Chinese-Israeli hostage Noa Argamani and China’s position vis-à-vis Hamas
One of the hostages taken by Hamas at the rave party in the Negev desert was born in Beijing. The Organisation for Assistance to Chinese Businesses in Israel reports more Chinese nationals are missing. Israel is putting pressure on China to condemn Hamas. On Chinese social media, there is little solidarity for the young woman, while influencers close to the Communist Party support Palestine.
Beijing (AsiaNews) – A Chinese-Israeli woman is one of the hostages Hamas took to Gaza and her situation is interacting with the positions expressed by the People's Republic of China vis-à-vis the ongoing conflict in southern Israel.
Noa Argamani was born in Beijing. According to her Instagram account, she is a student at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, southern Israel, and will turn 26 in a week. Her father is Israeli and her mother Chinese.
An online video shows her being taken away on a motorcycle from the Supernova music festival by Palestinian militants. Turning her arms towards her boyfriend, who was also kidnapped, she is heard shouting, "Don't kill me."
The Organisation for Assistance to Chinese Businesses in Israel announced that at least three Chinese nationals were wounded and four more went missing during the fighting and chaos.
The Chinese community in Israel is offering help and looking for their whereabouts. Local Chinese expect Chinese authorities to pressure Hamas to free the abducted Chinese-Israeli woman.
At a press conference yesterday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning, simply said: “We have always been opposed to violence and attacks against civilians. My colleagues are verifying the situation, so I don’t have any information to provide at the moment.”
On Sunday, China's Foreign Ministry called for a ceasefire but did not blame Hamas.
“China is deeply concerned over the current escalation of tensions and violence between Palestine and Israel,” a spokesperson said. “We call on relevant parties to remain calm, exercise restraint and immediately end the hostilities to protect civilians and avoid further deterioration of the situation.”
The statement also mentioned the “two-state solution”, which did not go down well in Israel. “We hope China can offer support for Israel at this difficult time,” said the Israeli embassy in Beijing on X (ex-Twitter).
A delegation of US senators visiting China also expressed their disappointment. Chuck Schumer, Democratic Party Senate majority leader, urged China to side with Israel and condemn Hamas' deadly attacks during his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, urged.
The US delegation is in Beijing to discuss creating a level playing field for US companies in China. Next month, APEC will hold a summit in San Francisco, providing a venue for a possible meeting between Xi and Biden.
In June, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met Xi Jinping in Beijing. Afterwards, China and Palestine announced a "strategic partnership".
Xi promised that China would “firmly support the just cause of the Palestinian people to restore their legitimate national rights”. He also proposed an international peace conference, saying that he was willing to "play an active role" in facilitating peace talks.
On Chinese social media, most posts support Palestine. The Israeli embassy's Weibo[*] account disabled comments.
Most web users in the Chinese cybersphere do not sympathise with the Chinese-Israeli hostage. Social media accounts with official media backgrounds support Palestine.
According to Hu Xijin, retired editor-in-chief of the official mouthpiece Global Times and an influencer, the United States is promoting the normalisation of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Since Palestine is unable to defeat Israel, it needs to "create a great stir" to break up the scene in the Middle East.
Another account with official Xinhua news agency background said that the attacks have shown “the strong vitality and combat effectiveness of Hamas”.
[*] A China-based microblogging service like X,
.png)
