Policy Alert #230 | May 24, 2021
After weeks of rising tension, which started with the eviction of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem and resulted in several Palestinian deaths,[1] Israel raided the al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the holiest sites in Islam, causing more than 50 injuries.[2] On May 10, Hamas fired rockets toward Jerusalem for the first time since 2014, prompting Israel to retaliate with airstrikes.[3] As the violence escalated, United Nation’s Security Council had three attempts to issue joint statements condemning Israel and calling for ceasefire, all of which blocked by the United States.[4] After 11 days of fighting, which saw thousands of rockets fired from Gaza and hundreds of airstrikes on Palestinian territory, Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire proposal brokered by Egypt on May 20.[5] The deadly conflict has led to more than 200 killed in Gaza, including more than 60 children, and at least 10 killed in Israel.[6]
In this Policy Alert, we examine the Rising Powers’ reactions to the latest round of violence between Israel and Palestine.
China
On May 15, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi expounded on China’s position on the conflict during a phone call with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. Wang stated: “the root cause of the situation is that for a long time there has not been a just solution to the Palestinian question…China, as the presidency of the Security Council for May, has pushed the Security Council to hold two emergency consultations on the Palestine-Israel conflict…But regrettably, the Security Council has so far failed to reach an agreement, with the United States standing on the opposite side of international justice…an ultimate way out of the Palestinian question lies in the implementation of the two-state solution.”[7]
The next day, Wang held a United Nations Security Council meeting on the conflict, reiterating China’s position and urging for humanitarian assistance.[8] According to Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian, Chinese Special Envoy for the Middle East Zhai Jun “had telephone conversations with officials of the Palestinian and Egyptian foreign ministries respectively and conducted active mediation.”[9] After the ceasefire, Zhai “stressed that China welcomes the ceasefire between Palestine and Israel in conflict and hopes the two sides to restart peace talks as soon as possible on the basis of the two-state solution.”[10]
- In an op-ed for South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong-based newspaper, Andrew Sheng, former central banker and current distinguished fellow at the Asia Global Institute in University of Hong Kong, argues that Israel’s devotion to science, technology, and military strength has been the key to their survival in the region: “[The West] have effectively monopolized five advantages: technologies; monetary and financial systems; access to natural resources; mass communication systems, and weapons of mass destruction. The Israelis understand this perfectly though, and have played the same game to succeed and survive.”[11]
- In an op-ed for the state-run China Daily, Fan Hongda, a professor at the Middle East Studies Institute in Shanghai International Studies University, stresses the pivotal role of the U.S. in resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict: “Israel-Palestine ties worsened and the interests of Palestinians were grossly compromised during the administration of previous US president Donald Trump…Since US President Joe Biden claims to be different from Trump, the international community hopes his administration will fulfill its international responsibilities by not opposing international justice…and eventually reach an agreement to permanently settle the Israeli-Palestinian disputes.”[12]
Japan
On May 11, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement on Tokyo’s position regarding the conflict: “It has to be said that the current situation goes against the efforts by the international community to seek for a two-state solution whereby the state of Israel and a future independent state of Palestine live side by side in peace and security, and the Government of Japan strongly condemns such acts of violence… In this regard, it must be pointed out that the potential ruling of Palestinian families’ evictions from their homes in East Jerusalem, including Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, could exacerbate the situation… The Government of Japan once again urges the Government of Israel to reverse the above-mentioned decision and fully freeze its settlement activities.”[13]
On May 12, Japanese Deputy Defense Minister Yasuhide Nakayama wrote a controversial statement on Twitter, supporting the actions of Israel: “What would you do? One day, more than 300 rockets were suddenly shot by terrorists in 24 hours, robbing the lives of their beloved family and their homes. Israel has the right to protect itself from terrorists. Who was the first to shoot rockets at the citizens? Our heart is with Israel.”[14] Nakayama faced questions in the Diet on May 18 over the controversial tweet. Two days later, he deleted the tweet and apologized.[15]
- An editorial from the conservative Yomiuri Shimbun proposes that the international community should take the opportunity of the ceasefire to initiate more negotiations for a lasting resolution of peace: “the international community has historically promoted a peace initiative in which a Palestinian state would be established in the future that would coexist peacefully with Israel. Israel’s recent expansion of Jewish settlements in the land it occupied in past Middle East wars is a move that runs against the spirit of coexistence… the United States, as one might expect, holds the key. This time, U.S. President Joe Biden supported the Egyptian cease-fire mediation and reportedly tried to persuade Netanyahu… Biden must also do his best to promote peace in the Middle East.”[16]
- In an op-ed for the center-right The Japan Times, Kuni Miyake, President of the Foreign Policy Institute, Research Director at Canon Institute for Global Studies, and a special adviser to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s Cabinet, defends Nakayama’s statements and argues that the Palestinian leadership has missed several opportunities to live in peace with Israel: “Nakayama’s comments were aimed at ending terrorism… While Israel has no right to kill Palestinian civilians, Hamas also has no right to kill ordinary Israelis, either. It is perfectly fine to express the view that Israel has the right to defend itself… [The Palestinians] may have believed at one time that they could defeat Israel, but that remains an unrealistic dream…[They] could have had an independent state twenty years ago. Unfortunately, neither Yasser Arafat nor Mahmoud Abbas have played their cards right. That was the real reason why the issue of Palestine is no longer an Arab cause.”[17]
India
During the United Nations Security Council meeting on the conflict, India’s Permanent Representative and Ambassador to the United Nations T.S. Tirumurti stated: “Immediate de-escalation is the need of the hour, so as to arrest any further slide towards the brink. We urge both sides to show extreme restraint, desist from actions that exacerbate tensions, and refrain from attempts to unilaterally change the existing status-quo, including in East Jerusalem and its neighborhood.”[18]
Tirumurti also condemned the “indiscriminate rocket firings from Gaza” and “the retaliatory strikes into Gaza,” along with expressing India’s strong support to the just Palestinian cause and its unwavering commitment for the two-state solution.[19]
- An editorial from the left-leaning The Hindu praises India’s balanced approach to the conflict by reaffirming its traditional support for the Palestine cause without abandoning Israel: “While Israel ties are on a strong footing, India cannot ignore the Palestinians for historic, moral, legal and realist reasons. Historically, India, which went through the horrors of 1947, opposed the partition of Palestine… India’s Palestine policy had realist underpinnings too. India has been energy dependent on the Arab world. It cannot alienate the Arab voices or be isolated in the General Assembly, where most member-countries oppose the occupation.”[20]
- In an op-ed for the liberal Indian Express, K M Seethi, Director of the Inter University Centre for Social Science Research and Extension at Mahatma Gandhi University in Kerala, warns that Palestinians are not only facing threats of violence, but also vulnerability to COVID: “Gaza was under intensified blockade by Israel for quite a long time, resulting in shortages in medical supplies and clinical capacity… The UN human rights agency had already reminded Israel that it’s their ‘responsibility to provide equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.’ But Israel turned down such a position.”[21]
Russia
On May 11, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin met with the ambassadors of Palestine and Jordan, during which the foreign diplomats “stressed inadmissibility of Israel’s plans to evict Palestinians from their homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, and of its violent actions in the Al-Aqsa Mosque.” After the meeting, a Russian Foreign Ministry statement said “the Russian side reaffirmed readiness to further intensify efforts in this domain… In connection with the rapidly deteriorating security situation, a commonly shared opinion was expressed, about the need to end violence and resume a sustainable Israeli-Palestinian negotiation process as soon as possible.”[22] Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov also urged “both parties to show restraint” and stressed that “both parties should find the strength to settle the problem, proceeding from, above all, the effective resolutions of the UN Security Council.”[23]
Two days later, Russian President Vladimir Putin and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres held a video conversation and discussed, among other things, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, voicing support for a two-state solution to the problem.[24] Meanwhile, Israeli Ambassador to Russia Alexander Ben Zvi said he had conducted working meetings with Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and Sergei Vershinin. Ben Zvi hoped that hope that Russia’s relations with various Palestinian groups would make it possible for Moscow to have some influence on Hamas.[25]
- In an op-ed for government-funded RT, Sreeram Chaulia, Professor and Dean at the Jindal School of International Affairs in India, cautions that extremists on both Israeli and Palestinian sides have been gaining influence, dimming the prospect of a near-term resolution: “Netanyahu sustains his centrality in Israeli politics thanks to radical right-wing allies who demand the hardest possible military response to Hamas, hold a maximalist conception of ‘greater Israel’ that requires annexation of whatever lands the Palestinians still have… Hamas, which is founded on jihadist ideology, is using its radical appeal of the complete obliteration of Israel and eternal hostility to Jews to outdo its rival Palestinian faction Fatah… External mediation, conflict resolution or normalisation of relations between Israel and Arab countries through the Abraham Accords cannot overcome the visceral schisms on the ground inside Israel and the occupied territories.”[26]
- In an interview with state-owned Sputnik News, Avigdor Eskin, a conservative political activist based in Jerusalem, questions the prospect of engaging with Hamas and calls for disarming the organization: “the reason for the conflict is their raison d’etre – the destruction of Israel and killing of the Jewish people… Israel’s decision to dismantle Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and completely withdraw from the region in 2005 did not end the violence… the disarmament of Hamas’ military wing as well as other jihadi militants in Gaza would have improved the odds of resolving the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict and paved the way to peace in the region.”[27]
[1] https://forward.com/news/469256/from-tiktok-to-temple-mount-clashes-28-days-of-violence-in-jerusalem/
[2] https://apnews.com/article/israel-middle-east-west-bank-shootings-d5c6b1ed602844be69318bd1d1a334cf
[3] https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-israel-jerusalem-076a9ec7e2bd9c065882c64a4ab820a1
[4] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/17/no-us-action-after-third-unsc-meeting-on-israel-palestine
[5] https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinian-cease-fire-hamas-caac81bc36fe9be67ac2f7c27000c74b
[6] https://apnews.com/article/hamas-gaza-israel-middle-east-health-38b9a5235f1fae5927c8364bf8334457
[7] https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/zxxx_662805/t1876266.shtml
[8] https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/zxxx_662805/t1876263.shtml
[9] https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/t1877351.shtml
[10] https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjbxw/t1877879.shtml
[11] https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3134320/war-against-covid-19-or-israeli-palestinian-conflict-technological
[12] http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202105/19/WS60a4494aa31024ad0babfd58.html
[13] https://www.mofa.go.jp/press/release/press4e_003001.html
[14] https://www.arabnews.jp/en/japan/article_46033/
[15] http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14355153
[16] https://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0007423127
[17] https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2021/05/20/commentary/japan-commentary/arab-state-palestinian-israeli-conflict/
[18] https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/india-at-security-council-calls-for-immediate-de-escalation-of-israel-palestine-hostilities/article34573922.ece
[19] https://indianexpress.com/article/india/immediate-de-escalation-need-of-the-hour-india-on-escalating-tensions-between-israel-and-gaza-7317832/
[20] https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/balancing-act-the-hindu-editorial-on-indias-stand-in-israel-palestine-conflict/article34608788.ece
[21] https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/for-palestinians-its-both-the-pandemic-and-the-threat-of-violence-explusion-7317762/
[22] https://tass.com/world/1288539
[23] https://tass.com/politics/1288751
[24] https://tass.com/politics/1289341
[25] https://tass.com/world/1289901
[26] https://www.rt.com/op-ed/524317-israel-palestine-extremists-leaderships-fail/
[27] https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/202105161082910198-israeli-publicist-how-could-jewish-state-strike-deal-with-those-who-dont-want-it-to-exist-/
