NEW DELHI: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarked on a two-day trip to Israel on Wednesday, the Left parties denounced his visit. The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) said that Modi's visit is a betrayal of the Palestinian cause and legitimises the "murderous" Netanyahu regime.
While the CPI termed the trip as "another act of moral bankruptcy", the CPI (Marxist-Leninist) –Liberation (CPML-Liberation) said that it was a "disgraceful act of complicity in the ongoing genocidal assault on the Palestinian people".
The CPM Polit Bureau said in a statement that the visit comes at a juncture when Israel has been waging a genocidal war in Gaza, and despite a ceasefire, there are daily violations by the country, which conducts strikes killing scores of Palestinians.
"In the occupied West Bank, there are stepped up attacks on Palestinians and a spurt in illegal settlements…The Modi visit is thus a betrayal of the Palestinian cause and legitimises the murderous Netanyahu regime. The declared intent of the visit is also to deepen strategic, military and economic ties with a Zionist expansionist regime which seeks to dominate the region with the help of the United States," the party said.
In the statement, the Left party also said that the visit is all the more inopportune because it is taking place at a time when the United States is preparing to attack Iran militarily at the instigation of Israel.
"Through this visit, the BJP government has once again laid bare its shameless commitment to the US-Israeli axis in West Asia," it read.
CPI Rajya Sabha MP P Sandosh Kumar said that at a time when Israel stands condemned across the world for genocide, the PM chose neither distance nor diplomacy, but an open embrace.
“His two enduring obsessions remain unchanged: concentrating power, capital, and privilege in Gujarat, and flaunting an unwavering devotion to Israel,” Kumar, who is the member of the national executive of the party, criticised Modi.
He further said that even reports of Modi's name surfacing in the Epstein files in an Israel-related context have failed to cause the slightest embarrassment or pause. “Nothing seems capable of deterring his commitment to serving the US Israel axis, even if it means surrendering India’s independent foreign policy and national interest. What compels such desperate posturing, this urge to audition for imperial approval while India’s credibility erodes, is a question only Narendra Modi can answer,” Kumar said.
Condemning the visit, the CPIML-Liberation said that at a time when Palestinian civilians are being massacred, displaced, and starved under a brutal Israeli occupation, this visit amounts to political endorsement and profiteering on Palestinian blood. “After mortgaging India’s sovereignty and strategic autonomy to Trump's racist agenda, Modi is now completely surrendering India’s historic legacy of anti-colonialism and solidarity with the oppressed by visiting Israel,” the statement issued by the Central Committee of the party read.
It said that West Asia stands at a dangerous flashpoint, with the US–Israel criminal axis escalating imperialist threats and pushing the region towards a wider war with Iran.
“Since assuming office in 2014, the Modi regime has systematically imported Israeli models of repression to consolidate its own politics of hate at home. From bulldozer demolitions and collective punishment tactics against minorities and marginalised, to the expansion of illegal surveillance infrastructures, the BJP’s fascist politics has found role model in Israel,” the party further stated.
Modi’s visit to Israel and mortgaging India’s historic solidarity with suffering and oppressed peoples in favour of models of repression and racism, dishonour and desecrate the sacrifices of our martyrs who fought colonialism and apartheid, the CPML-Liberation said.
