"All wars are internal wars, because all human beings are brothers."
After more than ten days of violent clashes, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Israel formally ceased fire today (7:00 Beijing time on the 21st). It also means that the most serious conflict between Palestine and Israel in the past seven years has come to an end.
At the Foreign Ministry's press conference today (May 21), spokesman Zhao Lijian said that China welcomes the ceasefire between the two sides of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and hopes that the relevant parties will effectively cease fire and stop the violence.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" > why did this conflict break out? </h1>
War has always been a man-made disaster.
According to figures released by the Palestinians and Israelis, as of the evening of the 20th, the clashes had caused 232 deaths and more than 1,900 injuries on the Palestinian side; 12 people and more than 300 injuries on the Israeli side. In just a dozen days, 244 people, including children, lost the opportunity to breathe on this planet.
One by one, vivid lives turned into cold numbers.
Disputes over Jerusalem (the common holy ground for Judaism, Christianity and Islam) have long been fought, and since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, there have been five Middle East wars between Palestine and Israel, and there have been many bloody clashes.
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict stems not only from religious issues, but also from national interests, national grievances, territorial disputes, and great power games.
According to historical records, the roots of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict can be traced back to the eleventh century BC (that is, roughly equivalent to the early Western Zhou Dynasty in China).
Evolution of the Map of Palestine (1946-2010)
In 1947, the Second Session of the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 181, which provided for the establishment of two States on the land of Palestine, namely the Arab State and the Jewish State, and the city of Jerusalem, which was specially administered by the United Nations as an international city.
However, the Arabs did not consider the resolution to be so "just". This is due to the fact that Arabs, who make up 2/3 of the population of Palestine, receive only 43 per cent of their fragmented and barren land, while Jews, who make up 1/3 of the population of Palestine, receive 57 per cent of the fertile land along the coast.
In addition, in 1980, Israel issued the Jerusalem Act, declaring Jerusalem to be its eternal, unified and indivisible capital. In the same year, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 478, declaring the bill null and void. Subsequently, in 1988, when the Palestinian State was established, East Jerusalem was declared its capital, but it also failed to receive international recognition.
It is worth mentioning that May 15 is the Palestinian "National Disaster Day", while the 5th day of the Jewish calendar (usually between April and May in the Gregorian calendar) is Israel's "Independence Day". Days that are not far apart are two very different kinds of commemoration. This also reflects the Palestinian-Israeli grudge, which is not so simple.
Since the outbreak of this round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the international community's call for a "ceasefire" has never stopped, but the United States has blocked the United Nations Security Council from issuing a joint statement urging a ceasefire on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict four times, and the Biden administration has even approved the sale of precision-guided weapons worth $735 million to Israel.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="76" >-Israeli ceasefire, then what? </h1>
On 20 May, Egypt sent two security missions to Tel Aviv, Israel, and to Palestinian areas to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire between the two sides and to seek measures to maintain permanent stability.
Zhao Lijian said in this regard: China appreciates the mediation efforts of Egypt and the United Nations, and we have also done a great deal of work to persuade and promote peace talks, and we are willing to continue to work with the international community to further ease the tension between Palestine and Israel.
Although palestine and Israel have now ceased fire, the Gaza strip is in ruins. Israel shelled all schools in Gaza and destroyed the only COVID-19 testing laboratory in the region. The streets that were once bustling with traffic have been reduced to ruins, and local residents have difficulties in living without water and electricity.
We see 10-year-old Palestinian girls standing in the rubble crying "why we have to bear this"; surviving Palestinian boys who have experienced shelling who are stunned after suffering psychological trauma; Palestinian 6-year-old girls who were rescued after being buried in the rubble for 7 hours but weeping because of the loss of their loved ones; Palestinian youths who have lost their families kneel in the rubble and cry.
Zhao Lijian announced at today's press conference that China will provide US$1 million in emergency humanitarian spot assistance to Pakistan and will continue to provide humanitarian material support within the scope of its ability according to the needs of the Pakistani side and actively participate in the reconstruction of Gaza. We will also contribute $1 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and 200,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to provide practical assistance to the Palestinian people.
Looking at Israel, the people's days are equally dangerous.
As of May 20, Hamas had fired about 4,340 rockets into Israel, about 90 percent of which had been intercepted by the Iron Dome system, but 10 percent of the rockets still landed on the ground. At the same time, there was constant conflict between Arabs and Jews in Israel.
This is another war.
It is worth mentioning that every resident of the Israeli border farms has a "bullet shelter" in their home. Sderot, the closest Israeli city to Gaza, even has bomb shelters specially designed for children.
"What is the shape of hope in the eyes of children?" Do you wake up with bread for breakfast and drink a bowl of hot soup? It is a lyric in Jay Chou's "The Death of The Cessation of War". When the children of a country, the hopes of a country's future, express concern about whether they can see the sun of tomorrow, and begin to doubt their own existence because of the continuous war, I think that this country must seriously think about whether its decision is correct.
Palestine, once a region of fertility, has been in conflict and war for half a century. Jerusalem, the Hebrew word for "city of peace," has been torn against the grain of war.
Local residents of Gaza return home on May 21 (Photo from China News Network)
On May 21, the Palestinian-Israeli ceasefire officially, and Gaza residents celebrated on the streets (Picture from China News Agency)
In the conflict, ordinary people in both countries and those who suffered casualties in the conflict are the biggest victims. Can a "ceasefire agreement" really be exchanged for future peace? How long will the peace that ordinary people crave last?
If the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not truly resolved, peace in the Middle East will remain unresolved.
As Zhao Lijian said at today's news conference, in order to prevent the tragedy of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict from recurring, the international community should push the Palestinians and Israelis to restart peace talks and achieve a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the Palestinian issue on the basis of the "two-State solution."
Author: He Wang ziyu.