It has emerged that Israel has shifted its China policy and has taken a new stance against the Chinese atrocities on the Uyghurs, by signing a condemnation issued at the UNHRC’s 47th session earlier this week on Tuesday, apparently under US pressure.
As per a report by The Jerusalem Post, The Israeli Foreign Minister, Yair Lapid, took the decision to sign the statement in coordination with the newly elected Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett.
The Israeli vote marked a shift in the way Jerusalem views Beijing, diplomatically. In the past, such statements have been issued, but this was the first time that Israel has signed it.
Canada had put forward this condemnation in the UN. And it was signed by atleast 45 countries.
Many sources say that Israel had done so at the behest of the United States and Canada. It was not presented as a demand, although.
Before the statement was released, Chinese diplomats had asked Israel not to join the statement.
Israel had also recently voted for a WHO investigation into the source of Covid-19 pandemic, much to China’s dismay.
The Diplomatic sources have to say that while Israel stands unequivocally behind its signing on the statement and the condemnation of the Chinese treatment of the Uyghurs, it does not change all of its policy toward Beijing. They have said that the Israeli Foreign Ministry will take things on a case-by-case basis.
Earlier, while the economic ties between the two countries went on as they were, China had voted against Israel in international forums and pushed for strong condemnation of Israel’s actions in Gaza during Operation Guardian of the Walls last month.
THE STATEMENT said: “We are gravely concerned about the human rights situation in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.”
“Credible reports indicate that over a million people have been arbitrarily detained in Xinjiang, and that there is widespread surveillance disproportionately targeting Uyghurs and members of other minorities, and restrictions on fundamental freedoms and Uyghur culture,” Canadian Ambassador Leslie Norton said on Tuesday, reading out the statement in Geneva.
“There are also reports of torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, forced sterilization, sexual and gender-based violence, and forced separation of children from their parents by authorities,” Norton added.
Norton said the 45 signatory countries “share the concerns expressed by UN special procedures in their March 29 statement on alleged detention, forced labor and transfers of Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minorities and in a letter published by UN experts describing collective repression of religious and ethnic minorities.”
She called on China “to allow immediate, meaningful and unfettered access to Xinjiang for independent observers, including the high commissioner, and to urgently implement the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’s eight recommendations related to Xinjiang, including by ending the arbitrary detention of Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minorities.
Separate from the Uyghurs, Norton also spoke of the deep concern about the “deterioration of fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong under the National Security Law and about the human rights situation in Tibet. We call on Chinese authorities to abide by their human rights obligations.”
Other signatories to the initiative were: Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Belize, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Haiti, Honduras, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Marshall Islands, Monaco, Nauru, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Palau, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Sloveni…