India's recognition of the PLO in 1974 and of the State of Palestine in 1988, and restated support for an independent and sovereign Palestinian state. [15] India's policy after 1992 ran on two parallel tracks rather than one replacing the other. The domestic and regional costs predicted before 1992 did not appear. Kumaraswamy records that most Indian Muslims accepted Rao's decision and that normalisation caused no major unrest. He also finds that, apart from Egypt, no Arab country made Israel a factor in its relations with India, while Iran and Saudi Arabia expanded economic ties with India. [2] In April 2005, Palestinian Deputy Information Minister Ahmed Soboh told Indian media that India's relations with Israel were India's internal affair and that Palestinians were not asking India to cut them. [2] The policy also survived changes of government. When the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance took office in 2004 with Left support, Foreign Minister Natwar Singh ruled out any "U-turn" on Israel, and defence cooperation expanded. [2] In February 2026, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri placed Modi's second Israel visit within a wider West Asia outreach that included Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Oman in the preceding year. [14] **In One Paragraph India recognised Israel on 17 September 1950 but kept relations at the level of a Bombay consulate, open from 1953, for four decades. India had voted against partition in 1947, built its foreign policy around Arab states, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the Soviet Union, and weighed domestic Muslim opinion. Israel sought relations throughout and supplied India with arms in 1971. The Soviet collapse, the Madrid conference of October 1991, and India's December 1991 vote to revoke the "Zionism is racism" resolution cleared the way. After Yasser Arafat said the decision was India's to make, Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao's government announced full relations on 29 January 1992. Embassies, defence cooperation, trade, and prime ministerial visits followed, including Modi's Knesset address in 2026. India's recognition of Palestine and its formal support for a Palestinian state remained in place.

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Sources

1. United Nations General Assembly, "Future Government of Palestine," Resolution 181 (II) [A], A/RES/181(II)[A], adopted 29 November 1947, 128th plenary meeting, voting record, UN Digital Library, <https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/671195>.
2. P. R. Kumaraswamy, "Relations with Israel: The UPA and the Indian Left," MEI Occasional Paper no. 16 (New Delhi: Middle East Institute, 15 April 2011), sections "Background," "Left and NDA Phase, 1998–2005," "…But no U-turn," and "Limitations of the Ideological Understanding," <https://www.mei.org.in/archives-occassional-paper/relations-with-israel-the-upa-and-the-indian-left/issue-no-16/it-is-easier-to>.
3. Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, "India-Israel Bilateral Relations," February 2026, paras. 1, 3, 15, 17, 18, 23, <https://www.mea.gov.in/Portal/ForeignRelation/Israel_February_2026_1_.pdf>.
4. Consulate General of Israel in Mumbai, "Bilateral Relations," Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel, accessed 5 October 2026, <https://embassies.gov.il/mumbai/en/the-consulate/bilateral-relations>.
5. United Press International. "Israel Secretly Provided Arms to India in 1971: Book," 1 November 2013, Business Standard.https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/israel-secretly-provided-arms-to-india-in-1971-book-113110100700_1.html.
6. Representative Office of India, Ramallah, "India-Palestine Relations," Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. <https://roiramallah.gov.in/pages/MzA>.
7. United Nations General Assembly, "Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination," Resolution 3379 (XXX), A/RES/3379(XXX), adopted 10 November 1975, 2400th plenary meeting, voting record, UN Digital Library, <https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/650324>.
8. "Invitation to the Middle East Peace Conference," jointly issued by the United States and the USSR, 19 October 1991, United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine (UNISPAL), <https://www.un.org/unispal/?p=208112>.
9. United Nations General Assembly, "Elimination of Racism and Racial Discrimination," Resolution 46/86, A/RES/46/86, adopted 16 December 1991, 74th plenary meeting, UN Digital Library, <https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/135193?ln=en>.
10. Lok Sabha Debates, 10th Lok Sabha, 2nd session, 18 December 1991, cols. 411–12 (remarks of Mani Shankar Aiyar), Parliament Digital Library, <https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/9947/1/10_II_18121991_p212_p212_t255.pdf>.
11. United Press International, "India to Establish Ties with Israel," 29 January 1992, UPI Archives, <https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/01/29/India-to-establish-ties-with-Israel/4957696661200/>.
12. Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. "India-Israel Joint Statement during the Visit of the Prime Minister to Israel (July 5, 2017)." 5 July 2017.https://www.mea.gov.in/bilateral-documents?dtl/28593/IndiaIsrael_Joint_Statement_during_the_visit_of_Prime_Minister_to_Israel_July_5_2017.
13. All India Radio News, "PM Modi Holds Talks with His Israeli Counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv," News On AIR, 25 February 2026, <https://www.newsonair.gov.in/pm-modi-holds-talks-with-his-israeli-counterpart-benjamin-netanyahu-in-tel-aviv>.
14. All India Radio News, "PM Modi's Visit to Israel Marks a Significant Milestone in Relations Between the Two Countries: External Affairs Ministry," News On AIR, 26 February 2026, <https://www.newsonair.gov.in/pm-modis-visit-to-israel-marks-a-significant-milestone-in-relations-between-the-two-countries-external-affairs-ministry>
15. Pranab Mukherjee, "Speech by the President of India in Honour of Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine," Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi, 16 May 2017, pp. 1–2, <https://presidentofindia.gov.in/sites/default/files/sp160517.pdf>.