India’s corporate, state investments finance Israel’s Gaza war, says report

By Ahmed BQ

NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — A new investigative report has accused India of indirectly financing Israel’s war on Gaza through state-backed and private corporate investments in Israeli defence, technology, and infrastructure sectors.

The 100-page study, “Profit & Genocide: Indian Investments in Israel,” authored by researcher Hajira Puthige, was published by the Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA), a New Delhi-based think tank.

It documents more than $6 billion in Indian investments tied to Israel’s war economy since 2023.

In a scathing foreword, public interest lawyer Prashant Bhushan said India’s continuing cooperation with Israel amounts to “aiding and abetting genocide,” despite rulings by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Israel’s actions in Gaza violate the Genocide Convention.

“India cannot export any military equipment or weapons to Israel when there is a serious risk these weapons might be used to commit war crimes,” Bhushan wrote.

He called the current period “a shameful era of India’s diplomacy where all ethical principles and international law have been shredded.”

Former diplomat Mani Shankar Aiyar called India’s reluctance to condemn Israel’s actions “diplomatic cowardice.”

Indian firms tied to Israel’s war industry

The CFA report traces how Indian capital—both public and private—has flowed into Israeli defence, technology, and infrastructure ventures even after the October 2023 escalation in Gaza.

According to Puthige, India accounted for up to 45% of Israel’s total arms exports between 2016 and 2021, and several joint ventures continued after the ICJ’s 2024 ruling on genocide.

Among the key partnerships listed:

• Adani Defence Systems and Technologies Ltd. jointly operates with Elbit Systems Ltd., which supplies most of the weapons and drones used by Israel’s armed forces in Gaza.

• Reliance Defence partnered with Rafael Advanced Defence Systems to produce Spike missiles “extensively used to target people inside buildings in Gaza,” the report says.

• Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) maintain multimillion-dollar contracts with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) for missile systems and refuelling aircraft—technologies later deployed by the Israeli military.

• Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd. acquired Haifa Port for $1.18 billion, now a strategic base for Israel’s naval and submarine fleet.

• Indian Oil Corporation and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) continue partnerships with Israeli firms in the energy and digital sectors, including Project Nimbus, a cloud-computing initiative used by Israel’s defence ministry.

Puthige writes that such collaborations “funnel Israel’s defence system, central to the devastation in Gaza,” and warns that Indian taxpayers’ money and corporate capital are now “complicit in sustaining technologies that fortify Israel’s military aggression.”

Tech, pharma and agriculture ventures

Beyond arms, the report details extensive Indian investments in Israel’s tech, pharmaceutical, and agricultural industries.

Reliance Industries invested $25 million in the Jerusalem Innovation Incubator, $28 million in Screenz, and $2.4 million in Neolync for 5G technologies. Tech Mahindra signed a $150–200 million deal with Comverse, while Tata Industries invested $5 million in Tel Aviv University’s tech fund.

In pharmaceuticals, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries acquired Taro Pharmaceutical for $454 million, and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories invested in Edity Therapeutics. Indian Oil Corporation also poured $25 million into Phinergy’s clean energy ventures.

In agriculture, Jain Irrigation merged with Rivulis in a $546 million deal, and Triveni Engineering invested $4.5 million in Aqwise wastewater systems. Israeli companies such as IDE Technologies and Tahal Group have won multi-million-dollar water infrastructure projects in India, while Mekorot, accused of cutting Gaza’s water supply to 22% during the siege, provides technical expertise in Mumbai and Punjab.

The report also highlights India’s 2023 labor agreement with Israel to send 42,000 Indian workers—a policy critics say helped replace Palestinian laborers barred from work during Israel’s Gaza offensive.

From solidarity to complicity

The study argues that India’s historic solidarity with Palestine has collapsed under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who “abandoned humanitarian and principled support of Palestine and became a partner of Israel.” It cites India’s abstention from the April 2024 UN vote on a Gaza arms embargo as evidence of “moral bankruptcy.”

“India, which historically championed Palestine, is today found to be morally bankrupt as we cozy up to the leaders of a genocidal state,” Puthige writes in the preface. “Corporations are reaping profits from their investments in Israel without questioning the genocide.”

Drawing on UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s report From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide, the CFA paper warns that corporations knowingly investing in Israel’s military ecosystem risk criminal liability under international law.

“Financial and managerial control over a corporate entity engaged in the crime is sufficient to establish the basis for individual criminal responsibility,” the report notes, quoting Albanese.

The CFA calls for public accountability, urging the Indian government and corporations to halt all arms, technology, and infrastructure collaborations with Israel.

“This is not merely about trade,” Bhushan said.

“It is about whether India will be remembered as a nation that upheld its anti-colonial principles—or one that profited from a genocide.”

Quoting novelist Omar El Akkad, the report warns against silence in the face of atrocities:

“One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.”