[News] How China is quietly aiding Israel's settlement enterprise
Anti-Imperialist News
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Tue May 13 10:45:53 EDT 2025
How China is quietly aiding Israel's settlement enterprise
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/users/razan-shawamreh> Razan Shawamreh
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/users/razan-shawamreh>
13 May 2025
-https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/china-quietly-aiding-israels-settlement-enterprise-how
Away from Beijing's lofty rhetoric about defending Palestinians, Chinese
firms are helping to sustain illegal settlements
Construction cranes are pictured at Ramat Shlomo, an Israeli settlement
in occupied East Jerusalem, on 7 February 2025 (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)
Construction cranes are pictured at Ramat Shlomo, an Israeli settlement
in occupied East Jerusalem, on 7 February 2025 (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)
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“No need, Razan, for you to go to China
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/china> - come to Huwara, China
is here.” Though said jokingly by my friend Ahmad, who asked his full
name be withheld for security reasons, these words carried a heavy truth.
Huwara is a small Palestinian village
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-palestine-huwwara-settler-target-destruction-how>
near Nablus, surrounded by some of the most violent and ideologically
extreme Zionist settlements in the country, including Yitzhar
<https://www.972mag.com/yitzhar-hilltop-settler-violence/>.
When I asked what he meant, he told me: “Chinese workers are living and
working in nearby settlements. I see them regularly in the village
streets, shopping at local Palestinian
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/palestine> stores.”
That offhand remark a couple of months ago pushed me to investigate
further. I spoke with Palestinians across the occupied West Bank and
collected their testimonies. Ali, who lives in Ramallah near the Beit El
settlement, told me: “I’ve seen dozens of Chinese workers building homes
and infrastructure in Beit El.”
Saeed, from Hebron, recalled that “during the Covid-19
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/covid> pandemic, settlers even
quarantined the Chinese workers separately from others”.
Such testimonies reveal an uncomfortable truth: Chinese labour is
actively and visibly contributing to the construction of Israeli
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel> settlements on occupied
Palestinian land.
Ironically, this reality stands in direct contradiction to China’s own
stated policy; a decade ago, it forbade
<https://apnews.com/general-news-85272d3ae3fd4a6e8ad17261f44af9dc>
Chinese construction crews from working in Israeli settlements.
Back to 2015, China signed a bilateral
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/2015-06-07/ty-article/china-wants-to-bar-its-laborers-from-working-in-settlements/0000017f-e21d-d38f-a57f-e65ff8ed0000>
labour agreement with Israel that included a stipulation preventing
Chinese workers from being employed in the Occupied West Bank. Notably,
this condition
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/2015-06-07/ty-article/china-wants-to-bar-its-laborers-from-working-in-settlements/0000017f-e21d-d38f-a57f-e65ff8ed0000>
was motivated by safety concerns rather than by a principled stance
against the illegality or immorality of settlement construction.
However, in 2016, these safety concerns appeared to have diminished when
China acquired Ahava <https://en.imsilkroad.com/p/62480.html>, a
settlement-based company located in Mitzpe Shalem.
One year later, both countries signed another labour agreement to bring
in 6000
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-signs-deal-to-bring-chinese-construction-workers-but-they-wont-work-in-west-bank/> Chinese
construction workers to Israel under the same conditions. Israeli
Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon confirmed the deal was
“based on the concern for the safety and security of the workers”.
However, Chinese officials responded by stating that “the real issue was
not safety, but China’s objection to construction in the settlements.”
Yet my interviews with residents - from Nablus to Ramallah to Hebron -
made clear that Chinese workers remain present and involved in
settlement expansion. This raises serious questions about the sincerity
of China’s supposed opposition to Israeli settlement activity.
'Pioneers of our days'
Amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/israel-war-gaza>, Chinese
officials have publicly expressed concerns over increased settler
violence
<https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/us-uk-china-demand-end-to-israeli-settler-violence-in-west-bank/3310691>
in the occupied West Bank. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian stated
<https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/xw/fyrbt/lxjzh/202409/t20240919_11493204.html>
in September last year that Israel must “stop the illegal settlement
activities in the West Bank”.
But while Beijing speaks of restraint, Chinese companies act in support
of occupation <https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/occupation> and the
settler-colonial project in Palestine.
One of the most striking examples is Adama Agricultural Solutions, a
former Israeli company nowfully owned
<https://www.reuters.com/article/business/chemchina-seals-combination-of-israels-adama-with-sanonda-idUSKCN11J1Z2/>
by the Chinese state-run firm China National Chemical Corporation
(ChemChina). Amid the Gaza war, Adama mobilised its workers “to support
farmers who have been suffering from a shortage of workers … [including]
farmers in the south, in the surrounding residents of the Gaza Envelope
and in the northern settlements”, according to a report
<https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-773148> in the Jerusalem Post.
While Beijing voices opposition to settlement activity, its economic
ties with Israel strengthen the foundations of Zionist colonialism
Quoted in the same report, a representative of Adama said: “The farmers
of the country, and the farmers of the settlements around Gaza in
particular, are the pioneers of our days and their continued work is
necessary to maintain the security of the country.
"These days they return to cultivate their lands alongside enormous pain
and a lack of working hands. At Adama we have the right to help them in
times of routine, and to stand by them also in times of crisis.”
In January 2024, Adama went further, launching
<https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-784022> a scholarship fund of
around one million shekels ($275,000) to support academic degrees in
agriculture for residents of the Gaza Envelope and northern settlements.
Adama has a long history of collaborating with settler institutions. Its
products have been used
<https://www.whoprofits.org/companies/company/6596> in agricultural
trials conducted in Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley, and even
more troubling, one of its herbicides
<https://investigate.afsc.org/company/adama> has been used by a
contractor of the Israeli military in aerial spraying that has destroyed
vegetation along the Gaza border.
While China presents itself as a neutral or sympathetic actor in the
conflict, its ownership of Adama links it directly to the militarised
destruction of Palestinian livelihoods.
Supporting colonial entrenchment
This is not an isolated case. In recent years, several state-owned
Chinese companies, along with other private Chinese firms, have invested
<https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/GGTIPFMCZ5JFYRQWWG5M/full?target=10.1080/0377919X.2024.2447229#abstract>
directly or indirectly in Israeli settlements or companies operating
within them.
Take the case of Tnuva, a major Israeli food producer that operates in
illegal settlements. Despite international calls to boycott the company,
China’s state-owned conglomerate Bright Food acquired a 56 percent stake
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/chinese-state-company-buys-controlling-stake-in-tnuva/>
in Tnuva in 2014.
In 2021, Tnuva won a tender
<https://www.ifi.today/news/1885-Public-transportation-revolution-reaches-the-Jerus/>
to operate 22 public transportation lines that serve 16 settlements in
Mateh Yehuda - all built on occupied land in East Jerusalem and the West
Bank. These aren’t just buses; they’re infrastructure supporting
colonial entrenchment, making settler life easier and more permanent.
Another example is the 2016 acquisition
<https://www.reuters.com/article/ahava-ma-fosun-idUSL3N17E1FH/> by
China’s Fosun Group of Ahava, a cosmetics brand whose manufacturing is
based in the Mitzpe Shalem settlement. Ahava, the target of a global
boycott campaign
<https://bdsmovement.net/news/boycott-ahava-dead-sea-products-makes-impact>,
was previously identified by the UN General Assembly as part
<https://bdsarabic.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/a-67-379-sr-opt-report-arabic.pdf>
of the illegal settlement enterprise.
All the while, Chinese diplomats continue to issue calls for Israel to
halt its settlement expansion. Former ambassador Zhang Jun told
<http://un.china-mission.gov.cn/eng/hyyfy/202311/t20231111_11178649.htm>
the UN Security Council in late 2023: “We urge Israel to curb the
intensifying settler violence in the West Bank, so as to avoid the
concurring hotspot and the spread of conflict.” His successor, Fu Cong,
echoed that message, urging
<https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/xw/zwbd/202409/t20240920_11493452.html>
Israel to “stop its illegal settlement activities in the West Bank”.
But what about China’s own involvement in these very activities? The
UN’s human rights agency regularly reports
<https://www.un.org/unispal/document/ohchr-report-02aug24/> on
businesses involved in settlement-related activities, and yet Chinese
companies continue such collaborations.
According to numerous UN resolutions, Israeli settlements constitute a
flagrant violation of international law
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/international-law>. China’s
actions directly contradict the legal principles it claims to uphold.
While Beijing voices opposition to settlement activity, its economic
ties with Israel strengthen the foundations of Zionist colonialism, at
the expense of Palestinian rights. What’s more disturbing is how
effectively these investments have remained under the radar - quietly
sustaining apartheid, while Beijing speaks of an independent Palestinian
state.
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