[News] China throws clout behind Palestine

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 China throws clout behind Palestine

The Beijing Declaration cements the idea that global conflict resolution is
now Made in China. But it also throws a wrench in US–Israeli efforts to
manufacture a collaborator Palestinian government after the war in Gaza.

Pepe Escobar <https://thecradle.co/authors/pepe-escobar>

JUL 26, 2024 -
https://thecradle.co/articles/china-throws-clout-behind-palestine
(Photo Credit: The Cradle)

HONG KONG – The Beijing Declaration
<https://www.mfa.gov.cn/eng/zxxx_662805/202407/t20240723_11458788.html>,
signed earlier this week, constitutes yet another stunning Chinese
diplomatic coup, but the document goes far beyond affirming China’s pull.

The gathering <https://thecradle.co/articles-id/26068> of representatives
of 14 Palestinian factions to commit to full reconciliation showed the
entire world that the road to solving intractable geopolitical problems is
no longer unilateral: it is multipolar, *multi-nodal*, and features
BRICS/Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member China as an
inescapable leader.

The concept of China as a peacemaking superpower is now so established that
after the Iran–Saudi Arabia 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 is now finally ready to
negotiate the end of the NATO–Russia proxy war in Ukraine.

Palestinians who came to Beijing were beaming. For Fatah Vice Chairman
Mahmoud al-Aloul, “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 have reached a consensus on
“Palestinian demands to end the war,” adding that the “most important” part
of the declaration is to form a government that builds Palestinian national
consensus to “manage the affairs of the people of Gaza and the West Bank,
oversee reconstruction, and create conditions for elections.”

*The “three-step” Chinese proposal *

Wang Yi cut to the chase: the Palestinian issue, says the Chinese foreign
minister, is at the core of everything in West Asia. He emphasized 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 advocate is justice.

What Wang did not say – and didn’t need to – is that this position is the
overwhelming BRICS+ position, shared by the Global Majority, including,
crucially, all Muslim countries.

It’s all in a name – everyone in the foreseeable future will note this is
the “Beijing” declaration unequivocally supporting One Palestine.

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

What Wang Yi left somewhat implicit is that China’s consistent historical
position supporting Palestine may be a decisive factor in helping future
Palestinian governance institutions. Beijing is proposing three steps to
get there:

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

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

Third, help Palestine “to 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 broad-based, more authoritative, and more
effective international peace conference to work out a timetable and road
map for the two-state solution.”

For all the lofty aims, especially when it is patently clear that Israel
has de facto buried the two-state solution – as witnessed in the Knesset’s
recent vote
<https://thecradle.co/articles-id/25987#:~:text=The%20resolution%20was%20passed%20with,Palestinian%20state%20west%20of%20Jordan.>
to
reject any Palestinian state – at least China is directly proposing what
the Global Majority unanimously considers as a fair outcome.

Also important to note is the presence of diplomats from China’s fellow
BRICS members Russia, South Africa, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, alongside
diplomats from Algeria, Qatar, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkiye at the
signing of the declaration.

*Genocide as a wellness treatment*

Now compare China’s diplomatic coup with the US Congress giving 58 standing
ovations to Israel’s psychopath-in-chief peddling the notion of genocide as
a wellness treatment.

Bibi Netanyahu’s hero’s welcome in Washington takes the notion of
collective psychopathology to new heights. And yet complicity in the Gaza
genocide is not exactly an exception to the rule when it comes to American
political leadership.

The Hegemon’s political “elites” – with Franco-British help – have also
been active collaborators and weaponizers of the oppressive Saudi and
Emirati bombing and blockade of Yemen, which, over nine years, collectively
caused even more civilian deaths than in Gaza. Famine in Yemen is far from
over, yet this has been a completely invisible war to the collective west.


At least karma ended up intervening. China promoted the rapprochement
between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and Riyadh has become a BRICS+ member and
deeply engaged in the de-dollarization drive, in which the petroyuan is
emerging.

Moreover, the Yemeni resistance movement Ansarallah managed to
single-handedly humiliate the US Navy. The US–UK “revenge” was to open
another war front, bombing Yemeni installations to protect Israeli shipping
in the Red Sea and waterways beyond.

As much as Yemen remains at war on two fronts – against the Hegemon and
Israel while keeping an eye on potential Saudi shenanigans – Palestine
continues to be decimated by a fully US-backed Israel. The Beijing
Declaration will not mean anything if not implemented. But how?

Assuming a partial success, the declaration may be able to put a spanner in
the works of the absolute impunity of the Tel Aviv–Washington agenda
because after the Beijing deal, finding a collaborator Palestine government
to perpetuate the occupation could be much more difficult.

All Palestinian factions now owe China a serious debt; internal squabbling
will have to cease. Otherwise, it would amount to a serious loss of face
for Beijing.

At the same time, the Chinese leadership seems very much aware that this
bet is a Global South bet – laying bare the Hegemon’s hypocrisy for the
whole world to see. Much like the Saudi–Iran deal clinched in Beijing, the
optics could not be more auspicious, especially when compared to the
Israeli–American refusal of a meaningful ceasefire.

Real Palestine unity will also give extra bite to each and every global
initiative at the UN, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and other
global forums.

All of the above, though, pales in comparison to the dire facts on the
ground. The ideologically genocidal Israelis – fully supported by US
political “leadership” – continue to get away with what they really want:
the outright mass murder-cum-ethnic cleansing of millions of Palestinians,
something that, in theory, should lead to an absolute demographic
majority for Israel’s expansion into all Palestinian lands.

This tragedy will not stop anytime soon. The Beijing Declaration won’t make
it stop. Only the Hegemon severing its weapons funnel to Tel Aviv can force
it to stop. Yet today, what we’re instead seeing from Washington is 58
standing ovations for genocide.
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