Palestinian envoy challenges India's celebration of historic Haifa battle
The Palestinian mission in New Delhi, led by Abdullah Mohammad Abu Shawesh, has launched a diplomatic campaign denouncing India's annual Haifa Day commemorations as a tool to legitimize India-Israel ties.
In the past year, the Palestinian mission in New Delhi, headed by PLO Ambassador Abdullah Mohammad Abu Shawesh, has intensified a public-diplomacy effort against India's annual "Haifa Day" observance, which commemorates the 1918 cavalry charge that seized the city from Ottoman forces. The push follows a broader shift in India's foreign policy under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, marked by expanding defense cooperation, joint technology projects and the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor linking the two regions.
Since 2010, Indian officials and Israeli bodies have jointly celebrated the battle, even naming a New Delhi square after Haifa in 2018. Abu Shawesh's June five-page letter to the Indian government, backed by legal and historical research, objects to the use of the term "one outlet" and to portraying the episode as evidence of a historic Indo-Israeli bond, emphasizing that Indian soldiers served under British command. He cites Indian war dead buried in cemeteries across present-day Israel and the Palestinian territories, warning that the narrative serves Israeli attempts to court India while marginalizing broader Indian sacrifices. The Palestinians hope diplomatic pressure will blunt the symbolic reinforcement of India-Israel relations.
Why it matters
The dispute highlights how historical narratives are used to shape modern India-Israel relations and Palestinian diplomatic strategy.
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