Even India baulks at Israel's war crimes

According to Ha'aretz, India's Defence Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, has cancelled a visit to Israel where he was due to discuss a $5 billion arms deal.

The decision came in the wake of Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip and escalating tension with the Palestinians.

Mukharajee delayed his scheduled arrival on 7 July following consultations with the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.

The Times of India newspaper reported that India's leftist factions led by the Communist party are urging their government to condemn what they termed as "Israel's brutal attacks on the Palestinians and their elected representatives."

The significance of the cancelled visit for those of us who campaign against Israel is that in spite of the ideological, strategic and financial interest of the Indian government, leftist opposition has put the kibosh on it for the time being. We in the UK have a pro-zionist government, determined to support Israel no matter what Israel does and we too should be able to move our government to withdraw its sycophantic displays of support for the racist war criminals of the State of Israel, whether they be state visits, trade arrangements, our national leaders' membership or patronage of this or that zionist organisation [I'm thinking here of Blair and Cameron being honorary patrons of the Jewish National Fund) or their hypocritical statements condemning legitimate Palestinian resistance whilst supporting the atrocities of the racist war criminals of the State of Israel.