Understanding Indian and Pakistani Reactions to the Israel-Hamas War

Written by Kyle Hosey | October 29, 2023

If you’ve spent any time in the comment sections of official Israeli social media accounts recently, or those of international media, among the loudest messages of support are Indian users. Indeed, the strong pro-Israel reaction on Indian social media has become something of a meme/inside joke among X (formerly Twitter) users. Many Indian government officials are not far behind. Prime Minister Modi declared his “unequivocal solidarity with Israel” before any official Western reaction came out, while many Indian news personalities have defined Israel’s military action since October 7^th as “a war for all of us”. At the regional level, ministers from the ruling BJP have ordered crackdowns on pro-Palestinian organizing and fundraising.

Thirty years ago, any of this would have been unlikely. India did not establish full diplomatic ties with Israel until 1992; secular-oriented Indian governments routinely argued that Israel’s post-1967 occupation practices violated international law and made statements in favor of Palestinian self-determination. Now, while the Indian foreign ministry reiterated that India’s official policy remains a two-state solution with an independent Palestine, observers argue that such nuance is mostly absent from debate in the Indian public, especially in the Hindu nationalist movement. The Diplomat’s Mohamed Zeeshan argues that while this shift is partly due to India’s increasingly close arms trade and military cooperation with Israel, the Indian right and Modi specifically see Israel (and Prime Minister Netanyahu) as a political and social model for their own national project, particularly the Israeli right’s brand of “muscular religious nationalism”. However, Modi and Netanyahu’s personal affinity has yet to translate into an overt Indian policy change on Palestine; India would prefer to avoid entangling its economic cooperation with Iran and the Gulf states with the most recent war in Gaza.

In many ways, Pakistan’s response to the Israel-Gaza war faces the same tension between public opinion and geopolitical interests as India, but reversed. The Pakistani government has called for Israel to “fulfill its obligations as an occupying power” and to lift the blockade on Gaza, but stopped well short of any inflammatory remarks on Israel that would alienate Western partners. Islamist parties and other right-wing organizations have taken a much stronger line, including openly supporting Hamas. The government is likely trying to avoid a repeat of last year, when former Prime Minister Imran Khan jeopardized relationships in the West by visiting Moscow in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but this diplomatic approach may be tenuous if domestic pressure increases.