Israeli envoy sparks outrage in India over ‘shameful’ jibe at opposition leader

NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — Israeli Ambassador Reuven Azar has ignited a political and diplomatic firestorm in India after publicly branding opposition MP Priyanka Gandhi “shameful” for condemning what she called Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The remark, delivered in a post on X, was swiftly condemned by Indian opposition leaders, rights activists, and analysts as an unprecedented breach of diplomatic norms and an attempt to insert Israeli propaganda into India’s domestic political discourse.

Priyanka Gandhi, a senior leader of the main opposition Congress Party is daughter of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and sister of Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi.

She had issued one of the strongest statements yet by an Indian politician on the war in Gaza.

“The Israeli state is committing genocide,” she wrote.

“It has murdered over 60,000 people, 18,430 of whom were children. It has starved hundreds to death including many children and is threatening to starve millions. Enabling these crimes by silence and inaction is a crime in itself. It is shameful that the Indian Government stands silent as Israel unleashes this devastation on the people of Palestine.”

Azar accused Gandhi of deceit and repeated Israel’s long-standing defense: inflate the number of alleged combatants killed and shift blame for civilian deaths to Hamas.

“What is shameful is your deceit,” he posted.

“Israel killed 25,000 Hamas terrorists. The terrible cost in human lives derives from Hamas’s heinous tactics of hiding behind civilians, their shooting of people trying to evacuate or receive assistance, and their rocket fire.”

Human rights groups and UN investigators have already dismissed Israel’s casualty breakdown as unverifiable and inconsistent with independent data. Most of Gaza’s dead are civilians, including thousands of children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and international humanitarian agencies.

Azar’s claim that 25,000 fighters were killed was offered without evidence and contradicts field reports.

Rights advocates say this tactic is central to the Israeli government’s propaganda playbook: redefine civilian deaths as militant casualties, then use that distortion to evade accountability for alleged war crimes.

The ambassador’s comments triggered a sharp backlash from Indian lawmakers.

Kashmiri MP Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi said an “ambassador of a genocidal regime” had “the audacity to speak in an intimidating language” to an elected representative.

He called it “an act of aggression” that any country valuing its sovereignty should counter with firm diplomatic action.

Congress leader Pawan Khera called the episode “unprecedented and intolerable,” saying “the ambassador of a state accused of genocide worldwide” had targeted an Indian MP in “a direct affront to the dignity of Indian democracy.”

He said no amount of “deflection or whitewashing” could hide Israel’s actions from the world.

Trinamool Congress MP from West Bengal Saket Gokhale accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of enabling the attack.

“It is a matter of immense shame that the Modi Govt is now using the Ambassador of Israel to attack an Opposition MP in India,” he said.

The row comes as Gaza’s humanitarian crisis deepens. The territory’s Health Ministry reported five more Palestinians dead from hunger, bringing the total starvation-related death toll to 227 — including 103 children. Israel’s blockade on food and aid has been condemned by the United Nations as collective punishment.

International anger is also growing over Israel’s killing of five Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza, in what the network says was a targeted strike on a press tent near Al-Shifa Hospital. Protests demanding accountability have erupted in London, Berlin, Tunis, and Ramallah.

Azar’s intervention in Indian politics comes while Israel is defending itself against genocide charges at the International Court of Justice.

Opponents say it exposes the hypocrisy of a state that demands impunity for its own actions while seeking to intimidate and discredit those who speak out.

For many analysts, the controversy also signals a dangerous shift in India’s foreign policy under Modi — away from its historic solidarity with Palestine’s struggle against occupation, and toward tacit endorsement of Israeli disinformation campaigns and military siege tactics in Gaza.