Top Indian lawyers raise alarm over Delhi’s military exports to Israel

Indian PM Narendra Modi meets Israeli President Isaac Herzog during the UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai, Dec. 1, 2023. (Presidential Press Office)
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Updated 24 August 2024
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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

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.”


Trump says it could be worth keeping TikTok in US ‘for a little while’

Updated 6 sec ago
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Trump says it could be worth keeping TikTok in US ‘for a little while’

  • Senate passed law in April requiring TikTok’s parent company to divest the app, citing national security concerns
  • TikTok’s owners have sought to have the law struck down and the US Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case

President-elect Donald Trump indicated on Sunday that he favored allowing TikTok to keep operating in the United States for at least “a little while,” saying he had received billions of views on the social media platform during his presidential campaign.

Trump’s comments before a crowd of conservative supporters in Phoenix, Arizona, were one of the strongest signals yet that he opposes a potential exit of TikTok from the US market.

The US Senate passed a law in April requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to divest the app, citing national security concerns.

TikTok’s owners have sought to have the law struck down, and the US Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case. But if the court does not rule in ByteDance’s favor and no divestment occurs, the app could be effectively banned in the United States on Jan. 19, one day before Trump takes office.

It is unclear how Trump would go about undoing the TikTok divestiture order, which passed overwhelmingly in the Senate. 

“I think we’re going to have to start thinking because, you know, we did go on TikTok, and we had a great response with billions of views, billions and billions of views,” Trump told the crowd at AmericaFest, an annual gathering organized by conservative group Turning Point.

“They brought me a chart, and it was a record, and it was so beautiful to see, and as I looked at it, I said, ‘Maybe we gotta keep this sucker around for a little while’,” he said.

Trump met with TikTok’s CEO on Monday. Trump said at a news conference the same day that he had a “warm spot” for TikTok thanks to his campaign’s success on the app.

The Justice Department has argued that Chinese control of TikTok poses a continuing threat to national security, a position supported by most US lawmakers.

TikTok says the Justice Department has misstated the social media app’s ties to China, arguing that its content recommendation engine and user data are stored in the United States on cloud servers operated by Oracle Corp, while content moderation decisions that affect US users are made in the United States.


Indian brothers seek to preserve fading Urdu with app-based learning

Updated 13 min 37 sec ago
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Indian brothers seek to preserve fading Urdu with app-based learning

  • Urdu has faced multiple threats from communal politics, economic issues
  • New app seeks to provide a platform for people to explore the language

NEW DELHI: Part-time musician Aniruddha Pratim was always interested in learning Urdu, believing that it was key to better understanding the range of music from the subcontinent.

For the past few weeks, the Delhi-based consultant has been spending his free time and coffee breaks glued to an app called Humzaaban, which allows him to learn the language that was for centuries used prominently in Indian culture and poetry.

“I’ve always been a little keen about Urdu. I feel like it sounds very poetic, sounds very soulful,” Pratim told Arab News.

“I open (the app) whenever I get a chance to … It has got a very interactive user interface with a lot of audio-visual cues and everything, so it’s a fun app to use,” he said. “Maybe someday I can write a poem of my own in Urdu.”

Humzaaban is the brainchild of Tausif and Tanzil Rahman, who set out to preserve and promote the language they grew up with at a time when interest in speaking Urdu was waning among people in India.

Despite Urdu’s prominent role throughout Indian history, the language has been facing multiple threats from communal politics and the quest for economic prosperity in more recent decades.

Urdu has been stigmatized as foreign, the language of India’s archrival Pakistan, while families increasingly choose to enroll their children in schools that teach English or other Indian languages to better equip them for the job market.

While millions still speak Urdu today, they make up less than 5 percent of India’s 1.4 billion population. The language is also no longer taught in the majority of schools across the country.

“There has been a consistent decline in Urdu (following the independence) of India,” Tausif told Arab News, adding that the economic value of learning English has naturally led it to become preferred over Urdu.

“Urdu has lost its economic value; none of the business transactions are being done in Urdu.”

Yet the language still holds significance for many people across India, the wider subcontinent and the diaspora, who grew up humming songs from Bollywood musicals that draw heavily on Urdu poetry.

For Tausif, the motivation to create an app dedicated to learning Urdu stemmed out of his own passion for Urdu poetry.

“We speak Urdu at home, and we were discussing the future of Urdu in India and outside India,” he said.

“We decided to create a beautiful learning app, which will enable you to read and write Urdu, to understand what is happening in the Urdu world … and with this idea and with this vision, we started our journey.”

After five years of research, trial and error, the brothers, whose day jobs are in the corporate world, launched Humzaaban in October to reach a wider audience.

Tanzil said interest in Urdu transcended generations, as he saw diverse participation at an offline Urdu learning program he teaches on the weekends.

“The program participation from across generations, communities and professions gave us confidence that there is a yearning to explore this language,” he said.

The Rahman brothers believe that Urdu has the potential to flourish and made a dedicated app that they claim is more comprehensive than others in the market.

With around 3,000 Humzaaban users and counting, many said they were drawn to the app because of its interactive features and user-friendly design.

“There are very few platforms that focus on Urdu learning … but after looking into the Humzaaban app, I am very impressed,” Mohd. Azam, a Delhi-based marketing professional, told Arab News.

“I am very interested in poetry, (and) Urdu has very beautiful words … which inspire me a lot, so I want to learn from this app and maybe write some poetry.”

For Sahar Rizvi, who is based in London, the app has served as a bridge to reconnect with her roots. After learning Urdu as a child, she lost touch with the language as she grew up and forgot the basics.

“My father mentioned the Humzaaban app, and it has been awesome to catch up again. It teaches right from the beginning! I often play around with it during my time on the train,” Rizvi said.

“I’m re-learning to read Urdu … It’s a beautiful language, and I do want to incorporate it in my daily usage.”


Indian brothers seek to preserve Urdu language with learning app

Updated 41 min 32 sec ago
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Indian brothers seek to preserve Urdu language with learning app

  • Humzaaban is the brainchild of Tausif and Tanzil Rahman, who set out to preserve and promote Urdu
  • Urdu has faced multiple threats from communal politics, more families choosing English-medium schools

NEW DELHI: Part-time musician Aniruddha Pratim was always interested in learning Urdu, believing that it was key to better understand the range of music from the subcontinent. 

For the past few weeks, the Delhi-based consultant has been spending his free time and coffee breaks glued to an app called Humzaaban, which allows him to learn the language that was for centuries used prominently in Indian culture and poetry. 

“I’ve always been a little keen about Urdu, I feel like it sounds very poetic, sounds very soulful,” Pratim told Arab News. 

“I open (the app) whenever I get a chance to … It has got a very interactive user interface with a lot of audio visual cues and everything, so it’s a fun app to use,” he said. “Maybe someday I can write a poem of my own in Urdu.” 

Humzaaban is the brainchild of Tausif and Tanzil Rahman, who set out to preserve and promote the language they grew up with at a time when interest in speaking Urdu was waning among people in India. 

Despite Urdu’s prominent role throughout Indian history, the language has been facing multiple threats from communal politics and the quest for economic prosperity in more recent decades. 

Urdu has been stigmatized as foreign, the language of India’s archrival Pakistan, while families increasingly choose to enroll their children in schools that teach English or other Indian languages to better equip them for the job market. 

While millions still speak Urdu today, they make up less than 5 percent of India’s 1.4 billion population. The language is also no longer taught in the majority of schools across the country.

“There has been a consistent decline in Urdu post-independence of India and also if you look at the you know (how) English is having all the economic value and it is you know thriving in the world,” Tausif told Arab News. 

“Urdu has lost its economic value, none of the business transactions are being done in Urdu language and because of the same reasons there are not enough jobs available, people are not choosing Urdu as a language.”

Yet the language still holds a special place for many people across India, the wider subcontinent and in the diaspora, who grew up humming songs from Bollywood musicals that draw heavily on Urdu poetry. 

For Tausif, the motivation to create an app dedicated for learning Urdu stemmed out of his own passion for Urdu poetries. 

“We speak Urdu at home and we were discussing about the future of Urdu in India and outside India,” he said. 

“We decided to create a beautiful learning app which will enable you to read and write Urdu, which will enable you to understand what is happening in the Urdu world, what are the trends that are going on, and with this idea and with this vision we started our journey.” 

After five years of research, trial and error, the brothers whose day jobs are in the corporate world launched Humzaaban in October to reach a wider audience. 

Tanzil said interest in Urdu transcended generations, as he saw diverse participation at an offline Urdu learning program he teaches on the weekends. 

“The program participation from across generations, communities and professions gave us confidence that there is a yearning to explore this language that is born out of a long process of fusion and yet is essentially Indian,” he said. 

The Rahman brothers believe that Urdu has a potential to flourish, and made a dedicated app that they claim is more comprehensive than others in the market. 

With around 3,000 Humzaaban users and counting, many said they were drawn to the app because of its interactive features and user-friendly design. 

“There are very few platforms that focus on Urdu learning … but after looking into Humzaaban app I am very much impressed that someone is taking the effort to increase the availability of Urdu from end to end and (through a) step-by-step journey,” Mohd. Azam, a Delhi-based marketing professional, told Arab News. 

“I am very much interested in poetry and all, (and) Urdu has very beautiful words … which inspire me a lot so I want to learn from this app and maybe write some poetry.”

For Sahar Rizvi, who is based in London, the app has been a bridge to reconnect with her roots. After learning Urdu as a child, she lost touch with the language while growing up and had forgotten the basics. 

“My father mentioned about the Humzaaban app and it has been awesome to catch up again. It teaches right from the beginning! I often play around with it during my time on the train,” Rizvi said. 

“I’m re-learning to read Urdu … It’s a beautiful language and I do want to incorporate it in my daily usage.”


Taliban eye boost in Saudi ties as Kingdom reopens embassy in Kabul

Updated 23 December 2024
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Taliban eye boost in Saudi ties as Kingdom reopens embassy in Kabul

  • Saudi Arabia keen to ‘provide all services’ to Afghans, embassy said on Sunday
  • Afghanistan’s Taliban government is not recognized by any country in the world

KABUL: Afghanistan’s Taliban government is hoping to boost cooperation with Saudi Arabia as the Kingdom reopens its embassy in Kabul, its Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday.

Saudi Arabia was among a host of nations that withdrew its diplomats from Kabul in August 2021, following the Taliban’s return to power and the withdrawal of US-led forces from Afghanistan.

Late on Sunday, the Saudi Embassy in Afghanistan announced that the diplomatic mission in Kabul would resume its work.

“Based on the keenness of the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to provide all services to the brotherly Afghan people, it has been decided to resume the activities of the Kingdom’s mission in Kabul as of December 22, 2024,” it said on X.

As the Taliban are not officially recognized by any country in the world, the reopening of the Saudi Embassy was welcomed by Afghanistan’s new rulers.

“I consider the resumption of the activities of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Kabul as a step towards further strengthening and expanding bilateral relations between the governments and peoples of the two countries,” Zakir Jalaly, director of the second political division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Arab News on Monday.

Jalaly highlighted the historical background of Afghan-Saudi ties, as the Kingdom was one of three countries — including the UAE and Pakistan — to recognize the Taliban government during its first rule, until it was overthrown by the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

“Since Saudi Arabia is an important country at the regional and international levels, the resumption of the embassy’s activities in Kabul will provide ground for expansion of cooperation in various fields,” he added.

Saudi Arabia has continued to provide consular services in Afghanistan since November 2021 and provided humanitarian aid through the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center.

“I think the resumption of the Saudi Embassy’s activities in Kabul is a big announcement for the government of the Islamic Emirate facing international isolation as well as for the people of Afghanistan who have been experiencing the negative effects of the political isolation in different aspects of social life,” Naseer Ahmad Nawidy, political science professor at Salam University in Kabul, told Arab News.

The resumption of diplomatic activities will be helpful for Afghans who are living in Saudi Arabia, which number at around 132,000 people.

“It will also help Afghan traders to do exports and imports from the country. It will also have benefits for Saudi Arabia as it will extend its influence in the region,” Nawidy said.

“I hope other Islamic countries continue to engage with the Afghan government and reopen (their) diplomatic missions in Afghanistan, which will provide ground for cooperation in different areas.”


Taliban eye boost in Saudi ties as Kingdom reopens embassy in Kabul

Updated 23 December 2024
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Taliban eye boost in Saudi ties as Kingdom reopens embassy in Kabul

  • Saudi Arabia keen to ‘provide all services’ to Afghans, embassy said on Sunday
  • Afghanistan’s Taliban government is not recognized by any country in the world

KABUL: Afghanistan’s Taliban government is hoping to boost cooperation with Saudi Arabia as the Kingdom reopened its embassy in Kabul, its Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday.

Saudi Arabia was among a host of nations that withdrew its diplomats from Kabul in August 2021, following the Taliban’s return to power and the withdrawal of US-led forces from Afghanistan. The Taliban are not officially recognized by any country in the world.

Late on Sunday, the Saudi Embassy in Afghanistan announced that the diplomatic mission in Kabul would resume its work.

“Based on the keenness of the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to provide all services to the brotherly Afghan people, it has been decided to resume the activities of the Kingdom’s mission in Kabul as of December 22, 2024,” it said on X.

The reopening of the Saudi Embassy was welcomed by Afghanistan’s new rulers.

“I consider the resumption of the activities of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Kabul as a step toward further strengthening and expanding bilateral relations between the governments and peoples of the two countries,” Zakir Jalaly, director of the second political division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Arab News on Monday.

Jalaly said the Kingdom was one of three countries, including the UAE and Pakistan, to recognize the Taliban government during its first rule from 1996 until it was overthrown by the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

“Since Saudi Arabia is an important country at the regional and international levels, the resumption of the embassy’s activities in Kabul will provide ground for expansion of cooperation in various fields,” he added.

Saudi Arabia has continued to provide consular services in Afghanistan since November 2021 and provided humanitarian aid through the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center.

“I think the resumption of the Saudi Embassy’s activities in Kabul is a big announcement for the government of the Islamic Emirate facing international isolation as well as for the people of Afghanistan who have been experiencing the negative effects of the political isolation in different aspects of social life,” Naseer Ahmad Nawidy, political science professor at Salam University in Kabul, told Arab News.

The resumption of diplomatic activities will also be helpful for Afghans who are living in Saudi Arabia, which number at around 132,000 people.

“It will also help Afghan traders to do exports and imports from the country. It will also have benefits for Saudi Arabia as it will extend its influence in the region,” Nawidy said.

“I hope other Islamic countries continue to engage with the Afghan government and reopen (their) diplomatic missions in Afghanistan, which will provide ground for cooperation in different areas.”