India’s policy towards Palestine has been long standing and has support across party lines. India has always supported a negotiated two State solution, towards establishment of a sovereign, independent and viable State of Palestine, within secure and recognised borders, living side by side, in peace with Israel.
India was one of the first non-Arab countries to recognize PLO as the sole & legitimate representative of people of Palestine in 1974 and in 1988, became one of the first countries to recognize the State of Palestine.
We were part of the High level conference on Two-State solution, and most recently on 12 September 2025, India voted in favour of New York Declaration, the outcome document of the high-level conference co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France on the peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine and implementation of Two-State solution.
India’s consistent call for peace after October 07, 2023: Condemning terror, advocating humanitarian assistance
In the current conflict, India has strongly condemned the terror attacks by Hamas on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the loss of civilian lives in the ongoing Israel- Hamas conflict. India remains concerned at the security situation and has called for a ceasefire, release of all hostages and peaceful resolution of the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy. At the same time India has emphasized the need for safe, timely and sustained delivery of humanitarian assistance to the people of Palestine. India has also reiterated that bringing Israel and Palestine closer contributes to creating conditions for early resumption of direct peace negotiations.
Has India’s voting pattern changed in the UN?
Clearly, no. India’s long-standing position towards Palestine has remained clear and consistent. This is reflected in its voting patterns in the UN. Actually, India has not voted against any of the 175 resolutions on Israel-Palestine issues in UN during the last 10 years.
| Period | Number of Resolutions | Yes | Adopted without vote | Abstention | No |
| May 2014 onwards | 175 | 164 | 1 | 10 | 0 |
| May 2019 onwards | 77 | 66 | 1 | 10 | 0 |
| October 07, 2025 onwards | 28 | 22 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
India’s commitment to the Palestinian people: Continuing development assistance bilaterally and through UN
India extends humanitarian assistance to the people of Palestine both bilaterally and through United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees in Near East (UNRWA). Annually, we contribute $5 million to UNRWA.
India’s developmental assistance, given to Palestine since 2014 (approx $80 million) is almost double of what was given in the preceding 65 years (approx 42 million) and projects worth $ 40 million are in the pipeline.
What is the Palestinian viewpoint? This is what Palestinian Ambassador had to say about India’s support to the Palestinian people:
India under the chairmanship of the current Prime Minister H.E. Narendra Modi is doing a great job to the Palestinian people. India is building right now more than one project, one of them is million dollar project, which is a hospital. India under the chairmanship of the current Prime Minister is also supporting the UNRWA, the UN entity that is dealing with the Palestinian refugees.
We are fully satisfied, and if there is something that we feel that we want to discuss with the Indian Government, I can assure you all that the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is 24Hrs open to us, as Palestinians. We used to discuss with full transparency with the Indian Government all the related matter between Palestine and India.
I will not say there is any deviation… We used to measure the Indian-Palestinian relations at the macro level … in the UNGA, in the UNHRC, in the projects implemented in Palestine. But, we cannot interfere with India’s bilateral relations with any other country.
Prime Minister’s engagements: Leveraging friendships across the aisle for peace
PM has excellent relationship with the Leaders of both Israel and Palestine. In fact, when PM Modi visited Palestine in February 2018, he became the first Indian PM to make an official visit to Palestine. Moreover, he was conferred the ‘Grand Collar of the State of Palestine’ by President Mahmoud Abbas, recognising his key contribution to promote relations between India and Palestine.
Israeli Finance Minister’s visit: Concluding a six year process of negotiations
The visit of the Finance Minister was in his capacity as the head of the Israeli Ministry of Finance to sign a bilateral investment agreement. This was under negotiations for more than 6 years and the draft agreement was finalised last month. He visited India to enhance the India-Israel bilateral economic and financial relationship.
Courtesy: PIB
