China has called on Israel to “stop encroaching” upon Palestinian territory and resources, as Tel Aviv continues to allow and approve the construction of illegal Jewish settlements in the Occupied Territories.
Speaking to the United Nations Security Council yesterday, Geng Shuang, China’s deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, stated that “since the beginning of this year, Israel has continued to advance unilateral actions on approving returns, building new settlements and legalising settlements”.
Emphasising that such settlement building and activities violate international law and UN Security Council Resolution 2334, he expressed Beijing’s stance to “urge Israel to immediately halt these actions and stop encroaching upon the land and resources of the Palestinian people”.
Shuang also stressed that “the historical status quo of religious holy sites in Jerusalem must be respected and upheld”, saying that Israeli National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir “caused renewed tensions” by storming the Al Aqsa Mosque compound for the second time this year and proclaiming Israel’s alleged ownership of the Islamic holy site.
“On the issue of religious holy sites, Israel must stop its provocations, guarantee the right to worship of Muslim worshipers, uphold the peace and tranquillity of religious holy sites, and respect the custodianship of Jordan”, he asserted.
Shuang also drew attention to the fact that tensions and clashes between the Israeli occupation and Palestinian Resistance groups “have been repeating themselves over the past few years, fully demonstrating that a long-stalled peace process is not sustainable, that piece-meal crisis management will not last, and that a comprehensive and just solution is irreplaceable”.
He indicated China’s increasing role in the issue, as with others in the region, and the possibility of surpassing the United States as a mediatory force and hegemon. Supposedly referring to the US, he stated that “the country with major influence on the parties concerned should make concrete efforts to advance the Middle East peace process and should not unjustifiably prevent the Security Council from arriving at the minimum consensus on the Palestine-Israeli issue”.
The Chinese diplomat’s remarks came as the Israeli government yesterday approved the proposed state budget for 2023-2024, which allocates around 3.5 billion Israeli shekels ($941 million) for the illegal settlement projects and the upgrading of their infrastructure.
Current estimates report that there are around 700,000 illegal settlers living in 164 settlements and 116 outposts in the Occupied West Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem, with that set to expand as Tel Aviv frequently approves thousands of more settlement units.
China’s new ambassador arrived in the United States on Tuesday as both the US and Chinese governments have indicated that they want to put relations between their two nations back on track.
Xie Feng said he aims to enhance US-China relations at a time of “serious difficulties and challenges.”
“We hope that the United States will work together with China to increase dialogue, to manage differences and also to expand our cooperation so that our relationship will be back to the right track,” Xie said in remarks in English after landing in New York City.
Xie Feng’s arrival as the top envoy for Beijing comes after what has been a tumultuous period in relations between Washington and Beijing. Tensions soared following a visit by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed a planned visit to China earlier this year after a Chinese surveillance balloon traversed the US.
In recent weeks, however, there have been signals that those heated tensions seem to be cooling. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with top Chinese official Wang Yi in Vienna, and China’s Commerce Minister may meet with top US commerce and trade officials in the US in the coming weeks.
President Joe Biden said in Japan last weekend that “everything changed in terms of talking to one another” following the spy balloon incident, but “I think you’re going to see that begin to thaw very shortly.”
Xie said Tuesday he’s looking forward to “properly handling sensitive and important issues, like the Taiwan question,” as well as engaging with Americans “from all walks of life.” He referenced the last time he was working in the US as a diplomat over a decade ago and said that the world and the US have changed a lot.
US officials are expecting Xie to be a capable and productive interlocutor based on past engagements they have had with the longtime Chinese diplomat.
“He’s a professional, he’s very capable. We’ve known him for many, many years. I think he’s been working at the MFA for more than 30 years,” said a State Department official. “And we really know him from his time in Washington. He served multiple tours here, and most recently has been the Vice Foreign Minister overseeing the Americas and other departments as well.”
US officials point to the current moment in US-China relations being different than when Xie met with Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman in the summer of 2021, when he said the relationship had hit a “stalemate and faces serious difficulties.”
At the end of last year, Xie met with top State Department and National Security Council officials who visited China following Biden’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 in Bali. That was one of many engagements Xie has had with Biden officials over the course of the last few years.
“Things have changed,” the official said of this moment in time versus earlier on in the Biden administration. Since the Sherman meeting – which followed a tense encounter in Alaska that Blinken and Sullivan had with their Chinese counterparts, there have been “tens of dozens of hours” of calls between the US and China that have included Xie Feng, specifically in preparation for the Biden-Xi meeting in Bali and the planned Blinken visit to Beijing earlier this year.
“We have seen how professional, how clear he is,” the official said.
There was a “longer process” for the last Chinese ambassador to the US to get up and running, partially due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Officials are hoping that the process for Xie to get up and running officially – which requires him to present his credentials to Biden, which is scheduled by the White House – happens as quickly as possible.
The State Department welcomed Xie Feng’s arrival. “We look forward to working with the ambassador designate and his team,” said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller at a press briefing.
Miller said that State Department protocol officials will work to get Xie presented with credentials “in accordance with standard State Department practices and diplomatic norms.”
“We remain committed, as we’ve said on a number of occasions, to maintaining channels of communication with the PRC to responsibly manage competition,” Miller said.
كشفت وكالات استخبارات غربية وشركة مايكروسوفت عن هجوم سيبراني واسع النطاق استهدف بنى تحتية “حيوية” في الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية. واتهمت ما وصفتها بـ “جهة فاعلة سيبرانية” مدعومة من بكين بالوقوف وراءه.
وقالت سلطات الأمن السيبراني في الولايات المتحدة ودول غربية أخرى، إنها رصدت “مجموعة من الأنشطة” مرتبطة بـ”جهة فاعلة سيبرانية تحظى برعاية دولة جمهورية الصين الشعبية، وتعرف أيضا باسم “فولت تايفون”.
وفي تحذير مشترك، قالت مجموعة “العيون الخمسة” الاستخبارية، والمعروفة اختصاراً بـ “FVEY”، التي تضم “الولايات المتحدة وكندا والمملكة المتحدة وأستراليا ونيوزيلندا”، إن هجمات مماثلة قد تحدث في جميع أنحاء العالم من خلال تطبيق الأساليب ذاتها.
وفي بيان منفصل، أكدت شركة مايكروسوفت أنها رصدت “نشاطاً سيبرانياً” تنفذه مجموعة صينية تتسلل لاختراق شبكات البنية التحتية الحيوية في الولايات المتحدة.
وحذرت مايكروسوفت، من أن هذا الهجوم يهدد بإحداث “اضطرابات في البنى التحتية الحيوية للاتصالات بين الولايات المتحدة والمنطقة الآسيوية في الأزمات المستقبلية”، وقالت مايكروسوفت: “قد يكون التخفيف من حدة هذا الهجوم تحدياً”.
وأضافت مايكروسوفت أن “سلوك المهاجمين يشير إلى أنهم يريدون التجسس والحفاظ لأطول فترة ممكنة على قدرتهم للولوج إلى البنى التحتية دون أن يتم اكتشافهم”.
وأعلنت مايكروسوفت أن الهجوم استهدف قطاعات الصناعة والنقل والبناء والبحرية والتعليم والخدمات الحكومية، وأضافت أن تصرفات مجموعة القرصنة تلك ركزت على جمع المعلومات الاستخباراتية والتجسس وإحكام السيطرة على أنظمة المواقع الحيوية لأطول فترة ممكنة، بدلاً من التسبب في التعطيل الفوري.
وفي إعلان نادر عن اختراق الأنظمة، قالت مجموعة التكنولوجيا الأمريكية إن المتسللين، عمدوا منذ منتصف عام 2021 على استهدف البنية التحتية الحيوية في جزيرة غوام الأمريكية، وهي قاعدة عسكرية أمريكية تحظى بأهمية استراتيجية في المحيط الهادي.
تكتيكات “العيش خارج الأرض”
في عالم التكنولوجيا، يشير مصطلح “العيش خارج الأرض” (LotL) إلى سلوك المهاجم الذي يستخدم أدوات أو ميزات موجودة بالفعل في البيئة المستهدفة من خارجها.
وقالت الولايات المتحدة وحلفاؤها إن الأنشطة تشمل تكتيكات “العيش خارج الأرض”، والتي تستفيد من أدوات الشبكة المدمجة للاندماج مع أنظمة ويندوز العادية.
وحذرت من أن عمليات الاختراق يمكن أن تستخدم بعد ذلك سيطرتها على الأنظمة لإصدار أوامر تبدو “غير ضارة”.
وقالت جين إيسترلي، رئيسة وكالة البنية التحتية والأمن السيبراني الأمريكية: “على مدى سنوات عديدة، كانت الصين تجري عمليات في جميع أنحاء العالم لسرقة حقوق الملكية الفكرية والبيانات السرية من منظمات البنية التحتية الحيوية في البلدان حول العالم”.
وأصدرت مايكروسوفت ووكالات الأمن إرشادات للمؤسسات لمحاولة اكتشاف القرصنة ومكافحتها.
ولم تقدم الصين أي رد فوري على هذه المزاعم، لكنها تنفي بشكل روتيني تنفيذ هجمات إلكترونية ترعاها الدولة.
وتتهم الصين بدورها الولايات المتحدة بانتظام بالقيام بعمليات تجسس إلكتروني.
Around the time that the F.B.I. was examining the equipment recovered from the Chinese spy balloon shot down off the South Carolina coast in February, American intelligence agencies and Microsoft detected what they feared was a more worrisome intruder: mysterious computer code appearing in telecommunications systems in Guam and elsewhere in the United States.
The code, which Microsoft said was installed by a Chinese government hacking group, raised alarms because Guam, with its Pacific ports and vast American air base, would be a centerpiece of any American military response to an invasion or blockade of Taiwan. The operation was conducted with great stealth, sometimes flowing through home routers and other common internet-connected consumer devices, to make the intrusion harder to track.
The code is called a “web shell,” in this case a malicious script that enables remote access to a server. Home routers are particularly vulnerable, especially older models that have not had updated software and protections.
Unlike the balloon that fascinated Americans as it performed pirouettes over sensitive nuclear sites, the computer code could not be shot down on live television. So instead, Microsoft on Wednesday published details of the code that would make it possible for corporate users, manufacturers and others to detect and remove it. In a coordinated release, the National Security Agency — along with other domestic agencies and counterparts in Australia, Britain, New Zealand and Canada — published a 24-page advisory that referred to Microsoft’s finding and offered broader warnings about a “recently discovered cluster of activity” from China.
Microsoft called the hacking group “Volt Typhoon” and said that it was part of a state-sponsored Chinese effort aimed at not only critical infrastructure such as communications, electric and gas utilities, but also maritime operations and transportation. The intrusions appeared, for now, to be an espionage campaign. But the Chinese could use the code, which is designed to pierce firewalls, to enable destructive attacks, if they choose.
So far, Microsoft says, there is no evidence that the Chinese group has used the access for any offensive attacks. Unlike Russian groups, the Chinese intelligence and military hackers usually prioritize espionage.
In interviews, administration officials said they believed the code was part of a vast Chinese intelligence collection effort that spans cyberspace, outer space and, as Americans discovered with the balloon incident, the lower atmosphere.
The Biden administration has declined to discuss what the F.B.I. found as it examined the equipment recovered from the balloon. But the craft — better described as a huge aerial vehicle — apparently included specialized radars and communications interception devices that the F.B.I. has been examining since the balloon was shot down.
It is unclear whether the government’s silence about its finding from the balloon is motivated by a desire to keep the Chinese government from knowing what the United States has learned or to get past the diplomatic breach that followed the incursion.
On Sunday, speaking at a news conference in Hiroshima, Japan, President Biden referred to how the balloon incident had paralyzed the already frosty exchanges between Washington and Beijing.
“And then this silly balloon that was carrying two freight cars’ worth of spying equipment was flying over the United States,” he told reporters, “and it got shot down, and everything changed in terms of talking to one another.”
He predicted that relations would “begin to thaw very shortly.”
China has never acknowledged hacking into American networks, even in the biggest example of all: the theft of security clearance files of roughly 22 million Americans — including six million sets of fingerprints — from the Office of Personnel Management during the Obama administration. That exfiltration of data took the better part of a year, and resulted in an agreement between President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping that resulted in a brief decline in malicious Chinese cyberactivity.
On Wednesday, China sent a warning to its companies to be alert to American hacking. And there has been plenty of that, too: In documents released by Edward Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor, there was evidence of American efforts to hack into the systems of Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant, and military and leadership targets.
Telecommunications networks are key targets for hackers, and the system in Guam is particularly important to China because military communications often piggyback on commercial networks.
Tom Burt, the executive who oversees Microsoft’s threat intelligence unit, said in an interview that the company’s analysts — many of them veterans of the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies — had found the code “while investigating intrusion activity impacting a U.S. port.” As they traced back the intrusion, they found other networks that were hit, “including some in the telecommunications sector in Guam.”
Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, said that covert efforts “like the activity exposed today are part of what’s driving our focus on the security of telecom networks and the urgency to use trusted vendors” whose equipment has met established cybersecurity standards.
Ms. Neuberger has been spearheading an effort across the federal government to enforce new cybersecurity standards for critical infrastructure. Officials were taken by surprise by the extent of the vulnerabilities in such infrastructure when a Russian ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline in 2021 interrupted gasoline, diesel and airplane fuel flow on the East Coast. In the wake of the attack, the Biden administration used little-known powers of the Transportation Security Administration — which regulates pipelines — to force private-sector utilities to follow a series of cybersecurity mandates.
Now Ms. Neuberger is driving what she called a “relentless focus on improving the cybersecurity of our pipelines, rail systems, water systems and other critical services,” including the mandates on cybersecurity practices for these sectors and closer collaboration with companies with “unique visibility” into threats to such infrastructure.
Those firms include Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and many telecommunications firms that can see activity on domestic networks. Intelligence agencies, including the N.S.A., are forbidden by law from operating inside the United States. But the N.S.A. is permitted to publish warnings, as it did on Wednesday, alongside the F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Infrastructure and Security Administration.
The agency’s report is part of a relatively new U.S. government move to publish such data quickly in hopes of burning operations like the one mounted by the Chinese government. In years past, the United States usually withheld such information — sometimes classifying it — and shared it with only a select few companies or organizations. But that almost always assured that the hackers could stay well ahead of the government.
In this case, it was the focus on Guam that particularly seized the attention of officials who are assessing China’s capabilities — and its willingness — to attack or choke off Taiwan. Mr. Xi has ordered the People’s Liberation Army to be capable of taking the island by 2027. But the C.I.A. director, William J. Burns, has noted to Congress that the order “does not mean he has decided to conduct an invasion.”
In the dozens of U.S. tabletop exercises conducted in recent years to map out what such an attack might look like, one of China’s first anticipated moves would be to cut off American communications and slow the United States’ ability to respond. So the exercises envision attacks on satellite and ground communications, especially around American installations where military assets would be mobilized.
None is bigger than Guam, where Andersen Air Force Base would be the launching point for many of the Air Force missions to help defend the island, and a Navy port is crucial for American submarines.
Russia and China have signed a number of economic agreements amid Western criticism over the ties between the two nations as the war in Ukraine drags on.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin visited China where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping as well as Premier Li Qiang on Wednesday.
Xi told Mishustin that China and Russia would continue to offer each other “firm support on issues concerning each other’s core interests and strengthen collaboration in multilateral arenas.”
He added that the two countries should “push cooperation in various fields to a higher level” and “raise the level of economic, trade and investment cooperation.”
During an earlier meeting with Li, Mishustin said that “relations between Russia and China are at an unprecedented high level.”
“They are characterized by mutual respect of each other’s interests, the desire to jointly respond to challenges, which is associated with increased turbulence in the international arena and the pattern of sensational pressure from the collective West,” he added.
What did the leaders sign?
The two leaders signed several memorandums of understanding, including a pact to boost investment cooperation in trade services, an agreement on export of agricultural products to China, and a deal on sports cooperation.
Beijing is Moscow’s largest trading partner. According to Chinese customs data, bilateral trade reached a record $190 billion (€176 billion) last year.
On Wednesday, Li pointed out that trade between the two countries has already reached $70 billion this year.
“This is a year-on-year increase of more than 40%,” the premier said.
“The scale of investment between the two countries is also continuously upgrading,” he said. “Strategic large-scale projects are steadily advancing.”
China has brushed aside attempts by the West to link its partnership with Russia to the war in Ukraine and has stressed that ties between Moscow and Beijing are not in violation of international norms.
“China is willing to work with Russia to implement the joint cooperation between the two countries, and promoting pragmatic cooperation in various fields can take it to a new level,” Li told the Russian prime minister.
بعد محادثات جمعت الرئيس الصينيشي جينبينغ الأربعاء برئيس الوزراء الروسي ميخائيل ميشوستين في بكين، وقّع وزراء من البلدين على سلسلة اتفاقيات تتعلق بالتعاون في تجارة الخدمات والرياضة إضافة إلى براءات الاختراع وصادرات الحبوب الروسية إلى الصين.
وتواصل الجارتان العملاقتان عبر حزمة الاتفاقيات المشتركة تعزيز تعاونهما الثنائي رغم الانتقادات الغربية التي تجسدت خلال قمة مجموعة السبع الأخيرة.
ووفقا للحكومة الروسية، فقد أجرى رئيس الوزراء ميخائيل ميشوستين، وهو أعلى مسؤول روسي يزور بكين منذ أرسلت موسكو الآلاف من قواتها إلى أوكرانيا في 24 فبراير/شباط 2022، محادثات مع الرئيس الصيني شي جينبينغ ورئيس وزرائه لي كه تشيانغ.
وعقب المحادثات، أكد شي جينبينغ على دعم بكين لمصالح موسكو “الأساسية” خلال اجتماعه مع ميشوستين. وأفاد شي رئيس الوزراء الروسي في نص لتصريحاته نشرته وكالة أنباء الصين الجديدة، أن البلدين سيواصلان “تقديم الدعم الثابت لبعضهما البعض بشأن القضايا المرتبطة بمصالح كل منهما الأساسية وتعزيز التعاون في المحافل متعددة الأطراف”.
وقال ميشوستين لنظيره الصيني في وقت سابق بعد حفل استقبال كبير أقيم له خارج قاعة الشعب الكبرى في بكين الأربعاء: “بلغت العلاقات بين روسيا والصين مستويات رفيعة إلى حد غير مسبوق”. مضيفا: “تتسم بالاحترام المتبادل لمصالح كلا الطرفين والرغبة بالاستجابة بشكل مشترك للتحديات المرتبطة بازدياد الاضطرابات في الساحة الدولية وضغط العقوبات غير الشرعية من الغرب بأسره”.
وتأتي زيارة ميشوستين إلى الصين بعد ردود فعل غاضبة صدرت من روسيا والصين إزاء التصريحات التي خرجت بحقهما خلال قمة مجموعة السبع مطلع الأسبوع في هيروشيما اليابانية، والمواقف المتخذة ضدهما بخصوص عدد من القضايا الدولية وأبرزها الحرب في أوكرانيا والأسلحة النووية والضغوط الاقتصادية.
في نفس السياق، قال رئيس مجلس الدولة الصيني (رئيس الوزراء) لي كه تشيانغ الأربعاء إن بلاده مستعدة للعمل مع روسيا لتعزيز تعاونهما العملي في مختلف المجالات والارتقاء به إلى “مستوى جديد”. وقال لي كه لنظيره الروسي خلال الاجتماع، إن التعاون العملي بين الصين وروسيا أظهر نموا “جيدا”، وبأن حجم الاستثمار بين البلدين يشهد أيضا تطورا مستمرا.
وأشاد لي أيضا بـ”شراكة التعاون الإستراتيجي الشامل بين الصين وروسيا في الحقبة الجديدة”. وتابع: “أعتقد أن زيارتكم إلى الصين في هذا التوقيت ستترك بصمة كبيرة”.
كذلك، قال رئيس الوزراء الروسي إن العلاقات مع الصين ارتقت إلى مستوى “غير مسبوق”، يتسم بالاحترام المتبادل لمصالح الطرف الآخر والرغبة في مواجهة التحديات بشكل مشترك. وقال ميشوستين لنظيره الصيني خلال اجتماع في بكين: “كما يقول أصدقاؤنا الصينيون، الاتحاد يجعل من الممكن تحريك الجبال”.
هذا، ووفقا لبيانات الجمارك الصينية، فقد واصلت الصادرات الصينية إلى روسيا ارتفاعها في أبريل/نيسان وقفزت 153.1 بالمئة على أساس سنوي، بعد تضاعفها في مارس/آذار.
وذكرت إنترفاكس أنه من المتوقع أن ترتفع إمدادات الطاقة الروسية إلى الصين 40 بالمئة هذا العام، كما يناقش البلدان إمدادات المعدات التكنولوجية إلى روسيا.
في ختام قمّتها التي انعقدت بمدينة هيروشيما اليابانية، أصدرت مجموعة الدول السبع الكبرى أقوى رسائلها فيما يتعلق بالصين. فمن جهة قررت تقليل الاعتماد على هذا البلد اقتصاديا، ومن جهة أخرى حذّرت بكين من مغبّة تغيير الوضع الراهن فيما يتعلق بتايوان بالقوة المسلحة.
وقررت مجموعة السبع تنويع سلاسل التوريد الخاصة بها بعيدا عن الصين، وسط مخاوف مما وصفته دول المجموعة بلجوء الصين إلى “الإكراه الاقتصادي”.
وعكست كلمات قادتها الوعي المتزايد بين الدول الغربية بأن اقتصاداتها تعتمد بشكل كبير على الصين، خاصة بعدما كشفت تبعات انتشار وتفشي جائحة فيروس كورونا على تعقيدات سلاسل التوريد الحيوية.
غير أن البيان قال في الوقت ذاته “مناهجنا السياسية ليست مصممة لإلحاق الضرر بالصين ولا نسعى إلى إحباط التقدم الاقتصادي والتنمية فيها.. وفي الوقت ذاته، ندرك أن المرونة الاقتصادية تتطلب الحد من المخاطر والتنويع”.
وعقب انتهاء قمة هيروشيما، عبّرت بكين عن غضبها من موقف الدول الأعضاء تجاهها، وقامت باستدعاء السفير الياباني. كما أمرت الشركات الصينية بالتوقف عن الشراء من ميكرون (Micron) الأميركية لصناعة الرقائق الإلكترونية.
جيك سوليفان: نسعى لمعالجة مخاوفنا من الصين لإزالة المخاطر لا الانفصال (رويترز)
إزالة المخاطر وليس الانفصال
وفي حديث للصحفيين على هامش قمة هيروشيما، قال مستشار الأمن القومي الأميركي جيك سوليفان “لكل دولة علاقتها ونهجها المستقلين، ولكننا متحدون ومتفقون حول مجموعة من العناصر المشتركة، نحن نسعى إلى التعاون مع الصين في المسائل ذات الاهتمام المشترك وسنعمل أيضا على معالجة مخاوفنا الكبيرة التي لدينا مع الصين في مجموعة من المجالات”. وأضاف “نتطلع إلى إزالة المخاطر، وليس الانفصال عن الصين”.
من جانبه وفي ختام قمة هيروشيما، سعى الرئيس الأميركي جو بايدن إلى طمأنة الصين بأن الصراع مع الغرب يمكن تجنبه، حتى في الوقت الذي تكثف فيه مجموعة السبع ضغوطها للرد على التهديدات العسكرية والاقتصادية الأمنية المتزايدة لبكين. وقال بايدن “لا أعتقد أن هناك أي شيء حتمي حول فكرة وجود صراع بين الغرب وبكين”.
رسالة قوية للصين
وفي حديث مع الجزيرة نت، اعتبر باتريك كرونين رئيس برنامج أمن آسيا والمحيط الهادي بمعهد “هدسون” والمسؤول السابق بوزارتي الدفاع والخارجية الأميركيتين أن قادة مجموعة السبع بعثوا برسالة جيدة إلى الصين، ووازنوا بين معارضتهم الموحدة للإكراه الاقتصادي والعسكري مع تصميم واضح على عدم فصل الاقتصادات الرائدة في العالم. وقال إن هذا “نهج قوي وحاد وذكي”.
وأضاف كرونين أن هناك “درجة عالية من التوافق الأميركي الأوروبي حول كيفية العمل معا فيما يتعلق بالصين. وهذا التوافق نتيجة تركيز الرئيس بايدن على العمل مع الحلفاء ولقوة بكين محليا ودوليا”.
في حين أن هؤلاء القادة يتفقون، كما يشير كرونين إلى اختلافات بين المشرعين والشركات والسكان “فيما يتناسب مع ديمقراطياتنا المتنوعة”. والفرق الرئيسي أن الأوروبيين “يفضلون القواعد العادلة التي لا تستهدف الصين بالضرورة، بينما يريد الأميركيون قواعد عادلة تركز على التحدي الصيني”.
مجموعة السبع قررت تنويع سلاسل التوريد الخاصة بعيدا عن بكين ومخاوف من لجوء الأخيرة إلى “الإكراه الاقتصادي” (رويترز)
تحدٍ أم تهديد؟
ومع الصعود الكبير لاقتصاد الصين خلال العقود الأخيرة، إضافة للطموحات العسكرية الواسعة التي تعكسها ميزانيتها الضخمة للدفاع والتصنيع العسكري، خرجت عشرات الدراسات المتنبئة بحتمية الصدام المستقبلي مع الولايات المتحدة.
وأشارت إستراتيجيات الأمن القومي الأميركي المتكررة -خلال العقدين الأخيرين- صراحة إلى أن بكين تسعى إلى تحدي قوة واشنطن ونفوذها ومصالحها، في محاولة للإضرار بأمن ورخاء الشعب الأميركي.
وترى صون يون خبيرة العلاقات الصينية الأميركية بمركز “ستيمسون” أن رسائل مجموعة السبع إلى الصين كانت غير مباشرة، ولم يذكر البيان الخاص بـ “الإكراه الاقتصادي” الصين بالاسم و”هو في الحقيقة قاسم مشترك أدنى يمكن أن تتفق عليه الدول السبع نظرا لاختلاف علاقة كل منهم فيما يتعلق بالجانب الاقتصادي مع الصين. ففي الوقت الذي ترى فيه واشنطن الصين تهديدا، تراها أوروبا الغربية تحديا”.
وفي حين يرى بعض الخبراء أن الدولتين دخلتا بالفعل مرحلة المنافسة الشديدة سواء اقتصاديا أو عسكريا فيما يشبه حربا باردة جديدة لن تنتهي قريبا، يعارض آخرون هذا الطرح في ظل العلاقات الضخمة والمعقدة التي تجمع الدولتين، وعلى رأسها تبادل تجاري بلغت قيمته 691 مليار دولار عام 2022، منها 537 مليارا صادرات صينية مقابل 154 مليارا صادرات أميركية.
وفي حديثها مع الجزيرة نت، قالت صون “هناك دائما مجال لتحسين علاقات الولايات المتحدة والصين، ولكن ذلك يعتمد على التوقعات. ومن غير المرجح حدوث تحول إستراتيجي كامل من قبل أي من القوتين العظميين، لكن هذا لا يعني أنهما لا يستطيعان تحسين علاقاتهما في القضايا الفنية مثل التعاون بمجال تغير المناخ وإدارة خلافاتهما بشكل أفضل”.
فجوة تجاه الصين
دعا الرئيس الفرنسي إيمانويل ماكرون -خلال زيارة قام بها للصين الشهر الماضي- إلى “عدم الدخول في منطق الكتلة مقابل الكتلة” مشددا على ضرورة ألا تكون أوروبا “تابعة” للولايات المتحدة أو الصين فيما يتعلق بتايوان.
وقال ماكرون في مقابلة صحفية “أسوأ شيء هو الاعتقاد أننا -نحن الأوروبيين- يجب أن نكون أتباعا بشأن مسألة تايوان”.
من جانبه، اعتبر خبير العلاقات الأميركية الصينية بمجلس العلاقات الخارجية جوش كورلانتزيك أن القمة بعثت “برسالة موحدة إلى حد ما ولكن هناك بالتأكيد فجوات كبيرة ومتزايدة بين الولايات المتحدة وأوروبا بشأن التعامل مع سياسات الصين، دون أدنى شك”.
ورجح كورلانتزيك في حديث للجزيرة نت أن تلعب هذه الأمور دورا مهما الأشهر المقبلة حيث إن أوروبا ليست سعيدة باقتراح بايدن فيما يتعلق بأشباه الموصلات (الرقائق الإلكترونية التي تدخل في كثير من الصناعات الأساسية) وأيضا بالفكرة العامة المتمثلة في انفصال اقتصادي أكبر عن الصين.
ويعتقد الخبير الأميركي أن أوروبا الغربية ترى الصين تهديدا كبيرا حتى أكثر من ذلك بعد حرب أوكرانيا، لكنها أكثر اعتمادا على التجارة الصينية وتخشى أن تفقد (الكثير).
وفي النهاية اعتبر كورلانتزيك أن هناك مجالا لتحسين العلاقات بين واشنطن وبكين “لكنني لن أراهن على ذلك في موسم انتخابي ساخن في أميركا حيث سيتبارى المرشحون في التعبير عن مواقف متشددة للغاية تجاه الصين”.
تستضيف الهند اجتماعا مهما لمجموعة دول العشرين حول السياحة في إقليم كشمير، وسط إجراءات أمنية مشددة ومعارضة من الصين.
ويعقد اجتماع مجموعة العمل في سريناغار، العاصمة الصيفية للشطر الخاضع لإدارة الهند من كشمير، في الفترة من الاثنين حتى الأربعاء.
ويعد ذلك أكبر حدث دولي يجري تنظيمه في الإقليم المتنازع عليه.
ومن المتوقع أن يحضر الاجتماع، أكثر من 60 مندوبا عن الدول الأعضاء في مجموعة العشرين.
لكن الصين أعلنت عن عدم مشاركتها، مشيرة إلى موقفها الحازم ضد “عقد أي اجتماع لمجموعة العشرين على أرض متنازع عليها”. وطلبت بي بي سي من وزارة الخارجية في الهند التعليق على البيان الصيني.
وتطالب كل من باكستان والهند بكامل إقليم كشمير، لكنهما تسيطران على أجزاء منه فقط. وخاضت الدولتان النوويتان حربين وصراعا محدودا على المنطقة.
وانتقدت باكستان، وهي ليست في مجموعة العشرين، في نيسان/أبريل قرار الهند استضافة اجتماعات في كشمير، ووصفته بأنه خطوة “غير مسؤولة”.
لكن الهند قالت إنه “من الطبيعي” استضافة المناسبات المتعلقة بمجموعة العشرين واجتماعات في “جامو وكشمير ولاداخ، التي تشكل جزءا لا يتجزأ وغير قابل للتصرف” من البلاد.
وقامت الهند عام 2019 بتقسيم ولاية جامو وكشمير، ذات الأغلبية المسلمة، وأنشأت منطقتين تحت الإدارة الفيدرالية – جامو وكشمير، ولاداخ. وتقع لاداخ على ما يعرف بأنه “خط السيطرة الفعلية” الحدودي المتنازع عليه بين الهند والصين، وتطالب كلاهما بأجزاء منه.
وأجرت الهند العديد من التدريبات الأمنية في كشمير، في الأيام التي سبقت عقد قمة مجموعة العشرين. وتشهد المنطقة نشاطا مسلحا ضد الهند منذ 1989 – وتتهم الهند باكستان بإثارة الاضطرابات من خلال دعم المسلحين الانفصاليين، وهو ما نفته إسلام أباد.
التعليق على الصورة،شددت الهند الإجراءات الأمنية في كشمير قبل أيام على عقد اجتماع مجموعة العشرين
وشهدت المنطقة هذا العام هجمات متصاعدة من قبل ما يشتبه بأنها ميليشيات. وقال ضباط أمن لوسائل إعلامية إنهم يتخذون إجراءات لمنع أي تهديدات تستهدف عرقلة الاجتماع.
وانتشرت عناصر من قوات الأمن، من بينها عناصر القوات الخاصة البحرية والحرس الأمني الوطني، وقوات حرس الحدود وقوات الشرطة في كشمير، لتأمين غطاء أمني من الأرض إلى الجو، وفق ما جاء في تقارير.
ودُفع بتعزيزات أمنية حول مبنى مركز المؤتمرات الدولي في سريناغار، حيث يعقد الاجتماع.
وأغلقت عدة مدارس في المدينة، بعضها لتسعة أيام بحسب ما ورد في تقارير.
واستخدمت لافتات إعلانية لمجموعة العشرين لحجب التحصينات العسكرية، وهي مشهد مألوف في كشمير.
وانتقد زعماء المعارضة المحلية، بمن فيهم رئيسة وزراء جامو وكشمير السابقة محبوبة مفتي، الإجراءات الأمنية الموسعة، واتهموا الحكومة الفيدرالية بجعل الحياة أكثر صعوبة على الناس العاديين.
وقارنت مفتي في مؤتمر صحفي، القيود المفروضة على كشمير قبل قمة مجموعة العشرين بالقيود المفروضة على معتقل غوانتانامو. ولم ترد إدارة جامو وكشمير على تصريحها حتى الآن.
India’s presidency of the G20 group of leading nations has become mired in controversy after China and Saudi Arabia boycotted a meeting staged in Kashmir, the first such gathering since India unilaterally brought Kashmir under direct control in August 2019.
The meeting, a tourism working group attended by about 60 delegates from most G20 countries taking place from Monday to Wednesday, required a large show of security at Srinagar international airport.
Indian authorities hoped the meeting would show that the controversial changes have brought “peace and prosperity” to the region and that it is a safe place for tourists.
India’s elite National Security Guard, including its counter-drone unit and marine commandos, were helping police and paramilitary forces to secure the event venues.
China has said it will not attend, citing its firm opposition “to holding any kind of G20 meetings in disputed territory”. In April, Pakistan, which also lays claim to Kashmir but is not a G20 member, described the meeting as irresponsible. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Indonesia were also expected to stay away.
The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti claimed India had turned the region into the equivalent of the Guantánamo Bay prison simply to hold a meeting on tourism. She also accused the Bharatiya Janata party, the party of the prime minister, Narendra Modi, of hijacking the G20 for its promotional purposes.
Last week Fernand de Varennes, the UN’s special rapporteur on minority issues, issued a statement saying the G20 was “unwittingly providing a veneer of support to a facade of normalcy” when human rights violations, political persecution and illegal arrests were escalating in Kashmir.
He said the meeting risked normalising what some have described as a military occupation. The statement was criticised as baseless by India’s permanent mission at the UN in Geneva. It was India’s prerogative to hold G20 meetings in any part of the country, the mission said.
India divided the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 to create two federally administered territories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. Ladakh is a disputed frontier region along the line of actual control between India and China, and both countries claim parts of it.
The chief coordinator for India’s G20 presidency, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, said on Sunday: “We have the highest representation from foreign delegations for the tourism working group meeting in Srinagar, than we have had in the previous working group meetings.
“Our experience is that in any working group meeting, to get such a large turnout of delegates not only from G20 countries but also from international organisations that are part of the G20 is an incredible process. If you have to do a working group on tourism in India, we have to do it in Srinagar. There is no option.”
Britain’s high commissioner to India, Alex Ellis, said UK representatives would be attending the meeting. At a meeting between Modi and Rishi Sunak, the UK prime minister, at the G7 in Hiroshima, the two sides discussed progress on reaching a free trade deal. India remains angry at what it regards as a lax UK police reaction to an attack on the Indian high commission in London on 19 March by pro-Khalistan extremists. Security has been stepped up outside the commission.
The presidency of the G20 is rotated between members each year and the Indian presidency was always likely to prove controversial as India has close trading links with Russia and the Modi administration is keen to protect Russia from criticism by western members of the G20 over Ukraine. Kyiv has asked to attend a summit in September but the Indian government is arguing Ukraine is not relevant to the state of the world economy – the central purpose of the G20 – or to its chosen key agenda items of inclusive growth, debt restructuring and climate finance.
On May 2, Khader Adnan was found dead in his cell inside the Ramleh Prison Clinic. He is the first Palestinian prisoner to die on hunger strike in Israeli jail since 1967. He is also the veteran of seven other hunger strikes, which he underwent over the course of two decades, but his more recent hunger strikes (from 2011 onwards) are what launched him into national and international prominence as a symbol of Palestinian defiance and steadfastness. He is almost single-handedly credited with starting subsequent waves of Palestinian hunger strikes in Israeli prisons, becoming a central figure in what became known as “the battle of empty stomachs.”
Hailing from the town of Arrabeh outside of Jenin, the 44-year-old was married to Randa, and together they had nine children — five boys and four girls.
The man who demanded freedom
“Freedom means that he left the body that they destroyed,” Ashira Darwish, a researcher and mother who was one of the first people to greet Khader Adnan as he ran out of Ofer Prison following the success of his first long-term hunger strike in 2011-2012, told Mondoweiss.
Before becoming a target of Israeli abuses, Adnan studied economics at Birzeit University, graduating in 2001. He would return to the university to pursue his graduate studies, but he was arrested before completing his degree.
(CARTOON: CARLOS LATUFF)
The first time Adnan declared an individual long-term hunger strike in Israeli prison was in 2011-2012, lasting 66 days. Adnan was just entering his 30s, and the revolutionary fervor of the Arab revolts against totalitarianism was bubbling over into Palestine. Adnan’s hunger strike was a spark that signaled the resurgence of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement in Israeli prisons, garnering the attention and solidarity of the Palestinian public.
“Khader Adnan is a name and personality that have become a staple in our household,” Dana Bulous, a lawyer and daughter of Jawad Bulous, Adnan’s legal representative during his first hunger strikes, told Mondoweiss.
“I first heard of Khader Adnan in 2012, when my father was appointed to represent him,” she told Mondoweiss in the wake ofAdnan’s death. “I remember when my father said that there was an administrative detainee who had gone on hunger strike, and that I should accompany him on this case whenever possible,” Bulous said.
At the time, Adnan had been arrested by Israeli forces and put under administrative detention, the practice of being imprisoned without charge or trial, and for reasons that Israeli intelligence does not need to disclose to the detainee or their lawyer, as they are instead relegated to a “secret file.”
“Administrative detention is a cruel system which Israel routinely uses against Palestinians, especially in the West Bank,” Bulous explained to Mondoweiss. “From the beginning, it is an impossible situation for the prisoners, their families, and their lawyers.”
This process, designed and implemented by the Israeli military courts and judicial system, operates separately from Israel’s civil administrative and judicial framework, and effectively denies any detainee the chance to challenge, contradict, or even admit guilt of the crimes being fabricated against them.
“I saw how my father used to come back from visiting Khader, full of admiration and amazement, saying how over the 30 plus years of working with prisoners, he had hardly met anyone with the mind and conviction of Khader,” Bulous said.
“When I used to ask Khader, ‘how did you do it?’” Darwish recalled to Mondoweiss.“He said, ‘I have yaqeen [faith] in God,’” referencing the Islamic belief in the certainty that God will protect you.
Adnan was arrested a total of 13 times, which added up to nine years in prison, or nearly a quarter of his life. Khader Adnan became the testament to a new mode of resistance with two weapons in its arsenal — empty stomachs and solidarity.
“Khader would not accept anything other than his freedom. No amount of pressure could make him negotiate for anything less,” Bulous said. “It was either freedom or freedom.”
Freedom or freedom: a lifetime of hunger strikes
“When he first ended his hunger strike and was released, Adnan came to [al-Manara Square] where youth were protesting and on hunger strike, in solidarity [with other hunger strikers and detainees],” Darwish said, recalling the first time she met Adnan. “He was just the sweetest person.”
Throughout his activism, Khader Adnan, who was affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), often pushed for unity stances, insisting that Palestinians remain united in the face of a merciless colonial machine. When he was in chains and unable to join the movement on the streets, Adnan would resort to using his body as a tool of protest.
“Khader came and stood on this square for all the other detainees and hunger strikers,” Adnan’s wife, Randa Moussa, told Mondoweiss, referring to the countless times Adnan protested in al-Manara Square in downtown Ramallah.
Throughout those years of defiance, and after his many battles with his empty stomach, the 44-year-old was dubbed the “knight of hunger strikes,” a testament to his insistence on laying claim to the last domain of control over his body.
KHADER ADNAN IS GREETED BY HIS MOTHER AS HE ARRIVES IN HIS HOMETOWN OF ARRABEH NEAR JENIN AFTER HIS RELEASE FROM ISRAELI PRISON ON JULY 12, 2015 (PHOTO: AHMAD TALAT/APA IMAGES)
“Words are not enough to describe him, but generally we are speaking about someone with a history of struggle,” Amany Sarahneh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Prisoners Society, told Mondoweiss.
Khader Adnan’s first experience on hunger strike was in the prisons of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Jericho, more than 22 years ago. Adnan testified to undergoing torture and mistreatment during that stint in the PA’s jails, which he was spending under allegations of inciting others to throw stones at French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin during a visit to Birzeit University. That first hunger strike lasted for ten days.
The second time he would starve his body was in 2004, when almost 4,000 Palestinian political detainees went on a 18-day hunger strike protesting abuses inside Israeli prison, demanding basic rights like family visitation and access to cigarettes, books, and newspapers. This would be Adnan’s third arrest by Israel, and he spent most of it in solitary confinement.
His third hunger strike, and the one that launched him into prominence, was in 2011-2012. His strike coincided with new policies enforced by the Israeli Prison Service that stripped prisoners’ rights.
This time, Adnan’s strike was a solo effort and would jump-start a trend of individual hunger strikes of Palestinian detainees protesting their individual conditions of imprisonment, especially pertaining to their administrative detention. After 66 days of starvation, Adnan was released from Ofer military detention camp on April 17, 2012.
Khader Adnan entered another long hunger strike in May of 2015, where he refused food for 56 days following an earlier ten-day hunger strike in February of the same year, when he was first arrested and put under administrative detention for two consecutive six-month periods. Part of the deal between Israeli Prison Services and Khader Adnan was that he would end his hunger strike if Israeli authorities were to release him and pledge not to arrest him again under administrative detention.
Yet only two years later, he was arrested again by Israeli forces in December 2017. He underwent a 58-day hunger strike into 2018, around the same time the Great March of Return was mobilizing in Gaza, after which he was released.
KHADER ADNAN GREETED BY HIS DAUGHTER AS HE ARRIVES HIS HOMETOWN OF ARRABEH NEAR JENIN, AFTER HIS RELEASE FROM ISRAELI PRISON ON JULY 12, 2015. (PHOTO: SOCIAL MEDIA)
“Over the years, the Israeli state has cared less and less for the hunger strikers,” Bulous explained to Mondoweiss. “It has tried to ‘milk’ their lives to the very limit in order not to give into Palestinian hunger strikers.”
Adnan’s success that year did not end with his own release. A wave of “battles of empty stomachs” ensued among Palestinian political detainees. Hana Shalabi, Bilal Diab, Thaer Halahleh, Hasan Safadi, and Nizar Tamimi all entered hunger strikes, each extending for several months. Most of the hunger strikers successfully regained their freedom, even though some were deported or exiled to places like Gaza and Jordan.
During the Unity Intifada peak in May and June of 2021, Khader Adnan was arrested again by Israeli authorities and put under administrative detention. He went on a hunger strike for 25 days, after which he was released.
“After the 2021 hunger strike, Khader was in the ICU for three days,” Moussa recalled to Mondoweiss, listing the surgeries Adnan had to undergo after every strike, further weakening his body.
It was clear to the Israeli authorities that Adnan would refuse to engage with them while in chains even for a single moment, and yet on May 2 of this year, Adnan’s life was milked out of him. But his impact upon the community lives on beyond his victories in the battles of empty stomachs.
Adnan’s successes in previous hunger strikes depended not only on his conviction and will to endure starvation but on the solidarity and external pressures generated by the Palestinian street and the international community. The prospect of a popular upheaval or uprising in response to violations against Palestinian prisoners has functioned as a kind of deterrent for the Israeli Prison Service.
“I see Khader Adnan’s purposeful killing as Israel’s strategy to further repress Palestinians and any sort of resistance,” Bulous explained to Mondoweiss. “Whether it is through peaceful tactics or non-peaceful ones,” she added.
Although Khader Adnan is mainly known for his advocacy for political detainees, Adnan’s struggle against repression and injustice was not solely directed against the prison guards attempting to obtain coerced confessions from him — he also stood against the repression and authoritarianism of the PA.
In February of last year, he was targeted in a drive-by shooting in Nablus, which the late Adnan said was an assassination attempt by the PA to remove him from the Palestinian political and public arena. He also emphasized that the PA’s assassination attempt aimed to eliminate Palestinian symbols of confrontation and deter Palestinians from resisting the occupation. According to his family, no one was held accountable for the attempted killing, and no investigation was opened.
“Khader was a community man, he knew how to mobilize,” Randa Moussa told Mondoweiss before his death, still praying and hoping her husband would make it out alive. “His strategy was the mobilization of the collective. He ensured that when we went to support detainees or hunger strikers or when we would attend vigils, that all of us would go, the whole family. It was a collective act,” she said.
PALESTINIANS PARTICIPATE IN A PROTEST AT AL-MANARAH SQUARE IN DOWNTOWN RAMALLAH FOLLOWING THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DEATH OF KHADER ADNAN IN ISRAELI CUSTODY AS HE NEARED HIS 90TH DAY ON HUNGER STRIKE PROTESTING HIS IMPRISONMENT, MAY 2, 2023. (PHOTO: AHMAD AROURI/APA IMAGES)
“In the end, even when they killed him, we say they may think they killed him, but in reality his idea will never die,” the Palestinian Prisoners Society’s Sarahneh told Mondoweiss.
Adnan’s body was moved to the “Abu Kabir” facility, the only institute in Israel allowed to perform autopsies on bodies with cases of unnatural death. Israeli authorities pushed this effort forward against Adnan’s final written will. He did not want his body to be dissected after death but buried swiftly and without delay. According to his lawyers, this delay in his burial is another attempt at further targeting the symbolism and inspiration that Adnan has planted in his community.
As the world lost Khader Adnan, Palestine lost an icon and a symbol, while Randa and her nine children, Ma’ale, Hamza, Mohammad, Ali, Abedlrahman, Omar, Zeinab, Maryam, and Bisan, were left without a husband and a father.
As for Khader Adnan, and in the words of Ashira Darwish: “Now, he is free.”
The Palestinian people and their supporters around the world have just commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Nakba (“Catastrophe”). For the first time since it started, the UN has also commemorated this painful event.
The Nakba, though, was not a single historical event. It was originally spread over two years from mid-1947 to mid-1949, as the catastrophe of the creation of the Zionist state of Israel befell the Palestinian people. That was a period filled with cruelty, brutality and terrorism, during which a prosperous homeland was shattered; people were displaced; and the dream of an independent Palestine evaporated. It was a nightmare that the Palestinians still face.
Historians, including Israelis, affirm that the horrors that the Palestinian people went through during that period were part of a scheme approved by the leadership of the Zionist movement in preparation for the announcement of the State of Israel. During that period, the Zionist terror gangs destroyed over 530 Palestinian villages; took control of more than 700 villages, towns and cities; and displaced more than 750,000 Palestinians, around 50 per cent of the total Palestinian population in Palestine. The Zionists used brutal, organised terrorism to achieve their aims; innocent people were killed, including pregnant women who were, it is recorded, often bayoneted to death; homes were blown up and set on fire; and farms and wells were destroyed.
Palestine before the Nakba was not, as the Zionists claim, “a land without a people for a people without a land”. On the contrary, Palestine and its people had a vibrant civilization and a deep social and cultural heritage. Sadly, though, those who have accepted the fake Zionist narrative about Palestine include most recently Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission. This was obvious in her speech about Israel’s independence. She repeated the lie that the Palestinians were basically waiting for the Zionists to come along and “make the desert bloom”. That’s another Zionist myth. The German politician should have known better than to believe the narrative of the occupiers of a land and persecutors of its people.
She praised the Zionists for establishing a country with a political system built on freedom, democracy and the defence of human rights. However, this false narrative does not stand up to the most basic scrutiny. History confirms that before its colonisation by the Zionists Palestine was a prosperous country with vibrant education, health, agriculture, industry, tourism and sports sectors.
Haifa and Jaffa were among the largest and most used ports in the region. They competed with other international ports in terms of their civil and commercial traffic. Haifa had a huge oil refinery.
The Arab Bank was established in Jerusalem in 1930, and has become the largest banking institution in the Arab world. Indeed, it is one of the largest in the world.
Researchers have noted that between 45 and 50 Palestinian newspapers were published before the Nakba, in addition to magazines covering agriculture, engineering and industry, to name but a few specialisms. The Palestinians established and operated the second radio station in the Arab world after Egypt, broadcasting from Jerusalem.
Palestine had theatres and cinemas across the country, especially in Jerusalem, Jaffa and Haifa. The most famous was Al-Hamra Theatre and Cinema in Jerusalem.
The Palestine football team was one of the first national teams in the region, and was recognised by FIFA in 1929. The team participated in the 1934 World Cup tournament in Italy.
The first women’s association in Palestine was established in 1903, in Acre, and was headed by Nabiha Al-Mansi. The first Palestinian Women’s Union was established in 1921, with the support of Emilia As-Sakakini and Zalikha Ash-Shihabi. In 1924, the Women’s Renaissance Association was established in the city of Ramallah, where Palestinian women were involved in political, cultural and social activities.
From the 1930s onwards, the Palestinians sent hundreds of teachers, doctors and nurses to emerging countries in the Gulf, and contributed to their development in many other fields, not just medicine. The first ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the UN, Ahmed Al-Shugairi, was a Palestinian, and the constitution of the modern UAE was written by a Palestinian. Palestinians contributed to the establishment of many Arab newspapers and radio stations after their displacement from their homeland.
In terms of agriculture, Britain’s Peel Commission in the 1930s reported that Palestine was the world’s leading exporter of citrus fruits. Other crops were also exported, including wheat, olives, bananas and watermelons. Most of the country’s agricultural land — 95 to 99 per cent — was managed by Palestinian farmers.
Palestine was most definitely not a desert with no people just waiting to be colonised by Zionists. This was the thriving land which faced the ethnic cleansing known as the Nakba.
Only in 1948 did Zionist Jews take control by force of arms of 78 per cent of historic Palestine to establish the settler-colonial state of Israel. Until the rest of historic Palestine was occupied by Israel in 1967, the Zionist state’s development was largely confined to the Palestinian cities of Haifa, Jaffa, Beersheba, Ramla, Lod, Ashdod, Majdal, and Nazareth.
All the new cities that were built after the establishment of the state were on the outskirts of the historic Palestinian cities or an expansion of some of their neighbourhoods, as was the case of Tel Aviv and Netanya, for example. They were concentrated in the coastal and central regions, in less than 20 per cent of the total area under their control.
The rest of occupied Palestine, including the Negev desert and Galilee in the north, had a limited Jewish presence hardly worth mentioning. That is why successive right-wing governments have drafted and implemented settlement plans for such areas.
What does the Nakba mean for the Palestinians? It was not, as most people believe, a short episode in history that the Palestinian people went through during the establishment of the State of Israel, full of pain, suffering, brutality and displacement. The reality is that the Nakba is ongoing, and such awful conditions and hardships continue in a deeper and more systematic way even as I write.
Ever since 1948, the Zionist leadership has developed a scheme to control the Palestinian people; thwart their ability to resist and reject Zionist occupation and brutalities; and destroy any opportunity for them to dream of a better future based on freedom, independence, dignity and the legitimate return of the refugees and their descendants to the homes and land from which they were ethnically cleansed.
The first part of this scheme was to turn the remaining Palestinian-populated areas inside historic Palestine into ghettos that are separated completely from each other. They are subjected to racist laws, unlike the Jewish population in the same areas. This is the reality of the Zionist state, which has been deemed by international human rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Israel’s own B’Tselem to have crossed the legal threshold for apartheid.
More than a million Palestinians have been arrested, tortured and otherwise brutalised since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including thousands of children, women, the sick and the elderly. Thousands of homes and institutions have been demolished illegally, and thousands of acres of land have been stolen and handed over to fanatical Jewish settlers to build new outposts and colonial settlements, all of which are illegal under international law.
Hundreds of thousands of trees, especially olive trees, have been uprooted, destroyed or burned. Natural resources, especially scarce water supplies, have been seized by the Israeli occupation authorities and are now controlled for the benefit of illegal settlers.
Today, more than 76 per cent of the area of the West Bank is under full Israeli control which, for the Palestinians, means deprivation of freedom of movement and potentially deadly threats when trying to go about their everyday activities; the destruction of the local economy due to the difficulty of importing and exporting goods; and daily armed incursions of Palestinian towns and villages by occupation forces and illegal settlers who terrorise innocent civilians.
The narrow coastal enclave of the Gaza Strip has been under a suffocating Israeli blockade for more than 17 years. It has turned the territory and its 2.3 million inhabitants, 60 per cent of whom are children, into the largest open-air prison in the world. Some have even called it a latter-day concentration camp.
Moreover, the seven million Palestinians in the diaspora are deprived of the most basic rights and are exposed repeatedly to persecution and oppression in many countries. They are deprived of their legitimate right to return to their land, a right extended to all other refugees driven from their lands during periods of war and other armed crises. The Palestinians in the diaspora are also excluded from the political processes in the occupied Palestinian territories which determine their future.
This situation is unsustainable. If the Palestinians continue to be denied their political and civil rights, freedom, independence and the right to self-determination and return, there will never be any security or stability for anyone. The issue of Palestine is the central issue for all Arab and Islamic peoples, not only the people of occupied Palestine.
The international community that created this problem must assume its full and effective responsibilities to resolve it. Until such time that a just solution is found, the world must protect the Palestinians from the Israeli occupiers, and ensure that they are able to live a decent and safe life. It is no longer enough to hear some comments and remarks by international figures without practical steps being taken to stop Israel’s aggression, end the conflict and hold war criminals to account. The UN resolution to commemorate the Nakba for the first time was a step in the right direction. However, it is not enough. We need to put an end to this catastrophe and resolve the conflict in a way that achieves justice, peace and security for all.
China has said it will not attend the upcoming G20 tourism meeting scheduled to take place in the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
China and Pakistan have both condemned India for holding the event in the Muslim-majority Kashmir, a region that has been disputed between New Delhi and Islamabad.
Both countries claim the region in its entirety but only govern parts of it. They have fought three wars since independence from the United Kingdom in 1947 over Kashmir.
India, which holds the chair of G20 this year, has organised a series of meetings across the country in the run-up to the summit in New Delhi in September.
“China is firmly opposed to holding any kind of G20 meetings in disputed territory, and will not attend such meetings,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Friday.
India-Pakistan relations have been frozen since 2019 when New Delhi changed the status of Jammu and Kashmir state, ended its special status and converted it into a federal territory.
It split the state to create the two federal territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. A large chunk of Ladakh is under Chinese control.
The Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir has been roiled for decades by a rebellion seeking independence or merger with Pakistan, with tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and Kashmiri rebels killed in the conflict.
Ties between New Delhi and Beijing have also been strained since a military clash in Ladakh in 2020 in which 24 soldiers were killed.
Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, will host a meeting of the tourism working group for G20 members on May 22 to 24.
Security beefed up in Kashmir
India has countered the objection, saying it is free to hold meetings on its own territory.
On Friday, it said peace and tranquillity on its border are essential for normal ties with China.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the relationship between the nuclear-armed neighbours can only be based on mutual respect, sensitivity and interest, in comments that mark a rare articulation of New Delhi’s position since ties with Beijing deteriorated in 2020.
“India is fully prepared and committed to protect its sovereignty and dignity,” Modi said in an interview with Nikkei Asia ahead of his visit to Japan to attend the G7 summit.
The three-day gathering takes place at a sprawling, well-guarded venue on the shores of Dal Lake in Srinagar. Police said security was beefed up “at vulnerable locations to avoid any chance of terrorist attack during the G20” meeting.
On Friday, elite Indian commandos patrolled the streets of Srinagar. Roads leading to the location have been freshly black-topped, and electricity poles lit up in the colours of India’s national flag to show what officials say is “normalcy and peace returning” to the region.
India has been promoting tourism in Kashmir and more than a million of its citizens visited last year.
