*Machine translation*
Joint Statement of China and Arab Countries on the Question of Palestine
On May 30, 2024, the Tenth Ministerial Meeting of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum was held in Beijing, and the two sides held in-depth discussions on the question of Palestine.
The two sides agreed that the relevant resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and the United Nations General Assembly, including Security Council resolution 2728, must be fully and effectively implemented, and that joint efforts should be made to promote a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip as soon as possible and to promote an early, comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the question of Palestine. The two sides reached consensus on the following:
First, the two sides condemn Israel's continued aggression against the Palestinian people. There have been 125,000 Palestinian civilians killed and injured in the Gaza Strip, most of them women and children. The Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip has been forced to suffer a deadly famine and blockade that has cut off all livelihoods, and the systematic destruction of residential areas, hospitals, schools, mosques, churches and infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, as well as the detention and ill-treatment of thousands of Palestinian prisoners.
The two sides condemn the aggression against the city of Rafah, as well as the bombing of refugee camps and the control of the Rafah crossing.
The two sides reject the plans, intentions and acts of forcible transfer of the Palestinian people outside their national borders, which will bury the chances for peace in the Middle East region and lead to the widening and worsening of the conflict in the region.
Fourthly, the two sides demand that the Security Council adopt a binding resolution on the realization of an immediate, comprehensive and sustained ceasefire, the cessation of the forcible transfer of the Palestinian people, the guarantee of the delivery of relief supplies throughout the territory of Gaza, the implementation of the relevant resolutions of the Security Council, and the return of life in the Gaza Strip to the right track. The two sides condemn the use of the veto by the United States to prevent Palestine from becoming a full member of the United Nations.
V. The two sides support the orders for provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice on January 26, March 28, and May 24, 2024, in the case of South Africa against Israel for violations of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and believe that Israel should comply with the relevant provisions of the law, in particular international humanitarian law. The parties emphasized that Israel, as the occupying Power, bears responsibility for the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Sixthly, the Arab side emphasizes the need to implement the resolution of the Joint Extraordinary Arab-Islamic Summit held in Riyadh on 11 November 2023, which includes the breaking of the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, so that humanitarian relief supplies provided by the Arab and Islamic countries, as well as by the international community, can immediately enter the whole of the territory of Gaza from the north to the south by sea, by land and by air. China expresses its understanding.
VII. The two sides emphasize that peace, security and stability cannot be achieved in the region without an end to the occupation of the territory of the State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and the occupied Lebanese territories. Call on the international community to take irreversible initiatives to promote the establishment of an independent Palestinian State and the realization of a political settlement on the basis of international law and relevant international resolutions, including Security Council resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973), 497 (1981), 1515 (2003), and 2334 (2016), as well as the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative in its entirety and in all its points, to enable the Palestinian people to fulfill their legitimate and inalienable rights, including the right to self-determination of their destiny, the right to establish an independent State of Palestine on the basis of the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and the right of the Palestinian refugees to return and to compensation, as stipulated in the UN General Assembly Resolution 194 (1948). Support for full membership of the State of Palestine in the United Nations. The two sides reaffirm that the “two-state solution” is the only realistic way to resolve the question of Palestine.
The parties call for the convening of a larger, more authoritative and more effective international peace conference as soon as possible in order to launch an authoritative peace process on the basis of recognized international principles. The said process should be carried out within a defined time frame and under international guarantees until the end of the Israeli occupation of the 1967 Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and the remaining occupied Lebanese territories.