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

JUL 26, 2024

https://thecradle.co/articles/china-throws-clout-behind-palestine

HONG KONG – The Beijing Declaration, signed earlier this week, constitutes yet another stunning Chinese diplomatic coup, but the document goes far beyond affirming China’s pull. 

The gathering 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 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.