Why India waited two years before recognising Israel

In June 1948, Jawaharlal Nehru received a telegram from Moshe Shertok, foreign minister of the provisional government of Israel, requesting India to recognise the Jewish state. The Indian government, which had voted against the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine that led to the creation of Israel, chose to “defer consideration” of Shertok’s request.

At a meeting of the Constituent Assembly in August 1948, Nehru reiterated the policy adopted by India, then still a British dominion.

“We have maintained that Palestine should be independent and free from the control of any single power; that no solution can be lasting unless it is based on the consent of both Arabs and Jews; and no lasting solution is possible which is imposed and maintained by force,” Nehru said in response to a question to the assembly.

He outlined India’s preferred solution: “A Federated State with the largest possible autonomy to respected regions where the Jews and Arabs are in majority, with a Governor who should administer such common subjects as Defence, External Relations, Customs and perhaps Immigration, with the consent of the representatives of both – such a solution, we feel, would be just satisfactory to both the communities.”

Nehru explained he had not even acknowledged Shertock’s telegram as...

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