NEW DELHI: Top lawyers are sounding the alarm over the consequences of Indian arms exports to Israel, which they say violate international conventions and the country’s own domestic law in the wake of the war on Gaza.
Indian arms sales to Israel came into the spotlight in May, when two cargo ships were prevented from docking in the Spanish port of Cartagena after reports that they were loaded with weapons.
The first vessel was en route from Chennai in southeast India to the Israeli port of Ashdod — some 30 km from Gaza — and was blocked by Spanish activists. The second was on the way from Chennai to Haifa, and was officially denied entry, with Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares confirming to the media that the vessel was carrying a shipment of arms to Israel.
In June, after Israel’s deadly bombing of a UN-run school sheltering thousands of displaced people in central Gaza, Palestinian reporters released a video showing the remains of a missile found in the rubble after the attack. A label on it read: “Made in India.”
The reports have triggered an uproar among Indian civil society and opposition politicians, who have requested clarification from the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of External Affairs over the military cooperation in the wake of Israel’s deadly onslaught on Gaza and a genocide case against the country in the International Court of Justice.
A recent petition signed by Supreme Court lawyers, judges and retired foreign service officials called on Defense Minister Rajnath Singh to halt the issuance of licenses to companies supplying military equipment to Israel and cancel the existing ones, as the exports are not only “morally objectionable” and “abominable,” but also constitute a “serious violation” of law.
“It’s very clear that genocide is being committed in Palestine by Israel; the International Court of Justice has virtually said so,” Prashant Bhushan, a public interest lawyer in the Supreme Court of India, told Arab News.
“India is clearly aiding that genocide.”
A Ministry of Defense spokesperson told Arab News on Saturday that “it is the Indian government’s policy not to sell weapons to countries in conflict” and that the government “has not authorized the supply of any weapons to Israel during the last several months.”
The spokesperson did not comment on canceling existing licenses.
At least 40,334 people — most of them children and women — have been killed and more than 93,300 wounded in Israeli military attacks on Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian enclave’s Health Ministry estimates.
The real toll, however, is believed to be much higher as the ministry’s data does not include people buried under rubble, those who died of their injuries or who starved to death, as Israeli forces have been blocking international aid. One of the world’s leading medical journals, the Lancet, estimated last month that the actual death toll of Palestinians killed in Gaza could exceed 186,000 — or almost 10 percent of the territory’s population.
The substantial evidence of Israel breaking international humanitarian law, the genocide and war crime proceedings against its leadership in the ICJ and International Criminal Court, as well as a new case brought by Nicaragua against Germany over its support for Tel Aviv, create legal circumstances in which India can be charged with violating its own constitution and international law.
Dr. Anwar Sadat of the Indian Society of International Law said that the violations are on “several” levels, starting with international humanitarian law.
“Israel is targeting civilian population consistently. Israel is targeting hospitals, Israel is targeting supply lines, Israel is targeting the supply of humanitarian assistance to Palestinian people,” he told Arab News. “Israel is in serious violation of international humanitarian law, so you cannot support and supply, or in any way assist it.”
Sadat said that by providing military assistance to Israel, India also risks being charged with breaching the Genocide Convention and may face a similar case to the one recently initiated against Germany. Genocide and ancillary crimes of genocide, such as complicity, are subject to universal jurisdiction.
In late March, Nicaragua instituted proceedings against Germany at the ICJ under, inter alia, the Genocide Convention, concerning “alleged breaches of certain international obligations in respect of the Occupied Palestinian Territory” arising from Germany’s support and military supplies for Israel.
“If you are a party to this convention, and India is a party to the Genocide Convention, you have international legal responsibility to prevent the commission of genocide,” Sadat said.
“Any breach of international legal obligations requires reparations, compensation.”
India would not be able to absolve itself, as it is not safeguarding any essential interests by breaching the law.
“There is no such situation before India,” Sadat said. “Not providing the arms to Israel does not make India unsafe in any way, so it has no plea of necessity.”
Advocate Chander Uday Singh, a Supreme Court lawyer who was also among the petitioners demanding that India immediately stop all exports of military material to Israel, warned that India is also acting against its own domestic law.
Article 51C of the Indian Constitution says that is the state’s duty to “foster respect for international law and treaty obligations.” This includes the Genocide Convention, of which provisions are directly binding for India also on the domestic level, as it has not framed its own.
“India was the signatory to the Genocide Convention in 1949 and then thereafter it has ratified the convention in 1959, so under international law we are completely bound by the Genocide Convention, meaning we are contracting party to it,” Singh said.
“The Genocide Convention also requires contracting parties to frame national laws and give effect to the convention within the country ... the fact that we have not framed the domestic law means that that the convention itself can be looked at, and the principles of the convention can be applied by Indian courts.”
Top Indian lawyers raise alarm over Delhi’s military exports to Israel
https://arab.news/9t3sz
Top Indian lawyers raise alarm over Delhi’s military exports to Israel
- Indian weapon sales to Israel came into spotlight after Spain blocked Indian shipment through its ports
- Defense Ministry spokesperson says India has not authorized any arms supplies to Israel in past months
How Democrats in America’s most Jewish city embraced a critic of Israel for New York mayor
- Mamdani’s success reflects the ideological realignment of many American Jews since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel that led to Israel’s invasion of Gaza
NEW YORK: In choosing Zohran Mamdani as their candidate for mayor, Democrats in America’s most Jewish city have nominated an outspoken critic of Israel, alarming some in New York’s Jewish community and signaling a sea change in the priorities of one of the party’s most loyal voting groups.
The 33-year-old democratic socialist’s surprisingly strong performance against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo makes clear that taking a stance against Israel is no longer disqualifying in a Democratic primary. The state Assembly member has declined to support the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state, refused to denounce the term “global intifada” and supports an organized effort to put economic pressure on Israel through boycotts and other tactics.
Yet he excelled in the city with the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, and with the support of many Jewish voters.
Mamdani’s success reflects the ideological realignment of many American Jews since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel that led to Israel’s invasion of Gaza. Many Democratic voters, including Jews, have grown dismayed by Israel’s conduct in the war and are deeply critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. That is especially true among younger, more progressive voters, many of whom have rejected the once-broadly accepted notion that anti-Israel sentiment is inherently antisemitic.
For others, Mamdani’s showing has spurred new fears about safety and the waning influence of Jewish voters in a city where anti-Jewish hate crime has surged. Last year, Jews were the target of more than half of the hate crimes in the city.
“Definitely people are concerned,” said Rabbi Shimon Hecht, of Congregation B’nai Jacob in Brooklyn, who said he has heard from congregants in recent days who hope Mamdani will be beaten in the November general election, where he will face Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent, Republican Curtis Sliwa, and possibly Cuomo, if he stays in the race.
“I think like every upsetting election, it’s a wake-up call for people,” Hecht said. “I strongly believe that he will not be elected as our next mayor, but it’s going to take a lot of uniting among the Jewish people and others who are concerned about these issues. We have to unify.”
Veteran New York Democratic political strategist Hank Sheinkopf put it more bluntly, predicting a hasty exodus of religious Jews from the city and a decline in long-standing Jewish influence that would be replicated elsewhere.
“It’s the end of Jewish New York as we know it,” he said, adding: “New York is a petri dish for national Democratic politics. And what happened here is what will likely happen in cities across the country.”
Israel was a key campaign issue
Mamdani’s top Democratic rival, the former governor, had called antisemitism and support for Israel “the most important issue” of the campaign.
Mamdani’s backers repeatedly accused Cuomo of trying to weaponize the issue. Many drew parallels to the way Republican President Donald Trump has cast any criticism of Israel’s actions as antisemitic, claiming Jews who vote for Democrats “hate Israel” and their own religion.
For some Mamdani supporters, the election results signaled a rejection by voters of one of Cuomo’s arguments: that an upstart socialist with pro-Palestinian views posed a threat to New York’s Jewish community.
Many were focused on issues such as affordability in a notoriously expensive city, or flat-out opposed to Cuomo, who was forced to resign in disgrace amid sexual harassment allegations.
Aiyana Leong Knauer, a 35-year-old Brooklyn bartender who is Jewish and backed Mamdani, said the vote represented “New Yorkers, many of them Jewish, saying we care more about having an affordable city than sowing division.”
“Many of us take really deep offense to our history being weaponized against us,” she said. “Jewish people all over the world have well-founded fears for their safety, but Jews in New York are safe overall.”
Others agreed with Mamdani’s views on Israel.
Beth Miller, political director of Jewish Voice for Peace Action, an anti-Zionist, progressive group that worked on Mamdani’s behalf, said Mamdani “was actually pretty popular among a lot of Jewish voters.”
“That is not in spite of his support for Palestinian rights. That is because of his support for Palestinian rights,” she said. “There has been a massive rupture within the Jewish community and more and more Jews of all generations, but especially younger generations,” she said, now refuse to be tied to what they see as a rogue government committing atrocities against civilians.
Polls show support for Israel has declined since the war began. Overall, a slight majority of Americans now express a “somewhat” or “very” unfavorable opinion of Israel, according to a March Pew Research Center poll, compared with 42 percent in 2022. Democrats’ views are particularly negative, with nearly 70 percent holding an unfavorable opinion versus less than 40 percent of Republicans.
Beyond the mayoral race
Mamdani’s wasn’t the only race where Israel was on voters’ minds.
In Brooklyn, City Councilwoman Shahana Hanif, who represents Park Slope and surrounding areas, drew criticism for her Palestinian advocacy. Some said she had failed to respond forcefully to antisemitic incidents in the district.
Yet Hanif, the first Muslim woman elected to the City Council, easily beat her top challenger, Maya Kornberg, who is Jewish, despite an influx of money from wealthy, pro-Israel groups and donors.
That outcome dismayed Ramon Maislen, a developer who launched Brooklyn BridgeBuilders to oppose Hanif’s reelection and said antisemitism did not seem to resonate with voters.
“We were very disappointed with our neighbors’ response,” he said.
While campaigning against Hanif, he said he was routinely screamed at by residents and accused of supporting genocide.
“I think that those of us in the Jewish community that are attuned to that are cognizant that there’s been some kind of cultural sea change that’s occurring,” he said. “What we’re seeing is a legitimatization of hatred that isn’t happening in any other liberal or progressive space.”
Mamdani’s record and rhetoric
Mamdani has repeatedly pledged to fight antisemitism, including during an appearance on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” where he was grilled on his stance. He was joined on the show by city comptroller and fellow candidate Brad Lander, the city’s highest-ranking Jewish official, who had cross-endorsed him. He has also said he would increase funding for anti-hate crime programming by 800 percent.
But many of his comments have angered Jewish groups and officials, most notably his refusal to disavow the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which has been used as a slogan in recent protests. Many Jews see it as a call to violence against Israeli civilians. In a podcast interview, Mamdani said the phrase captured a “a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights.”
Given another opportunity to condemn the phrase, Mamdani on Sunday told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that it was not his role to police speech and he pledged to be a mayor who “protects Jewish New Yorkers and lives up to that commitment through the work that I do.”
Mamdani also supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which aims to pressure governments, schools and other institutions to boycott Israeli products, divest from companies that support the country, and impose sanctions. The Anti-Defamation League calls it antisemitic and part of a broader campaign to “delegitimize and isolate the State of Israel.”
Mamdani has also said that, as mayor, he would arrest Netanyahu if the Israeli leader tried to enter the city.
The ADL in a statement Thursday warned candidates and their supporters not to use “language playing into dangerous antisemitic canards that time and time again have been used to incite hatred and violence against Jews.”
In his victory speech, Mamdani alluded to the criticism he’d received and said he would not abandon his beliefs. But he also said he would “reach further to understand the perspectives of those with whom I disagree and to wrestle deeply with those disagreements.”
Trump blasts ‘communist’ winner of NY Democratic primary
- Trump’s White House has repeatedly threatened to curb funding for Democratic-led US cities if they oppose his policies, including cutting off money to so-called sanctuary cities which limit their cooperation with immigration authorities
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump branded the winner of New York City’s mayoral Democratic primary a “pure communist” in remarks that aired Sunday, an epithet the progressive candidate dismissed as political theatrics.
Zohran Mamdani’s shock win last week against a scandal-scarred political heavyweight resonated as a thunderclap within the party, and drew the ire of Trump and his collaborators, who accused Mamdani of being a radical extremist.
The Republican’s aggressive criticism of the self-described democratic socialist is sure to ramp up over the coming months as Trump’s party seeks to push Democrats away from the political center and frame them as too radical to win major US elections.
“He’s pure communist” and a “radical leftist... lunatic,” Trump fumed on Fox News talk show “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.”
“I think it’s very bad for New York,” added Trump, who grew up in the city and built his sprawling real estate business there.
“If he does get in, I’m going to be president and he is going to have to do the right thing (or) they’re not getting any money” from the federal government.
Trump’s White House has repeatedly threatened to curb funding for Democratic-led US cities if they oppose his policies, including cutting off money to so-called sanctuary cities which limit their cooperation with immigration authorities.
Mamdani also took to the talk shows Sunday, asserting he would “absolutely” maintain New York’s status as a sanctuary city so that “New Yorkers can get out of the shadows and into the full life of the city that they belong to.”
Asked directly on NBC’s “Meet the Press” whether he is a communist, Mamdani — a 33-year-old immigrant aiming to become New York’s first Muslim mayor — responded “No, I am not.
“And I have already had to start to get used to the fact that the president will talk about how I look, how I sound, where I’m from, who I am, ultimately because he wants to distract from what I’m fighting for,” Mamdani said.
“I’m fighting for the very working people that he ran a campaign to empower, that he has since then betrayed.”
The Ugandan-born state assemblyman had trailed former governor Andrew Cuomo in polls but surged on a message of lower rents, free daycare and buses, and other populist ideas in the notoriously expensive metropolis.
Although registered Democrats outnumber Republicans three to one in New York, victory for Mamdani in November is not assured.
Current Mayor Eric Adams is a Democrat but is campaigning for re-election as an independent, while Cuomo may also run unaffiliated.
US Senate pushes ahead on Trump tax cuts as nonpartisan analysis raises price tag
- The Senate only narrowly advanced the tax-cut, immigration, border and military spending bill in a procedural vote late on Saturday, voting 51-49 to open debate on the 940-page megabill
WASHINGTON: The US Senate version of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax-cut and spending bill will add $3.3 trillion to the nation’s debt, about $800 billion more than the version passed last month by the House of Representatives, a nonpartisan forecaster said on Sunday.
The Congressional Budget Office issued its estimate of the bill’s hit to the $36.2 trillion federal debt as Senate Republicans sought to push the bill forward in a marathon weekend session.
Republicans, who have long voiced concern about growing US deficits and debt, have rejected the CBO’s longstanding methodology to calculate the cost of legislation. But Democrats hope the latest, eye-widening figure could stoke enough anxiety among fiscally-minded conservatives to get them to buck their party, which controls both chambers of Congress.
The Senate only narrowly advanced the tax-cut, immigration, border and military spending bill in a procedural vote late on Saturday, voting 51-49 to open debate on the 940-page megabill.
Trump on social media hailed Saturday’s vote as a “great victory” for his “great, big, beautiful bill.”
In an illustration of the depths of the divide within the Republican Party over the bill, Senator Thom Tillis said he would not seek re-election next year, after Trump threatened to back a primary challenger in retribution for Tillis’ Saturday night vote against the bill.
Tillis’ North Carolina seat is one of the few Republican Senate seats seen as vulnerable in next year’s midterm elections. He was one of just two Republicans to vote no on Saturday.
Trump wants the bill passed before the July 4 Independence Day holiday. While that deadline is one of choice, lawmakers will face a far more serious deadline later this summer when they must raise the nation’s self-imposed debt ceiling or risk a devastating default on $36.2 trillion in debt.
“We are going to make sure hardworking people can keep more of their money,” Senator Katie Britt, an Alabama Republican, told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday.
HITS TO BENEFITS
Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, said this legislation would come to haunt Republicans if it gets approved, predicting 16 million Americans would lose their health insurance.
“Many of my Republican friends know ... they’re walking the plank on this and we’ll see if those who’ve expressed quiet consternation will actually have the courage of their convictions,” Warner told CBS News’ “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
The legislation has been the sole focus of a marathon weekend congressional session marked by political drama, division and lengthy delays as Democrats seek to slow the legislation’s path to passage.
Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer called for the entire text of the bill to be read on the Senate floor, a process that began before midnight Saturday and ran well into Sunday afternoon. Following that lawmakers will begin up to 20 hours of debate on the legislation. That will be followed by an amendment session, known as a “vote-a-rama,” before the Senate votes on passage. Lawmakers said they hoped to complete work on the bill on Monday.
Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, the other Republican “no” vote, opposed the legislation because it would raise the federal borrowing limit by an additional $5 trillion.
“Did Rand Paul Vote ‘NO’ again tonight? What’s wrong with this guy???” Trump said on social media.
The megabill would extend the 2017 tax cuts that were Trump’s main legislative achievement during his first term as president, cut other taxes and boost spending on the military and border security.
Representative Michael McCaul, however, warned that fellow Republicans who do not back Trump on the bill could face payback from voters.
“They know that their jobs are at risk. Not just from the president, but from the voting — the American people. Our base back home will not reelect us to office if we vote no on this,” McCaul also told CBS News.
Senate Republicans, who reject the CBO’s estimates on the cost of the legislation, are set on using an alternative calculation method that does not factor in costs from extending the 2017 tax cuts. Outside tax experts, like Andrew Lautz from the nonpartisan think tank Bipartisan Policy Center, call it a “magic trick.”
Using this calculation method, the Senate Republicans’ budget bill appears to cost substantially less and seems to save $500 billion, according to the BPC analysis.
If the Senate passes the bill, it will then return to the House of Representatives for final passage before Trump can sign it into law. The House passed its version of the bill last month.
Cold baths, climate shelters as Southern Europe heat wave intensifies
- Peaks of 43 degrees Celsius were expected in areas of southern Spain and Portugal, while nearly all of France is sweltering in heat expected to last for several days
ROME: Authorities across Southern Europe urged people to seek shelter Sunday and protect the most vulnerable as punishing temperatures from Spain to Portugal, Italy and France climbed higher in the summer’s first major heat wave.
Ambulances stood on standby near tourist hotspots and regions issued fire warnings as experts warned that such heat waves, intensified by climate change, would become more frequent.
Peaks of 43 degrees Celsius were expected in areas of southern Spain and Portugal, while nearly all of France is sweltering in heat expected to last for several days.
In Italy, 21 cities were on high alert for extreme heat, including Milan, Naples, Venice, Florence and Rome.
“We were supposed to be visiting the Colosseum, but my mum nearly fainted,” said British tourist Anna Becker, who had traveled to Rome from a “muggy, miserable” Verona.
Hospital emergency departments across Italy have reported an uptick in heatstroke cases, according to Mario Guarino, vice president of the Italian Society of Emergency Medicine.
“We’ve seen around a 10 percent increase, mainly in cities that not only have very high temperatures but also a higher humidity rate. It is mainly elderly people, cancer patients or homeless people, presenting with dehydration, heat stroke, fatigue,” he told AFP.
Hospitals like the Ospedale dei Colli in Naples have set up dedicated heatstroke pathways to speed access to vital treatments like cold water immersion, Guarino said.
In Venice, authorities offered free guided tours for people over 75s in air-conditioned museums and public buildings.
Facing possible prison, former Brazilian president Bolsonaro seeks to rally faithful
- Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro faces decades in prison if convicted of plotting to cling to power despite losing the 2022 election
SAO PAULO: Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro called for his supporters to rally Sunday in his defense, as he faces decades in prison if convicted of plotting to cling to power despite losing the 2022 election.
“Brazil needs all of us. It’s for freedom, for justice,” the far-right former president (2019-2022) said on X, urging his supporters to march along Sao Paulo’s Paulista Avenue, a key thoroughfare of Latin America’s largest metropolis.
“This is a call for us to show strength... this massive presence will give us courage,” he declared Saturday night on the AuriVerde Brasil YouTube channel.
The demonstration — which already had drawn crowds of Bolsonaro supporters by mid-morning Sunday — follows a hectic several weeks for the embattled ex-leader.
During a key phase in his Supreme Court trial earlier this month, he denied involvement in an alleged coup plot to wrest back power after leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva narrowly beat Bolsonaro at the ballot box in October 2022.
Brazil’s police have also called for Bolsonaro to be separately charged with illegal espionage while president, along with his son.
Bolsonaro, 70, has rejected any wrongdoing, claiming the various cases against him amount to politically motivated judicial hounding, aimed at preventing him from making a comeback in the 2026 elections.
The former army captain dreams of emulating Donald Trump’s return to the White House, despite being banned from holding public office until 2030 over his attacks on Brazil’s electronic voting system.
Bolsonaro had already called for several protests throughout his legal saga, but attendance appears to have declined in recent months.
According to estimates by the University of Sao Paulo, some 45,000 people participated in the most recent march on Paulista Avenue in April, almost four times fewer than in February.
Sao Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas said he would attend the march and urged others to join.
“We need to talk about freedom... we are going to promote peace.”
De Freitas, a former Bolsonaro minister, is a top candidate to represent the conservatives in the 2026 presidential election.
