Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has thanked India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the crucial vote at the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to deny observer status to a Palestinian human rights organisation named ‘Shahed’.
“Thank you Narendra Modi, thank you India, for your support and for standing with Israel at the UN,” Mr Netanyahu tweeted. There has been ‘improvement’ in bilateral ties between India and Israel especially under the stewardship of Prime Minister Modi.
On Tuesday, a senior diplomat at Israeli embassy here thanked India for its crucial vote. “Thank you India for standing with Israel in UN and rejecting the request of terrorist organization ‘Shahed’ to obtain the status of an observer in UN,” Deputy Chief of mission at the Israel embassy in Delhi Maya Kadosh had tweeted.
This voting on June 6 has been a rare occasion when India has voted in favour of Israel vis-a-vis on a matter involving Palestine. Media reports said following the diplomatic efforts by Israel led by its Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, 28 out of 48 countries in the UN’s Economic and Social Council objected to granting the special status to the organisation.
Besides India, among the countries that voted in favor of Israel are Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and the United States.
However, the countries that voted against include Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Egypt, Iran, Morocco and Yemen. The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is one of the principal organs of the United Nations responsible for coordinating the economic and social field activities of the organisation.
‘Shahed’, according to Israeli foreign ministry sources, is a Palestinian organization based in Lebanon that claims to deal with human rights and humanitarian issues, “but in practice is an organization that Israel has declared a terrorist organization and in fact operates as an arm of the Hamas terror organization in Lebanon”.
“Israel will continue to be vigilant and will continue to act against terrorist organizations that intend it harm,” an announcement by Israeli foreign ministry said.
