Revision as of 19:51, 5 July 2017

A brief chronology

Chidanand Rajghatta | Jul 05 2017 : The Times of India

Israel's founding father David Ben-Gurion assumed office as the country's first Prime Minister a few months after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Although the Mahatma disapproved of the violence that begat Israel, Ben-Gurion admired Gandhi. Inasmuch as there were many snarky rebukes in the newly found about how the Mahatma's non-violent methods would have fared against Nazi Germany , Ben-Gurion made known the esteem he held Gandhi in by keeping a frame photo of the Mahatma at his home, which is now a venerated museum in the Negev desert.

Shailaja Neelakantan | First Israel visas in India were issued from this MP's residence |TIMESOFINDIA.COM | Jul 4, 2017

HIGHLIGHTS

India recognised Israel in 1950

Full diplomatic ties were established only in 1992

In 1992, Israel didn't have an embassy in New Delhi, it just had a consulate in Mumbai

India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru chose to not have full diplomatic ties established between India and Israel because he didn't want to "offend the sentiments" of Arab countries.

"We would have [recognised Israel] long ago, because Israel is a fact. We refrained because of our desire not to offend the sentiments of our friends in the Arab countries," Nehru said in 1950, when India recognised Israel, according to various accounts of that period.

In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution stipulating that Israel be carved out of Palestine. Arabs in the region believed this arrangement to be unfair. India concurred with them.

The Indo-Israel Friendship Association's Shetty puts a different spin on Nehru's decision.

"The Congress government was always under pressure from Arab countries and the INDIAN MUSLIMS not to have full diplomatic relations with Israel. Strange!" he writes. (All emphases are Shetty's.)

So much so, that when India established full diplomatic relations with the Middle Eastern country in 1992 - as compared with merely 'recognising' it - the first Israel visas for Indians were issued from Parliamentarian Subramanian Swamy's official residence. An Israel flag was even hoisted on top of his house.

In 1992, Swamy was with the erstwhile Janata Party, and was a member of the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh. But his support for full diplomatic ties with Israel began as early as in 1977.

In 1992 then, after the Narasimha Rao government announced full diplomatic ties, Israel set up a temporary visa office at Swamy's residence with the Israel consul general in Mumbai flying up to Delhi to officiate, writes Jagdish Shetty, member of the Indo-Israel Friendship Association, on TwitLonger.

Israel only had a consulate then, and not in Delhi, but in what was called Bombay.

In fact, Swamy recalled that in 1988 five Delhi-based journalists who wanted visas to visit Israel couldn't get them because they didn't have the funds to travel to Bombay.

Swamy has for long been advocating an India-Israel-US alliance.

In 2014, Swamy even suggested that the US, India, Israel and China come together to fight the Islamic State.

2017: On PM Modi's official Israel visit - the first by an Indian Prime Minister -