Brazilia-Beijing-Tokyo and the Question of Palestine

John de Boer (Japan Fellow, Stanford University; Research Associate, GLOCOM)

Palestine was the focus in three countries seeking to boost their international status this past week. Brazil, China and Japan all played host to the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with each pledging support for a Palestinian state.

Although Western and Asian media sources emphasized Japan's recent commitment of an additional $100 million dollars in economic aid to the Palestinian government, two-thirds of it direct, the most significant political development took place in South America. In Brazilia, South American and Arab leaders held the first South America-Arab Summit on May 9-10, with the objective of developing a South-South dialogue and promoting political, cultural and economic cooperation. In all, twenty-two Arab league members and twelve South American countries attended.

Media reaction in the Arab world following the summit was overwhelmingly positive. Quatar's semi-official Gulf Times celebrated the event and ambitiously outlined its challenge as "designing a new economic and trade geography for the world." Jeddah's moderate Okaz led off with an article, "The Powerless Countries' Summit in the Face of Tyranny." It editorialized about the political significance of the summit in light of its condemnation of Israeli aggression against the Palestinians. In conclusion, it stated that, "the powerless summit proves that nations who have will, can accomplish a lot." Syria's government owned Al-Thawra wrote that the Brazil summit "will give a new momentum to the Latin American support of just Arab causes."

In South America, reviews were mixed. Brazil's business oriented Valor Economico admitted that the summit was a "good start of trade rapprochement between the two regions." It characterized results in the economic area as "modest, but promising." The center-right paper O Estado de S. Paulo was more condemnatory stating that, "South America gained nothing, the Arab nations gained what they wanted – to use the meeting as a new stage to attack the U.S. and Israel." Finally, Peru's leading daily El Comercio, despite its conservative leaning, called the summit "encouraging" and outlined that the special emphasis on the claims of the Palestinian State made a "common cause with Arab countries." Home to 17 million Arabs who have migrated to South America over the past 150 years, the continent could emerge as a new political force with a growing stake in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

In Japan, although news agencies did not admit it, Abbas' visit fell short of initial expectations. Originally, Prime Minister Koizumi had hoped to host a trilateral summit between the Palestinian National Authority and Israel with Japan mediating. However, Israel declined to attend. Japan nevertheless declared its support for a Palestinian state and extended financial aid earmarked for the election process starting in a few months. Having arrived in Japan on the anniversary what Palestinians refer to as the "Nakba," Abbas urged Japan to play a political role in promoting a negotiated settlement between Israeli and Palestinian representatives. Abbas also pledged his moral support for Japan's bid to the United Nations Security Council. His motives were clear: Japan has consistently supported the Palestinian cause politically and financially and there is a hope that Japanese leaders can have a moderating influence on the U.S. However, considering that Israel has no interest in eroding its political leverage by getting Japan involved in peace negotiations, convincing Israel that Japan should be politically involved is a hard sell.

Meanwhile in China, Abbas gained the endorsement of China's most powerful leaders. Chinese president Hu Jintao and premier Wen Jiabao stressed that, "China and Palestine should further strengthen inter-governmental economic cooperation and implement agreements on economic and technical cooperation." Abbas also pushed China to play a larger political role in the region and emphasized China's permanent seat in the UNSC. News agencies such as the Agence France Presse suggested that China is desirous of expanding its influence in the Middle East. Analysts see oil dependent Japan and China battling over increasingly scarce crude oil and natural gas reserves in the Middle East. Judging, perhaps wrongly, that the question of Palestine has always served as a barometer for cooperation with Gulf countries, a solidarity oriented discourse supporting the Palestinian right to self-determination was echoed in China.

In all, the past week represented a tremendous boost for the Palestinian cause. However, it also exposed an emerging rivalry over influence in the Middle East between Japan, China and South America. It will be interesting to see how these interests are played out through the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.