CPI M terms Centre’s agreement with Israel a shameful act, calls Israel a killer state

New Delhi: The Polit Bureau of the CPI M on Tuesday condemned the visit of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to India, where he led a delegation to sign a bilateral investment agreement with the Indian government.

In a press release issued by CPI M, described Smotrich as a leader of a far- right racist party in Israel and a key proponent in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of forcibly displacing Palestinians from Gaza and annexing the occupied West Bank.

CPI M noted that several countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Norway, the Netherlands, Slovenia and New Zealand, have barred Smotrich’s entry and imposed sanctions against him for what it called expansionist policies and support for ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

“It is shameful that the Modi government has hosted such a person and signed agreements with Israel at a time when people in Gaza are being massacred every day,” the Polit Bureau said in a statement, adding that the move underscores New Delhi’s “deep and entrenched ties” with the Netanyahu government and its complicity in the “ongoing genocide” in Gaza.

The Polit Bureau demanded that the Indian government cancel all military, security and economic cooperation with Israel until it agrees to an immediate ceasefire and works toward a just and peaceful settlement of the Palestinian issue.