China supports Palestine

HONG KONG — The Beijing Declaration, signed earlier this week, is yet another stunning Chinese diplomatic coup, but the document goes far beyond asserting China’s attractiveness.

The meeting of representatives of 14 Palestinian factions to commit to full reconciliation showed the world that the path to resolving intractable geopolitical problems is no longer one-sided: it is multipolar. multinodaland presents China, a member of the BRICS/Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) group, as an essential leader.

The concept of China as a peacemaking superpower is now so established that after the Iran-Saudi rapprochement and the signing of the Beijing Declaration, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba chose to tell his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing that Kiev was now finally ready to negotiate an end to the proxy war between NATO and Russia in Ukraine.

The Palestinians who came to Beijing were beaming with joy. Fatah Vice President Mahmoud al-Aloul said, “China is a light. China’s efforts are rare on the international stage.”

Hamas spokesman Hussam Badran said the Palestinian resistance movement accepted the Chinese invitation “with a positive spirit and patriotic responsibility.” All Palestinian factions reached consensus on “Palestinian demands to end the war,” adding that the “most important” part of the declaration is to form a government that builds a Palestinian national consensus to “manage the affairs of the people of Gaza and the West Bank, oversee reconstruction and create conditions for elections.”

China’s “three-step” proposal

Wang Yi got straight to the point: The Palestinian issue, the Chinese foreign minister said, is at the heart of everything that happens in West Asia. He stressed that Beijing

… has never had any selfish interests in the Palestinian issue. China is one of the first countries to recognize the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) and the State of Palestine and has always firmly supported the Palestinian people in restoring their legitimate national rights. What we value is morality and what we defend is justice.

What Wang did not say – and did not need to say – is that this position is the overwhelming position of the BRICS+, shared by the global majority, including, crucially, all Muslim countries.

It’s all in the name – everyone will notice in the near future that this is the “Beijing” statement that unequivocally supports a single Palestine.

It is no wonder that all political factions have had to rise to the occasion, pledging to support an independent Palestinian government with executive powers over Gaza and the occupied West Bank. But there is a catch: this will take place immediately after the war, which the Tel Aviv regime wants to prolong indefinitely.

Wang Yi suggested that China’s consistent historical stance in favor of Palestine could be a decisive factor in helping future Palestinian governance institutions. Beijing proposes three steps to achieve this:

First, a “comprehensive, durable and sustainable” ceasefire in Gaza as soon as possible, and “access to humanitarian aid and relief on the ground.”

Second, “joint efforts” – assuming Western participation – for “post-conflict governance of Gaza under the principle of ‘Palestinians governing Palestine’.” An urgent priority is to restart reconstruction “as soon as possible.” Beijing stresses that “the international community must support the Palestinian factions in establishing an interim national consensus government and achieve effective management of Gaza and the West Bank.”

Third, help Palestine “become a full member state of the UN” and implement the two-state solution. Beijing maintains that it is “important to support the convening of a broader, more authoritative and more effective international peace conference to develop a timetable and road map for the two-state solution.”

For all these ambitious goals, especially when it is clear that Israel has de facto buried the two-state solution – as evidenced by the recent Knesset vote rejecting any Palestinian state – at least China is directly proposing what the world majority unanimously considers to be a fair outcome.

It is also important to note the presence of diplomats from other BRICS countries (Russia, South Africa, Egypt and Saudi Arabia), alongside diplomats from Algeria, Qatar, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey, at the signing of the declaration.

Genocide as a wellness treatment

Now compare China’s diplomatic coup with the 58 standing ovations in the US Congress to Israel’s psychopath-in-chief who sells the notion of genocide as a feel-good cure.

The heroic reception given to Bibi Netanyahu in Washington elevates the notion of collective psychopathology to a new level. Yet complicity in the Gaza genocide is not exactly an exception when it comes to American political leadership.

The hegemon’s political “elites” – with the help of France and Britain – have also actively collaborated and used the Saudi and Emirati bombing and blockade of Yemen, which over the past nine years have collectively caused even more civilian deaths than in Gaza. The famine in Yemen is far from over, but this war has remained completely invisible to the West.

At least karma has finally played its part. China has facilitated the rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and Riyadh has become a member of BRICS+ and is deeply engaged in the process of de-dollarization, in which the petroyuan is emerging.

Moreover, the Yemeni resistance movement Ansarallah managed to single-handedly humiliate the US Navy. The US-British “revenge” consisted of opening a new war front, bombing Yemeni installations to protect Israeli shipping in the Red Sea and waterways beyond.

While Yemen is still at war on two fronts – against the hegemon and Israel while keeping an eye on possible Saudi machinations – Palestine continues to be decimated by an Israel fully supported by the United States. Beijing’s declaration will be meaningless if it is not implemented. But how?

Assuming partial success, the declaration could put a stop to the absolute impunity of the Tel Aviv-Washington agenda, because after the Beijing agreement, finding a collaborating Palestinian government to perpetuate the occupation could be much more difficult.

All Palestinian factions now owe a significant debt to China; the internal strife must end or Beijing will suffer a serious loss of face.

At the same time, Chinese leaders seem well aware that this gamble is a gamble by the Global South, exposing the hegemon’s hypocrisy to the world. Like the Saudi-Iran deal in Beijing, the picture could not be more encouraging, especially when compared to the US-Israeli refusal of a meaningful ceasefire.

Genuine Palestinian unity will also give added weight to every global initiative within the UN, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and other global forums.

But all this is nothing compared to the dramatic reality on the ground. The ideologically genocidal Israelis – fully supported by the American political “leaders” – continue to do what they really want: the mass murder and ethnic cleansing of millions of Palestinians, which, in theory, should lead to an absolute demographic majority in favor of Israeli expansion into all Palestinian territories.

This tragedy will not end soon. Beijing’s declaration will not make it stop. Only the hegemony cutting off its arms supply channel to Tel Aviv can force it to stop. Yet today, what we see in Washington is 58 standing ovations for genocide.

The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The Cradle.