The Israel-Palestine Conflict and South Asian Diplomacy, Explained

South Asian countries often balance trade relations and economic ties with Israel, while supporting a two-state solution and the Palestinian cause. South Asia’s diplomatic relationship with Palestine has historically been defined by the 1917 Balfour Declaration, in which Britain declared support for establishing a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine.

Though expressing sympathy for the Jewish people, Indian nationalists in pre-partition India viewed the developments as another instance of British imperialism that pitted Jewish nationalists and Arabs against each other, and were resolutely pro-Palestine. Some South Asian countries have swayed from that position since.