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<div class="gmail-inner-article-top"><h1 class="gmail-">China throws clout behind Palestine</h1><p class="gmail-">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.</p><div class="gmail-another-name"><br><p><a href="https://thecradle.co/authors/pepe-escobar" style="color:rgb(164,4,4)">Pepe Escobar</a></p></div><div class="gmail-another-name" style="margin-top:16px"><p><span>JUL 26, 2024 -<font size="1"> </font></span><font size="1"><a href="https://thecradle.co/articles/china-throws-clout-behind-palestine">https://thecradle.co/articles/china-throws-clout-behind-palestine</a></font></p></div></div><div class="gmail-inner-article-img"><img src="http://thecradle-main.oss-eu-central-1.aliyuncs.com/public/articles/dff2ef14-4b60-11ef-94e0-00163e02c055.jpeg" alt="" width="412" height="195" style="margin-right: 0px;"><span>(Photo Credit: The Cradle)</span></div><div class="gmail-inner-article-content"><div class="gmail-row"><div class="gmail-col-md-8 gmail-col-sm-7"><div class="gmail-article-content"><span><p>HONG KONG – The <a href="https://www.mfa.gov.cn/eng/zxxx_662805/202407/t20240723_11458788.html">Beijing Declaration</a>,
signed earlier this week, constitutes yet another stunning Chinese
diplomatic coup, but the document goes far beyond affirming China’s
pull. </p><p>The <a href="https://thecradle.co/articles-id/26068">gathering</a>
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, <i>multi-nodal</i>, and features BRICS/Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member China as an inescapable leader. </p><p>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. </p><p>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.” </p><p>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.”</p><p><strong>The “three-step” Chinese proposal </strong></p><p>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</p><blockquote><p>… 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.</p></blockquote><p>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. </p><p>It’s all in a name – everyone in the
foreseeable future will note this is the “Beijing” declaration
unequivocally supporting One Palestine. </p><p>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. </p><p>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:</p><p>First,
a “comprehensive, lasting and sustainable” ceasefire in Gaza as soon as
possible, and “access to humanitarian aid and rescue on the ground.”</p><p>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.” </p><p>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.” </p><p>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 <a href="https://thecradle.co/articles-id/25987#:~:text=The%20resolution%20was%20passed%20with,Palestinian%20state%20west%20of%20Jordan.">Knesset’s recent vote</a> to
reject any Palestinian state – at least China is directly proposing
what the Global Majority unanimously considers as a fair outcome. </p><p>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. </p><p><strong>Genocide as a wellness treatment</strong></p><p>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. </p><p>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. </p><p>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. </p><p>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. </p><p>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. </p><p>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?</p><p>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. </p><p>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. </p><p>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. </p><p>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. </p><p>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. </p><p>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. </p></span></div></div></div></div>
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