CPI(ML) strongly condemns the visit of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to India and the signing of a Bilateral Investment Agreement with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi on 8 September 2025. Smotrich is a notorious war criminal and a key architect of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and its brutal apartheid regime against Palestinians. By welcoming him and deepening trade ties, the Indian government has committed a grave betrayal of India’s anti-colonial legacy and made itself complicit in Israel’s crimes against humanity.
Smotrich, along with Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, faces arrest warrant applications from ICC prosecutors on charges of apartheid, incitement to genocide and war crimes, including calls to reoccupy Gaza and to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian population.
This agreement comes at a time when Gaza is reeling under genocide, siege and starvation inflicted by the Israel–US axis, and when Palestinians face daily dispossession and apartheid. Rather than aligning with global calls for accountability and standing with Palestine, the Government of India has chosen to legitimise Israel’s genocidal policies.
The CPI(ML) demands that the Indian government withdraw from all economic, military and political ties with Israel and stand firmly for justice, freedom and dignity for Palestine. India must also join the global movement pressing for a comprehensive military embargo against Israel.
As a country shaped by its own historic freedom struggle against colonialism, India’s embrace of the apartheid Israel represents a complete betrayal of the legacy of our anti-colonial movement and the values on which the Republic was founded.
