The October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel was a terrorist act, but there is also a problem with Palestine that needs to be solved, said S. Jaishankar, minister of external affairs, at a meeting of the Senate’s External Affairs and Defense Commission in Rome. “What happened on October 7 was a major act of terrorism, and what happened afterward changes the whole region in a very big way.” But everyone must hope that the war ends and the region returns to a state of stability and cooperation. “We need to find a balance between these different issues… We all think terrorism is wrong, and we need to speak out against it,” Jaishankar said.
“But there’s also the matter of Palestine.” The Palestinian people need to find a way to deal with their trouble. What we think is that there needs to be two states. If you need to find an answer, you need to talk things out and negotiate.
Terrorism and war are not the way to solve problems. So we will also back that up. Because of how things are now, we do think that everyone should follow international humanitarian law. In any situation that is hard to understand, it is smart to find the right balance. “That is a very important part of dealing with something that is very hard and complicated,” Jaishankar said.
It was clear that India was against terrorism and for the “establishment of a sovereign, independent and viable state of Palestine” in its reaction to the war between Israel and Hamas. One of the first world leaders to condemn the Hamas terror act and stand with Israel was Prime Minister Modi. India did not vote on a resolution in the UN General Assembly that called for a ceasefire in Gaza because it did not name Hamas or condemn the attack.
Very difficult, turbulent times ahead: Jaishankar
“…to be honest, we see very hard times ahead, times of great turmoil, and there are many reasons for this.” Just in the past five years, Covid has had a terrible effect on the world economy and on people’s lives. There are still a lot of places and groups that haven’t fully recovered from it. “We have seen that many countries have rolled back progress on their sustainable development goals. Today, many more countries are going through a financial and economic crisis, and debt is a very big problem. On top of that, the war in Ukraine has affected every part of the world,” Jaishankar said.
