Israel's position on Palestine has distorted its assessment of and response to China's treatment of Uyghurs.
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| [China-Israel] |
Israel's position on Palestine has distorted its assessment of and response to China's treatment of Uyghurs. But, with the new coalition government led by Naftali Bennet, will things change?
Following the examples of the US and Canada, Israel recently joined 45 countries in condemning China's treatment of Uyghurs. Experts are voicing concerns about how Israel's connection with China impacts the Palestinian peace process, as well as the implications for China's persecuted Muslim minority's struggle for civil rights.
After defeating the Kuomintang or KMT in World War II, the Communist Party of China (CPP) took control of mainland China and created the People's Republic of China in 1949. The KMT leadership fled to Taiwan, where it established the Republic of China with the help of the United States.
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According to figures from 2020, Israel exported over 4 billion dollars worth of goods to China while buying over 9 billion. That is barely a fraction of what the US sells to Israel.
China, on the other hand, prioritizes its relationship with Israel since it has traditionally been a major source of military technology that the US refuses to sell or share with China. These links are causing consternation in American and Israeli circles. In a case that Israel's media has been told not to publish on, 20 Israeli gun dealers have been arrested this year. It purportedly revolves around the delivery of Israeli-made killer drones to China.
Observers argue that while Mahmoud Abbas has visited China, Beijing is only giving lip service to the Palestinian cause. They claim that Beijing has been hesitant to adopt key stances held by Arab governments and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), citing China's refusal to endorse a resolution recognizing East Jerusalem as the eventual capital of a Palestinian state in 2010.
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China's foreign policy toward the Palestinians, however, is deceitful in Uyghur eyes. They say that Beijing's recent outburst at the United Nations, in which it accused the US of turning a blind eye to Israeli aggression in Gaza, is a ruse to deflect attention away from its own human rights violations against Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
Because of China's excellent relations with Israel, it is unable to force Israel to accept mediation. As a result, Chinese assistance for Palestinians should be viewed as largely a foreign policy instrument, similar to Beijing's posturing on Uyghur problems.
While the US, UK, and many European nations increasingly refer to China's treatment of Uyghurs as genocide and crimes against humanity, Israel, like China, downplays its control of Palestinian territory.
Likud MPs in Israel are openly promoting and celebrating Beijing's crimes.
While the State of Israel ignores the genocide of the Uyghurs, the misery of the Uyghurs has not gone unnoticed by Jewish organisations in Israel and throughout the world. Protests have taken place outside the Chinese Embassy in Tel Aviv, while Jewish groups in the United States and the United Kingdom have used Holocaust Remembrance Day to express support.
As a result, the Uyghurs, like Palestinians, have been mistreated several times by nations who have used similar techniques to defame and disparage them in order to coerce cooperation while neglecting ethnic and religious identity.
Regardless of allegations of genocide, China is poised to become a major role in the Middle East in the next decades, and it seems doubtful that it would abandon its present approach to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process or its position on the Uyghur matter.
While Israel's attitude has lately shifted on paper to reflect the global Jewish diaspora, is this enough to prevent the Uyghurs from being subjected to decades of human rights violations similar to the Palestinians? Is it possible for Israel's diplomatic stance on both groups to soften in response to shifting internal community dynamics?
[This article may resemble TRT World's Double Check]