In October 2006, a new kind of injury surfaced in Gaza. Israeli munitions—fired after Hamas’ capture of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit—were leaving behind a peculiar bodily signature: “dusting” on internal organs. Bodies “fragmented, melted” without visible shrapnel—the metal particles were fine enough to settle on organs and evade x-rays. Stabilised patients died days later “without any apparent scientific cause”, said Jumaa Saqa’a, a doctor at Al Shifa Hospital.

Soon, a Rai24 investigation cleared the forensic haze: the injuries were dealt by a shadowy US-made experimental weapon. Without knowing it, Saqa’a had been treating the first victims of dense inert metal explosives, or DIMEs. “We have never seen this before,” said the Gaza health ministry.

Israel reused DIME bombs, which disperse micro shrapnel and are therefore illegal, during operations Cast Lead in 2009 and Protective Edge in 2014—the same year when new Indian PM Narendra Modi began “de-hyphenating” Israel-Palestine, upscaling security ties and tweeting in Hebrew.

Israel—now loudly endorsed by India—is the only known user of DIME bombs, which amputate by vapour then dissolve into tissue, possibly leading to cancerous symptoms for survivors. It deploys indiscriminate cluster munitions and is accused of “disappearing” victims with thermobaric bombs. In March, shortly after Modi’s much hyped visit, it dropped an incendiary weapon—white phosphorous—on Lebanon.

Partnering with Israel signals comfort with the use of such hardware. It affirms a security structure which includes opaque stockpiles of biological and nuclear weapons. The ethical deviance is branching on the software end: IDF culture has incorporated Lavender and Where’s Daddy—AI-powered target identification tools. Such tools were almost certainly behind the recent bombing of Tehran’s Police Park—an area, despite its name, with no ties to security forces.

These weapons-centric war crimes should concern the perpetrator’s largest weapons buyer, India. The association has already caused vast optical damage and exposes the exchequer to dark sales pitches (for example, for Lavender) which may succeed under the zionist BJP-led government.

Besides normalising what Israel considers usable weaponry, there exists the greater danger of incorporating Israeli tactics. During the Lebanon War in 2006, Israel evolved the Dahiyeh Doctrine—the use of disproportionate force against civilian infrastructure in order to mount the human and material cost beyond tolerance. It aims to deter adversaries by causing a consensus that no resistance is worth certain levels of suffering.

The security philosophy is unsparing even to Israelis. The IDF’s Hannibal Directive, designed to prevent the politics and concessions surrounding prisoner swaps, allows for killing Israeli hostages before they become bargaining chips. For Gilad Shalit to return home, Israel was forced to release 1,027 prisoners. It seeks to avoid such situations—as it did on October 7, 2023—by erasing potential leverage at source.

That the authors of this directive train Indian personnel is unsettling. Within months of Modi’s arrival, Indian special forces conducted their first joint drill with Israeli units, including the Shaldag Unit, part of the 2024 Al Shifa Hospital raid which left behind over four hundred victims across several mass graves.

More immediately pressing, however, is the overwhelming general condition. The IDF is presently engaged in an ethnic cleansing in Lebanon, a war of aggression in Iran, land seizures in the West Bank and Syria and a genocide in Gaza. Endorsing the IDF at this exceptionally violent juncture attaches India to these actions in a lasting way.

Public support for Israel is at a historic low and continues to sink, most notably in the US. The longterm fallout of its military actions could take formidable institutional form. It is quite possible that, in the near future, Israel will be held as a technically genocidal nation by two international courts, which would embolden calls to end the occupation of the West Bank and blockade of Gaza.

Israeli officials including PM Benjamin Netanyahu could be arrested by their allies; Britain, France, Germany and Canada are all Rome Statute signatories—bound to honour ICC warrants, which have been issued for Netanyahu and others. European countries are downgrading Israel ties and issuing arms embargos. Enabling Israel is fast becoming an electoral liability in North America and Europe; Kamala Harris’ failed presidential bid evidenced this notion. California governor Gavim Newsom—widely believed to be running for president in 2028—recently associated Israel with “apartheid”.

The multi-industry, transatlantic mechanism which did the heavy lifting for Israel’s image is fracturing. The taboos and impunity surrounding it are being questioned. It is being seen as a pariah state in consequential places. India has embraced Israel at a profoundly inopportune time.

“Special relationship”

Bar-Ilan University lecturer and ORF contributor Dr Dagan Amoss’ comments accurately reflect how Israel wishes to see its relations with India: “Common between India and Israel.. Is the Islamic radicalisation, especially the Sunni threat coming from Hamas in Gaza… And for India, it’s coming—from Pakistan and inside India—from the Sunni. (These) two years for them have been a very good lesson. What Israel did in Gaza, they want to do in Pakistan.”

Israel could be seeking to get its tools tested and tactics replicated in Pakistan. The more war crimes its allies commit, the less anomalous Israel looks. Netanyahu habitually points to the bombing of Dresden and Japanese cities as examples of “necessity” proving Israel is not a moral outlier. He may not mind adding Pakistani cities to that rhetoric. This is especially dangerous considering Israel’s history of goading and coercing its allies into conflict, including through false flag operations.

Israel seeks partners willing to overlook its human rights records. It has historically counteracted alienation by providing military solutions to nations which are then compelled to soften. This is the case with India, but worse: the relationship extends beyond sale and purchase.

India and Israel co-manufacture arms in Kanpur, Bengaluru, Gwalior and Hyderabad. The Hermes 900 UAV, made in Hyderabad and locally called the Drishti-10 Starliner, has been launched on Gaza. State-owned Munitions India Limited has made deliveries to Israel during the genocide. India is also boosting Israeli exports to other nations, successfully using Barack 8 missiles during the latest Pakistan conflict. Israel is heavily marketing them in Europe.

What the Jerusalem Post is describing as a “special relationship” is already making India a jarring presence in BRICS. Modi’s emotive messaging to Israel and Indian abstentions from Gaza ceasefire resolutions point to the dark pivot. The failure to condemn both former Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s assassination and the US’ sinking of an Iranian vessel—returning home after honouring an Indian invitation—trivialises historic ties with Iran.

Revolution of sight

The effect of Israel’s actions in Gaza cannot be understood in terms of revulsion alone. The severity of violence, coupled with the primal nature of its absorption, has forced a renegotiation of basic meaning.

It is the first by-the-minute, visually followed genocide; the deepest disillusionment arose from the act of sight. Opinions were majorly formed through an uninterrupted chain of images transmitted to a global population. In particular, images of starvation and mass pedicide have irrevocably turned opinion against Israel.

The discourse is shifting to fundamental assumptions, reconsidering the feeling and witnessing of bodily harm at the level of concept. Voting populations have never been more intimately informed about what military hardware does to the anatomy. The revulsion has thrown up basic questions about metal, chemical and flesh. Societies have been violently compelled to reconsider matter.

As zionism is discovering, this cannot be remedied by acquisitions and hasbara. India should not underestimate the political reckoning which will arise once civil disillusionment properly breaches institutions. It should distance itself from Israel before there is no choice but to share the reckoning.

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