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Israel’s China envoy calls to deepen historical ties in rare state media outreach
Eli Belotserkovsky’s article comes amid global buzz over Trump’s Board of Peace and months after closer media ties pledge with Xinhua head
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Israel’s ambassador to China has hailed the historical connections between the two countries and called for closer socioeconomic ties in a rare column for Chinese state media.
Eli Belotserkovsky’s signed Chinese-language article for state news agency Xinhua comes amid global conversation over the Board of Peace, US President Donald Trump’s newly created body to tackle the Palestinian issue.
The Jewish and Chinese civilisations had amassed rich historical wisdom and knowledge over millennia, Belotserkovsky noted in the article published on the Xinhua website on Friday. If combined, that wisdom would not only have a “profound” impact on Israel and China but also “benefit all humanity”, he said.
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The piece represented a diplomatic shift, signalling a rare outreach.
Senior Israeli diplomats in China once freely engaged with leading state media outlets. But their voices on such platforms had gone quiet since the October 2023 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas prompted Israel to declare war.
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Beijing has condemned the Hamas attack but focused criticism on Israel’s Gaza response as exceeding self-defence and causing collective punishment.
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