Nasouh Nazzal, gulfnews.com
Indian president greeted in Jerusalem with angry Palestinian protesters
Image from article, with caption: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (2nd L) and Indian President Pranab Mukherjee (R) review the honor guard upon Mukherjee's arrival at the West Bank city of Ramallah October 12, 2015.
Excerpt:
Ramallah: Angry Palestinian students on Tuesday protested against India’s growing friendship with Israel at a university campus in occupied East Jerusalem even as President Pranab Mukherjee was being conferred an honorary degree. ...
India’s position on Palestine-Israel conflict has slowly changed in recent decades and the country moved from being a major champion of the Palestinian cause to an ally of Israel, said Palestinian political analysts and foreign relations experts. ...
Dr Ghassan Al Khatib, a political analyst, former Palestinian Minister of Labour and former spokesman for the Palestinian government said the Palestinians and the Arabs in general had supported Pakistan and sided with it in the Pakistan-India conflict. “India then moved much closer to the US and its allies, including Israel,” he told Gulf News. “Israel offers India what cannot be refused — strategic and security weapons and technology, at a time when the Palestinians have nothing to offer.”
He said that the Arabs do not play the interest game for political gains as Israel does, and so the Indian stance changed over time. “The Palestinians had repeatedly missed diplomatically and did not work enough on their relationship with the Indians,” he said. “We did not work on public diplomacy on the political level to secure permanent and unchanging Indian support for the Palestinians in their conflict with Israel.”
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