Israel and India have a "gehri dosti" (deep friendship), Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in Hindi on Saturday and thanked his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi for his "deep commitment" to the "strong and robust friendship", as the two nations celebrated 30 years of establishment of diplomatic relations.

Describing the opportunities of collaboration between the two countries as "endless", Bennett said "the ties between Israel and India are strong and together they will only grow stronger",  continuing a policy of having close defence, strategic, agricultural and technological ties with India that began under his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu.

"There is something I wanted to tell to all of the people of India. Israel and India have a "gehri dosti", Deep Friendship. Today we honour 30 years of diplomatic relations between Israel and India. Thirty years of a wonderful partnership, a deep cultural connection, and military and economic cooperation", Bennett said in a special video message released on Saturday evening.

Though India had recognised Israel on September 17, 1950, full-fledged diplomatic relations between the countries were established on January 29, 1992, largely because India did not want to upset its close ties with Arab countries or offend its large Muslim population. 

The video was tagged to a tweet that said, "Today, we celebrate 30 years of diplomatic relations between Israel & India. We celebrate a strong partnership, An incredibly deep friendship, & optimism for the future!".

To Modi, he wrote in Hindi, "Together we will continue to achieve more remarkable achievements".

In New Delhi, Prime Minister Modi, in his special video message, said there cannot be a better time to set new goals for taking forward India-Israel relations and asserted that the importance of the relationship has increased amid significant changes in the world.

Modi said the people of India and Israel have always shared a special relationship. "This day holds importance in our relationship as full diplomatic ties were established between the two countries 30 years ago. A new chapter between the two countries had begun. It was a new chapter but history between us is age-old," he said.

"For centuries, the Jew community has stayed in India in a harmonious environment without any discrimination and has grown. It has made an important contribution in our developmental journey," Modi said.

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The affirmation of close ties came amidst a New York Times report that the Indian government bought Israeli spyware Pegasus in 2017 as part of a $2-billion package for weapons including a missile system. Flagging Prime Minister Modi’s landmark visit to Israel in July 2017 – the first by an Indian Prime Minister to that country – the NYT report said that visit came even as “India had maintained a policy” of what it called “commitment to the Palestinian cause,” and “relations with Israel were frosty.”

“The Modi visit, however, was notably cordial, complete with a carefully staged moment of him and Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu walking together barefoot on a local beach. They had reason for the warm feelings. Their countries had agreed on the sale of a package of sophisticated weapons and intelligence gear worth roughly $2 billion — with Pegasus and a missile system as the centerpieces.”
 
The report mentioned that months later Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister at that time, “made a rare state visit to India” and in June 2019 “India voted in support of Israel at the U.N.’s Economic and Social Council to deny observer status to a Palestinian human rights organization, a first for the nation.”

Until now, neither the Indian government nor the Israeli government has admitted that India bought Pegasus. The Indian government has not officially responded to the report amid an opposition outcry, which Congress leader Rahul Gandhi calling the alleged purchase of spyware an "act of treason", The Indian Express stated. 

A global consortium of media groups had revealed in July 2021 that the spyware had been used by several governments around the world to snoop on opponents, journalists, businessmen etc. The Indian leg of the investigation, conducted by The Wire, had reported that among the potential list of targets were opposition leaders, other politicians and anti-establishment journalists and editors. 

Responding to the controversy in Parliament on July 18, India's Information and Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the report was a “sensational” attempt “to malign Indian democracy and its well established institutions”. He had said that India had established protocols when it comes to surveillance which was robust and had “stood the test of time.”

After around a dozen petitions filed against the alleged snooping by the government, the Supreme Court in October 27 appointed an independent committee headed by a retired judge to look into the issue with Chief Justice NV Ramana saying the state cannot get “a free pass every time the spectre of ‘national security’ is raised”, as it ordered a “thorough inquiry” into allegations of unauthorised surveillance using Pegasus.

India's former Permanent Representative to the UN, Syed Akbaruddin has dismissed as "utter rubbish" the "insinuation" in the NYT report which cited India's 2019 vote in support of Israel at the UN's Economic and Social Council to highlight deepening of ties after a deal that included the sale of the Israeli spyware Pegasus.

(SAM)