<div dir="ltr"><b><font size="6">Gaza war evokes Vietnam's own struggle, past unity with Palestine</font></b><div><div class="gmail-css-15dx29c"><div><div class="gmail-longform-block"><div class="gmail-longform-hero"><div class="gmail-longform-hero__content"><p class="gmail-longform-hero__summary">Vietnam
sees rare political activism in support of Palestinians as war on Gaza
recalls once-shared solidarity in fight for national liberation.</p></div><div class="gmail-longform-hero__background-media gmail-longform-hero__background-media--desktop gmail-longform-hero__background-media-image-overlay"><div class="gmail-responsive-image"><img src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/1999-04-09T000000Z_185403303_RP1DRIIMHSAB_RTRMADP_3_MIDEAST-ARAFAT-VIETNAM-1709714328.jpg?resize=1920%2C1080&quality=80" alt="Palestinian President Yasser Arafat walks with Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong as he inspects an honour guard at his formal welcoming ceremony in Hanoi April 9. Arafat has been on a whirlwind international tour aimed at gauging support for a unilateral Palestinian declaration of independence once an interim self-rule agreement with Israel expires in May. AJS/DL" width="408" height="230" style="margin-right: 25px;"></div></div></div><div class="gmail-l-col gmail-l-col--8--centered gmail-longform-hero__caption gmail-longform-hero__caption--desktop">Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat inspects an honour guard with Vietnamese
President Tran Duc Luong in Hanoi in 1999 [File: AFP]</div></div><div class="gmail-container"><div class="gmail-container__inner"><div class="gmail-l-col gmail-l-col--8--centered"><div class="gmail-article-info-block"><div class="gmail-article-b-l" style="border-color:rgb(250,144,0)"><div class="gmail-article-author-name"><span class="gmail-article-by">By </span><span class="gmail-article-author-name-item">Hai Dang</span></div><div class="gmail-article-dates" style="border-color:rgb(250,144,0)"><div class="gmail-date-simple gmail-css-1yjq2zp"><span class="gmail-screen-reader-text">Published On 30 Mar 2024</span> - <font size="1"><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2024/3/30/gaza-war-reminds-vietnam-of-liberation-struggle-once-shared-with-palestine">https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2024/3/30/gaza-war-reminds-vietnam-of-liberation-struggle-once-shared-with-palestine</a></font></div></div></div><div class="gmail-social-share-buttons"><a class="gmail-social-share-button" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-label="Share on Facebook" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Faje.io%2Fsp9llp"></a></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><a class="gmail-social-share-button" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-label="Share on Twitter" href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Gaza%20war%20reminds%20Vietnam%20of%20liberation%20struggle%20once%20shared%20with%20Palestine&source=sharethiscom&related=sharethis&via=AJEnglish&url=https%3A%2F%2Faje.io%2Fsp9llp"></a><a class="gmail-social-share-button gmail-copylink" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-label="Copy link" href="https://aje.io/sp9llp"><span class="gmail-copylink__tooltip gmail-copylink__tooltip-hidden"></span></a><div class="gmail-container"><div class="gmail-container__inner"><div class="gmail-l-col gmail-l-col--8--centered"><div class="gmail-longform-text"><div class="gmail-wysiwyg gmail-css-1kw180w"><p><strong>Hanoi, Vietnam</strong>
- At a private venue tucked away in a narrow alley in Hanoi's city
centre, a group of more than 20 people listened attentively to Saleem
Hammad, a charismatic, 30-year-old Palestinian man, as he spoke in
fluent Vietnamese.</p>
<p>Hammad, who runs a business in Vietnam, shared an incident from his childhood in Jenin in the occupied West Bank.</p>
<p>Those present listened as he recounted a vivid memory of being awoken
one night as Israeli soldiers surrounded and raided his family home.</p>
<p>Earlier, he had told those attending the discussion that Vietnam’s history of <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/4/28/whitewashing-vietnam">fighting for liberation against the United States</a> had inspired Palestinians in their struggle against Israel’s occupation of their lands.</p>
<p>"Vietnamese people, with their painful and glorious history, have
always been the source of inspiration for the Palestinians in our
struggle for justice,” Hammad told his audience.</p>
<p>“We always look up to you as the role model.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/26/un-expert-accuses-israel-of-several-acts-of-genocide-in-gaza">Horrified by Israel’s war on Gaza</a>
and the spiralling death toll, primarily young Vietnamese people have
begun to raise their voices in support of Palestinians. In the process,
they are discovering historical ties between Vietnam and Palestine and
their shared fights for national liberation.</p></div></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail-longform-block"><div class="gmail-container"><div class="gmail-container__inner"><div class="gmail-l-col gmail-l-col--8--centered"><div class="gmail-longform-text"><div class="gmail-wysiwyg gmail-css-1kw180w"><p>But the decades-old relationship between the two nations has been
overshadowed by more recent promotion of Israel’s business culture to a
younger generation of Vietnamese.</p>
<p>Focused on achieving success in Vietnam’s fast-growing free market
economy, many have been inspired by Israel's startup business culture
while knowing little about the darker side of Israel's success in terms
of its long occupation of Palestinian land.</p>
<p>Organised late last year by pro-Palestinian activists Trinh* and
Vuong*, the gathering where Hammad spoke was inspired by the student
activism the pair encountered while studying in the US.</p>
<p>Trinh and Vuong are part of a burgeoning grassroots movement among
Vietnamese youth who have been drawn to the Palestinian cause since the
war on Gaza started in October.</p>
<p>But Vietnam's strict policies against public assemblies and political
activism means pro-Palestinian campaigners have to come up with low-key
and creative ways of organising events without attracting the unwanted
attention of Vietnamese authorities.</p>
<p>In Ho Chi Minh City, Trinh and some friends have organised
discussions on Palestine and drawing classes with a Palestinian theme. A
designer by training, Trinh has also worked with fellow creatives to
design pro-Palestine merchandise, political art and fanzines.</p>
<img class="gmail-size-arc-image-770 gmail-wp-image-2801583" src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/IMG_8360-1711525398.jpg?w=770&quality=80" alt="Vietnamese youth create art in support of Palestine [Courtesy of Cat Nguyen]" width="408" height="271" style="margin-right: 25px;">Vietnamese youth create art in support of Palestine [Courtesy of Tu Ly]
<p>In November, a screening of documentaries and films on Palestine, the
Nakba and the history of Israel's occupation of Palestine took place
under the title Films for Liberation: Palestine Forever with the aim,
according to the organisers, of undoing "the demonising descriptions of
the Palestinians" by "Western and imperialist" actors.</p>
<p>On social media, a host of Vietnamese-language fan pages has sprung
up featuring translated Palestinian poems, pro-Palestine artwork and
analyses on the history of the conflict while the embassy of Palestine
in Vietnam invited former veterans of the war against the US, academics,
activists and members of the public to a commemoration for those killed
in Gaza.</p>
<p>On November 29, which is the United Nations-designated International
Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Vietnam’s government also
published a message from then-President Vo Van Thuong in which he spoke
of the long history of fraternity between Vietnam and Palestine and
"Vietnam's strong support and solidarity with the Palestinians in their
struggle for justice".</p>
<p>But the relationship between Vietnam and Palestine is not as it once was.</p>
</div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail-longform-block"><div class="gmail-longform-hero"><div class="gmail-longform-hero__content"><h2 class="gmail-longform-hero__title gmail-longform-hero__title--large">'Every day in Gaza, there's another Kham Thien'</h2><p class="gmail-longform-hero__summary">Israel's destruction of Gaza reminds Vietnamese of US bombing campaign targeting Hanoi's Kham Thien neighbourhood in 1972 .</p></div><div class="gmail-longform-hero__background-media gmail-longform-hero__background-media--desktop gmail-longform-hero__background-media-image-overlay"><div class="gmail-responsive-image"><img src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/DSC04155-1711434266.jpg?resize=1920%2C1080&quality=80" alt="Then and now Caption: A slide at the teach-in in Hanoi, drawing analogies between Vietnam and Palestinian's suffering in their respective struggles for liberation (credit: Tứ Ly) (Restricted UseRestricted UseRestricted Use)" width="408" height="230" style="margin-right: 25px;"></div></div></div><div class="gmail-l-col gmail-l-col--8--centered gmail-longform-hero__caption gmail-longform-hero__caption--desktop">A
projector slide juxtaposes images from the US war on Vietnam with
Israel's war on Gaza during a discussion in Hanoi focused on Palestine
and the war on Gaza [Courtesy of Tu Ly]</div></div><div class="gmail-longform-block"><div class="gmail-container"><div class="gmail-container__inner"><div class="gmail-l-col gmail-l-col--8--centered"><div class="gmail-longform-text"><div class="gmail-wysiwyg gmail-css-1kw180w"><p>Projected
on the wall at a meeting of pro-Palestinian Vietnamese activists were
two images of war: one of Gaza in 2023 after an Israeli air strike and
another of the rubble left after the bombing of the Kham Thien
neighbourhood in Hanoi more than 50 years ago.</p>
<p>Then-US President Richard Nixon had ordered the Christmas period
bombing of the North Vietnamese capital in 1972, and Kham Thien suffered
the most severe devastation. Over 12 consecutive days and nights
starting on December 18, about 20,000 tonnes of bombs were dropped on
Hanoi as well as the busy northern port city of Hai Phong and several
other localities.</p>
<p>The juxtaposition of the two images and the historical echoes of the two wars – whether to "flatten Gaza" or <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/30/henry-kissinger-10-conflicts-countries-that-define-a-blood-stained-legacy">"bomb North Vietnam back to the Stone Age"</a>
– form part of a reservoir of shared symbols that have fuelled the
current mood of Vietnam-Palestine solidarity among young Vietnamese.</p>
<p>History is on repeat, said Hung*, a 20-year-old student whose father
and grandparents lived through the 1972 Christmas bombings by US forces.</p>
<p>"Looking at what's happening in Gaza, I couldn't help thinking of the
story my father told me of a day during his childhood when he watched
in horror as bombs were dropped near [Hanoi's] West Lake and shortly
afterwards he felt a gale blowing in his direction and the shockwave
pressing against his chest,” Hung told Al Jazeera.</p>
<p>“Now, precisely that is happening to everyone in Gaza day in, day out," he said.</p>
<p>"Every day in Gaza, there's another Kham Thien."</p>
<p>At pro-Palestine meetings across the country, similar links between
Israel’s war on Gaza and the US war on Vietnam are being made and
wartime analogies are being used by young activists to introduce the
Palestinian cause to new audiences.</p>
<p>Images of a Vietnamese female fighter from the war years wearing a
traditional "ran" scarf and standing alongside a female Palestinian
fighter in a keffiyeh are being printed on tote-bags and stickers. The
fighters hold a door key aloft, symbolising the homes Palestinians lost
in 1948 during their forced removal by Israeli forces in the period
known as <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/15/nakba-mapping-palestinian-villages-destroyed-by-israel-in-1948">the Nakba, or “catastrophe”</a>, when at least 750,000 Palestinians were violently displaced and dispossessed.</p>
<p>The words below the fighters in Arabic and Vietnamese declare: <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/2/from-the-river-to-the-sea-what-does-the-palestinian-slogan-really-mean">"From the river to the sea"</a>.</p>
<img class="gmail-size-arc-image-770 gmail-wp-image-2801609" src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/vnpal2-1711526542.jpg?w=737&quality=80" alt="" width="408" height="325" style="margin-right: 25px;">Pro-Palestinian
artwork on display in Hanoi features a fighter from the Vietnamese
national liberation struggle and a Palestinian fighter above the words
in Arabic and Vietnamese: "From the river to the sea" [Courtesy of Cat
Nguyen]
<p>Through art, discussion and other means of expression,
pro-Palestinian activists in Vietnam are helping their peers understand
concepts such as Zionism, the Nakba, the Oslo Accords and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/27/palestine-and-israel-brief-history-maps-and-charts">settler colonialism.</a></p>
<p>And step by step, they are reasserting the context and history of
Palestinian loss and removal that narratives in Vietnam in local media
and books omit in their telling of Israel’s emergence as an economic
success story.</p>
<p>Phuong, a Vietnamese painter based in Italy who launched the online
fan page Palestinian Poems, said she has been deeply distressed by what
has unfolded since October in the Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>Phuong said she turned to translating poetry as a way to protest and
channel her grief over the war in Gaza. She has now translated more than
50 poems by Palestinian authors such as <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/3/13/remembering-mahmoud-darwish-the-poetic-voice-of-palestine">Mahmoud Darwish</a>, Fadwa Tuqan and Ghassan Zaqtan from English to Vietnamese.</p>
<p>Phuong hopes she can help her readers appreciate the universal
humanism of Palestinian culture and society, as reflected in the poems
of Darwish and others.</p>
<p>"Palestinian are not only victims of war,” Phuong said. “They are
also a people with a rich and beautiful heritage, with sophisticated
philosophies and arts. Vietnamese people need to know that.”</p>
<p>Nguyen Binh is another young translator who has become well known for
their translations of Vietnamese works, such as translating the
classical Tale of Kieu into English.</p>
<p>Binh is now working on a translation of Rashid Khalidi's book The
Hundred Years’ War on Palestine into Vietnamese to "raise the voice of
the unheard" and to fill the gap in Vietnamese understanding of
Palestinian issues.</p>
</div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail-longform-block"><div class="gmail-longform-hero"><div class="gmail-longform-hero__content"><h2 class="gmail-longform-hero__title gmail-longform-hero__title--large">Selling Israel’s ‘startup’ image</h2><p class="gmail-longform-hero__summary">The
popular Vietnamese edition of Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel's
Economic Miracle presents a flattering image of Israeli business
success.</p></div><div class="gmail-longform-hero__background-media gmail-longform-hero__background-media--desktop gmail-longform-hero__background-media-image-overlay"><div class="gmail-responsive-image"><img src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/20240211_181503-1711434435.jpg?resize=1920%2C1080&quality=80" alt="" width="408" height="230" style="margin-right: 25px;"></div></div></div><div class="gmail-l-col gmail-l-col--8--centered gmail-longform-hero__caption gmail-longform-hero__caption--desktop">A Vietnamese translation of Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle [Courtesy of Tu Ly]</div></div><div class="gmail-longform-block"><div class="gmail-container"><div class="gmail-container__inner"><div class="gmail-l-col gmail-l-col--8--centered"><div class="gmail-longform-text"><div class="gmail-wysiwyg gmail-css-1kw180w"><p>Le
Hong Hiep, a senior fellow and coordinator of the Vietnam Studies
Programme at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, described
Vietnam’s support for the Palestinian people and their struggle for
liberation as “unwavering” during the Cold War and into the 1990s.</p>
<p>"This was partly due to the Vietnamese leadership's belief that the
Palestinian cause mirrored their own fight for unification and
independence against foreign powers,” Hiep told Al Jazeera.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/program/plo-history-of-a-revolution/">Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)</a>
established relations with North Vietnam in 1968 and set up a resident
representative office after the end of the war in Vietnam in 1975. The
office soon became the embassy of Palestine in Vietnam.</p>
<p>“In the 1990s, Vietnam also welcomed Palestinian leaders, including
Yasser Arafat, on many occasions. The official stance of Vietnam on the
Israel-Palestine conflict has consistently been in favour of Palestinian
self-determination and the establishment of a Palestinian state," Hiep
said.</p>
<p>On the Palestinian side, the bonds of that friendship were summed up
by Darwish in 1973 as the war in Vietnam entered its final phase with
the signing of the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, which ended direct US
military combat in the country.</p>
<p>"In the conscience of the peoples of the world, the torch has been passed from Vietnam to us,” the poet said.</p>
<p>But times have changed.</p>
<p>So has Vietnam’s memory of its solidarity with Palestine.</p>
<p>Pro-Palestine activists whom Al Jazeera interviewed said they had a
hard time persuading their parents that the Palestinian cause was just.</p>
<p>Hung said his parents had initially reacted to the war on Gaza by blaming “those terrorists” who had “started it first”.</p>
<p>“I myself have to spend time explaining to them the history of the
matter going back to 1948. Only after that did they change their minds,"
Hung said.</p>
<p>Saadi Salama, the Palestinian ambassador in Vietnam, said local media
bear a large degree of responsibility for a lack of public awareness in
Vietnam about events in Palestine.</p>
<img class="gmail-size-arc-image-770 gmail-wp-image-2801635" src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Photo-3-1711527306.jpg?w=770&quality=80" alt="Ambassador Saadi Salama delivering his speech the event in commemoration of lives lost in Gaza held in Hanoi [Courtesy of Tu Ly]" width="408" height="306" style="margin-right: 25px;">Salama delivers a speech in Hanoi during an event in November to commemorate the Palestinians killed in Gaza [Courtesy of Tu Ly]
<p>Initially working at the PLO residence in Hanoi as secretary of
information in the 1980s, Salama has decades of experience in Vietnam.
But over the past 10 years or so, he said, information on the Palestine
issue has appeared much less frequently in local media. What does appear
is presented in a perfunctory way, he said.</p>
<p>"Most people have a vague notion of what is actually happening in
Gaza and the West Bank," Salama told Al Jazeera, explaining that local
journalists often lack expertise on the subject of Palestine and Middle
East issues.</p>
<p>“As a result, they shy away from writing deep analyses on the matter,
opting instead to uncritically copy and paste from Western sources
without providing context to the readers,” he said.</p>
<p>There are rare exceptions, Salama admitted, but not enough to make a
difference to a generally negative impression of Palestine at a time
when there is a positive impression of Israel in Vietnam.</p>
<p>"For Vietnamese, Israel is now the symbol of development, a ‘startup nation’,” Salama said.</p>
<p>“They don't see Israel's undersides.”</p></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail-longform-block"><div class="gmail-container"><div class="gmail-container__inner"><div class="gmail-l-col gmail-l-col--8--centered"><div class="gmail-longform-text"><div class="gmail-wysiwyg gmail-css-1kw180w">
<p>Dinh Le, a well-known book market area in the centre of Hanoi, is
located just a short walk from the venue where Hammad spoke about
Palestine and his childhood.</p>
<p>While a visitor would be hard-pressed to find books about Palestine
here, there is no shortage of Vietnamese-language copies of Start-Up
Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle, a 2009 book by Dan Senor
and Saul Singer.</p>
<p>Republished by AlphaBooks, which is best known in Vietnam for its
business and pop science titles, Start-Up Nation has become a best
seller in Vietnam.</p>
<p>According to figures available on the website of Vietnam’s Ministry
of Information and Communication, the book has enjoyed more than a dozen
reprints with more than 2 million copies published.</p>
<p>More than 1 million copies of Start-Up Nation were, according to the
ministry, ordered for distribution by one of Vietnam’s leading
entrepreneurs who runs a project to distribute inspirational books free
of charge in fields such as business, science and philosophy.</p>
<p>Some see the popularity of the book in Vietnam as central to a
flattering image of Israel among the public and often a positive
characterisation of Israel in Vietnam’s media.</p>
<p>Israel’s popular appeal also coincides with a critical juncture in Vietnam’s modern history, experts said.</p>
<p>Since the late 1980s, Vietnam has carried out economic reforms, known
as Doi Moi, which have seen the country embrace free market-oriented
development and the promotion of entrepreneurship.</p>
<p>At the same time, Vietnam’s foreign policy has prioritised national
interests and independence over what once would have been described as
"ideological purity" during earlier, revolutionary times.</p>
<p>Although officially called the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the
country has long welcomed foreign capital and has worked to normalise
relations, mostly on the basis of economic cooperation, with countries
and blocs <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/9/us-president-biden-visits-vietnam-wartime-foes-to-highest-level-partners">previously considered in bygone times to be enemies.</a></p>
<img class="gmail-size-arc-image-770 gmail-wp-image-2361146" src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/2023-09-11T072013Z_1408576732_RC2763A899KN_RTRMADP_3_VIETNAM-USA-BIDEN-1694829097.jpg?w=770&quality=80" alt="U.S. President Joe Biden raises a toast with Vietnam's President Vo Van Thuong in Hanoi, Vietnam, September 11, 2023. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein" width="408" height="272" style="margin-right: 25px;">US
President Joe Biden raises a toast with Vietnamese President Vo Van
Thuong in Hanoi, Vietnam, on September 11, 2023, after the two countries
and one-time enemies elevated diplomatic and trade relations to their
highest level [Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters]
<p>Vietnam’s policy approach, known as "bamboo diplomacy" owing to its
flexibility and pragmatism, has allowed the country to forge a
significant partnership with Israel in the “areas of economics,
technology and security”, Hiep said.</p>
<p>And it is likely the fear of jeopardising ties with Israel that
explains why “Vietnam has been more hesitant to express strong support
for Palestine despite maintaining sympathy for their cause." he added.</p>
</div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail-longform-block"><div class="gmail-longform-hero"><div class="gmail-longform-hero__content"><h2 class="gmail-longform-hero__title gmail-longform-hero__title--large">Vietnam and Palestine: 'Similar struggles'</h2><p class="gmail-longform-hero__summary">'The
more I learn about the history of Palestine, the more I realise how
similar our struggles are,' Vietnamese activist Trinh says.</p></div><div class="gmail-longform-hero__background-media gmail-longform-hero__background-media--desktop gmail-longform-hero__background-media-image-overlay"><div class="gmail-responsive-image"><img src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Photo-6-1710945279.jpg?resize=1920%2C1080&quality=80" alt="Street info People in Hanoi flocking to the Palestine's Ambassador's house in commemoration of the lives lost in Gaza assaults. (Credit: Tứ Ly)" width="408" height="230" style="margin-right: 25px;"></div></div></div><div class="gmail-l-col gmail-l-col--8--centered gmail-longform-hero__caption gmail-longform-hero__caption--desktop">Visitors look at images from Gaza at a commemoration event in November at the Palestinian embassy in Hanoi [Courtesy of Tu Ly]</div></div><div class="gmail-longform-block"><div class="gmail-container"><div class="gmail-container__inner"><div class="gmail-l-col gmail-l-col--8--centered"><div class="gmail-longform-text"><div class="gmail-wysiwyg gmail-css-1kw180w"><p>Since October, Vietnam has called out atrocities committed against civilians in the Israel-Hamas conflict.</p>
<p>At a news conference shortly after the war began, a spokeswoman for
Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Vietnam "strongly
condemns the violent attacks against civilians, humanitarian workers,
journalists and essential infrastructure facilities".</p>
<p>Before that, in an emergency session of the United Nations General
Assembly on October 27, Vietnam joined the majority of member states in
voting for a resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire,
protection of civilians, the unconditional release of captives and
humanitarian aid access.</p>
<p>Hanoi, however, has also been careful not to put its relationship
with Israel at serious risk by openly naming Israel in its criticism.
Even so, a former Israeli ambassador to Vietnam still called Hanoi’s
stance on Gaza "disappointing" in an interview.</p>
<p>For some, such gestures in support of Palestine are not enough to
make good on Vietnam's historical debts to Palestinians and the PLO’s
support for Hanoi during the Cold War.</p>
<img class="gmail-size-arc-image-770 gmail-wp-image-2752936" src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/AFP__20091207__PAR2003121852750__v4__HighRes__PalestinianVietnamArafatGiap-1709714274.jpg?w=770&quality=80" alt="Yasser Arafat (L), commander of Al Fatah Palestinian movement, receives an album on the creation of the North-Vietnamese army with a picture of Ho Chi Minh on the cover from North-Vietnamese Defense Minister General Giap, during his visit in North-Vietnam 08 April 1970. AFP PHOTO (Photo by RADIOPHOTO / AFP)" width="408" height="366" style="margin-right: 25px;">PLO
leader Yasser Arafat, left, receives an album on the creation of the
North Vietnamese army with a picture of Ho Chi Minh on the cover from
North Vietnam's defence minister, General Vo Nguyen Giap, during
Arafat's visit to North Vietnam in 1970 [File: AFP]
<p>Vu Minh Hoang, a diplomatic historian of 20th century Vietnam and the
Asia Pacific, noted that the PLO was among the small minority of groups
and countries in the Global South who openly stood up for their
Vietnamese friends and condemned China for its invasion of Vietnam in
1979.</p>
<p>The decision, Vu said, cost the PLO much-needed aid and political
support from China. The PLO had maintained a 14-year friendly
relationship with China until standing with Vietnam over the Chinese
invasion of Vietnam in 1979.</p>
<p>"The PLO bravely stepped up for Vietnam when it needed it the most,”
Vu, who is currently based at Columbia University in New York, told Al
Jazeera.</p>
<p>Although Vietnamese statements and votes have supported Palestine, Vu
said, overall, Vietnam’s stance in practice appears to be more
“pro-Israel”.</p>
<p>To understand why, one needs to “follow the money”, he added.</p></div></div></div></div></div></div>
</div>