Indian activists have called on the country’s politicians to immediately suspend all weapons sales to Israel, warning that several Indian companies were financially benefiting from Israel’s war on Gaza.
In a letter sent to Indian parliamentarians on Wednesday, Bengaluru for Justice and Peace (BfJP) said that nine Bengaluru-based companies were providing Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries and Raphael Advanced Defense Systems with critical weapons components.
The group, made up by a coalition of close to two dozen groups in the southern Indian city, called upon parliamentarians to follow a Palestinian demand for an arms embargo, including a ban on the export and transit of weapons from India, as well as for an urgent review and suspension of all contracts linked to the export of weapons and military equipment to Israel.
“Why are Indian companies, particularly operating under the state-sponsored initiative of Make in India, so closely tied to the Israeli regime?” the BfJP letter said.
“The role of corporate entities in sustaining the illegal Israeli occupation and its genocidal campaign in Gaza, is one that must concern you greatly,” it added.
New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on
Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters
In recent weeks, pressure has been mounting on states to suspend arms sales to Israel as cases of starvation explode in the besieged Palestinian enclave. At least two children died of hunger on Thursday, bringing the death toll to at least 197.
On Friday, Germany became the latest European country to suspend military exports to Israel. It said it was doing so in response to Israel’s plan to fully occupy the Palestinian enclave.
Aishwarya R, one of the lead writers of the BfJPb letter, said that the Indian public needed to move beyond mere acts of solidarity towards being better educated on India’s complicity in the devastating 22-month war.
“The idea of writing an open letter is to also speak to the Indian public and educate ourselves about the names of companies that are selling arms to Israel,” she told Middle East Eye.
“It is also a call to other people’s movements and groups in India, which have stood in solidarity with Palestine, to conduct similar research and call out the companies in public,” she added.
Citing a report published by Workers in Palestine in late 2023, BfJP said that at least nine Benguluru-based companies were supplying components and parts to Israeli weapon manufacturers.
Since then, the relationships appear to have thrived despite New Delhi claiming it supports a future Palestinian state.
Entrenched support for Israel
Shortly after Israel declared war on Gaza, Indian companies routinely sent weapons to Israel, with reports in February 2024 claiming that Indian-assembled Israeli combat drones were sent to Israel for potential use in the enclave.
In May, the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) revealed that between October 2023 and April 2025, the Banguluru-based SASMOS HET Technologies Ltd – one of the companies listed by BfJP in its letter to Indian lawmakers – sent components worth an estimated $25m to four Israeli arms companies.
In their letter, the activists said mounting evidence suggested that Indian companies were still sending components to Israeli arms companies in contravention of the obligation of third-party actors in light of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling of a “plausible” genocide in Gaza.
“These companies collaborating with Israeli firms to manufacture lethal components and parts of weapons used in indiscriminate civilian attacks places it squarely in violation of international human rights law and constitutional principles,” the letter said.
“We refuse to accept that our city’s economy is being built on the rubble of the Gazan landscape today,” the letter added.
Ties between India and Israel have continued to blossom since 2023, despite a growing number of countries, international legal experts and human rights groups calling Israel’s war on Gaza a genocide.
Since the war began, more than 61,000 Palestinians have been killed, including at least 18,430 children, and over 150,000 have been wounded. Meanwhile, the entire population is facing famine.
With the United Nations Security Council hamstrung by the US veto, activists and people of conscience across the globe are searching for ways to make their actions more meaningful and productive.
In India, too, activists say they are trying to defy state censure and efforts to criminalise pro-Palestine protests.
The efforts to mobilise for Palestine, they say, are dovetailing with attempts to organise ordinary Indians to understand the full extent of the consequences of the Indian state’s tie-up with Israel.
The BfJP said most of the nine companies identified in their report were derived from a 2023 report from Workers in Palestine, which noted how Indian companies were exporting arms components to Israel.
India and Israel meet to deepen military ties in sign of solidarity amid Gaza atrocities
“Beyond arms sales to India, Israel’s major military companies have outsourced the production of vital components to Indian counterparts. They participate directly in the production of arms used by the Israeli military – currently carrying out a genocidal assault on Gaza,” Workers in Palestine said in their report.
Workers in Palestine noted that the companies were a combination of publicly-owned giants and private companies, as well as medium-sized companies.
Several were within the broader Bengaluru neighbourhood and used the local airport, the group said.
Under Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, trade and research ties between the two countries have accelerated, with the duo upgrading ties to “strategic partners” in July 2017.
Since October 2023, there have been closer and more deliberate outreach from Israeli colleges and weapons companies to Indian institutions of higher learning.
These interactions and exchanges have fuelled speculation that Israel was looking to foment new hubs of defence and technology research for its armed forces.
Since Israeli forces invaded Gaza in October 2023, the Indian government has looked to present itself as a key ally of the Israeli effort.
The diplomatic support abroad included actively discouraging Indians from raising or mobilising the issue of Palestine at home.
“In cities all over the country, people who have spoken up for Palestine have been targeted, harassed and criminalised,” Ashwariya R said, adding that the deeper entanglements between both states were making it harder to organise for Palestine.
“Our work is therefore cut out for us. We not only have to work in an environment where protests are criminalised, but we need to work until the Indian government, as well as corporates, can be held accountable for their complicit role in Israel’s war crimes,” the activist added.
In August 2024, several prominent scholars and activists called on the Indian government to halt the issuing of permits to export arms, drones and other explosives to Israel.
At the time, Arundhati Roy, the acclaimed writer and activist, called on Delhi to halt the sale and export of arms and ammunition to Israel or “forever be linked to the genocide in Gaza”.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
