“Humanity is on trial now”: Sonia Gandhi Expresses Strong Disapproval of India’s Abstention on Gaza Vote at UN

Former party chief Sonia Gandhi said on Monday that the Congress is “strongly opposed” to India’s abstention on the recent UN resolution on the Israel-Hamas conflict. She added that although her party had categorically condemned Hamas’s attacks, the tragedy is exacerbated by the Israeli state’s current focus on exacting revenge from a population that is largely as innocent as it is helpless.

She added that her party has long supported direct talks for a secure, independent, sovereign state of Palestine that coexists peacefully with Israel. Mrs Gandhi declared that “humanity is on trial now” and urged the strongest and most vocal voices to support an end to armed action.

The vicious attacks on Israel reduced us all together. Israel’s disproportionate and equally ruthless response now diminishes all of us. “How many more deaths must occur before our society’s conscience is roused and awakened?” the woman questioned.

She stated that Hamas carried out a savage attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, murdering over a thousand people, the majority of whom were civilians, and kidnapping over 200 more.

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“Israel suffered greatly as a result of the extraordinary strike. The Indian National Congress categorically denounced Hamas’s attacks the very following day, stating that it “strongly believes that violence has no place in a decent world.”

Mrs Gandhi went on to say that the Israeli military’s “indiscriminate operations” in and around Gaza, which have resulted in thousands of deaths—many of them innocent men, women, and children—are exacerbating this tragedy.

“Now, the Israeli state’s strength is concentrated on retaliating against a populace that is mostly innocent and defenceless. Children, women, and men who have no involvement in the Hamas attack but who, for the most part, have been at the centre of decades of persecution and suffering are being subjected to the destructive force of one of the most powerful military arsenals in the world,” the speaker stated.

She stated that there cannot be peace without justice when outlining the position of the Congress on the Israel-Palestine conflict. With almost two million people crammed into crowded towns and camps for refugees, Gaza has become a “open-air prison” due to Israel’s relentless embargo that has been in place for more than 15 years, according to her.

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“With the apparent goal of destroying the idea of a two-state solution, Israeli settlers in Jerusalem and the West Bank, supported by the Israeli government, have persisted in driving away Palestinians from their own land. Mrs. Gandhi emphasised that peace will only materialise if the world, headed by nations with the power to shape laws and circumstances, can recommence the process of restoring the two-state vision and turn it become a reality.

She stated that the Congress’s steadfast conviction that both Israelis and Palestinians have the right to live in a just peace has not changed throughout the years.

“We are grateful for our friendship with the Israelites. However, this does not imply that we forget the terrible history of the Palestinian people’s centuries-long forced exile from their ancestral homeland and the years-long denial of their fundamental right to a life of dignity and self-respect,” the speaker stated.

“Contrary to some mischievous suggestions, the position of the Indian National Congress has been long-standing and principled: it is to support direct negotiations for a sovereign independent, viable and secure state of Palestine coexisting in peace with Israel,” said Mrs. Gandhi.

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She emphasised that on October 12, 2023, the Ministry of External Affairs had likewise adopted this stance.

Reiterating India’s historic stance on Palestine only happened after Israel launched its assault on Gaza, which is remarkable. “The initial statement expressing complete solidarity with Israel did not include any mention of Palestinian rights by the Prime Minister,” she stated.

“The Indian National Congress is strongly opposed to India’s abstention on the recent United Nations General Assembly Resolution calling for a ‘immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities’ between Israeli forces and Hamas in Gaza,” the former leader of the Congress said.

“It is regrettable that numerous powerful nations are acting in a partisan manner when they ought to be making every effort to put an end to the conflict. The strongest and most vocal voices ought to be in favour of ending military operations, she claimed. If this cycle doesn’t stop, Mrs. Gandhi continued, it will be difficult for everyone in the area to live in peace for a very long time.

She emphasised that entire families have perished in this battle, as it is currently portrayed, and entire neighbourhoods have been reduced to ruins. “Depriving the Palestinian people of food, water, and electricity is equivalent to punishing them all collectively.” Relief and aid reach the poor in a trickle and not on the essential scale since the outside world, especially those who wish to help, is mainly shut out of Gaza, she said.

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“It is against international law in addition to being inhumane. Not many Gazans are immune to the violence. Captured within a narrow, over populated swath of land, they possess no resources to rely on. Furthermore, the war is intensifying and even the occupied West Bank is becoming more involved, as noted by Mrs Gandhi.

Gandhi added that senior Israeli officials have mentioned demolishing and depopulating significant portions of Gaza, noting that the future looks bleak.

She noted that the Israeli Defence Minister had called Palestinians “human animals” and that it is appalling that people who are descended from Holocaust victims would use such “dehumanising language.”

“The Israeli government is making a grievous error in equating the actions of Hamas with the Palestinian people,” she said. It has unleashed indiscriminate murder and destruction onto the common people of Gaza in its determination to defeat Hamas, according to Mrs Gandhi.

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“Even if the long history of the suffering of the Palestinians is ignored, by what logic can a whole population be held responsible for the actions of a few?” in the story, she stated.

Opposition parties claimed on Saturday that India’s decision to abstain from voting on the UN resolution on the Israel-Hamas conflict goes against all the nation has stood for, despite the BJP’s insistence that India will never support terrorism.

On October 7, Hamas launched their unprecedented onslaught on Israel, killing almost 1,400 people. Also, more than 220 people were held captive by Hamas. After then, Israel began its own counterattacks. Over 7,700 Palestinians have died since October 7, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, which was announced on Saturday.