China urged Israel to reverse the forcible establishment of settlements in the West Bank and open access to Gaza, as Foreign Minister Wang Yi pressed for a two-state solution in talks with President Isaac Herzog.
China’s Foreign Ministry said Wang and Herzog met Oct. 15 in Baku, Azerbaijan, on the sidelines of the CICA summit. In its readout, the ministry said Wang called the Palestinian question the greatest historical injustice of this century and a root cause of the Middle East issue. He backed a two-state solution as the appropriate path to resolving it.
Wang said opening access to Gaza was an urgent priority. The readout said he called for the territory’s two million civilians not to remain on the brink of survival and for the humanitarian crisis to be prevented from spreading. He said China would work with the international community to bring the parties back to dialogue and seek a political solution.
On West Bank settlements, Wang urged Israel to stop and reverse their forcible establishment, the ministry said. Herzog said Israel wanted peace but faced security threats requiring a strong response. He also said Israel valued China’s initiatives and wanted to maintain communication with Beijing.
The readout referred to mutual assistance between Chinese and Jewish people during World War II and to Herzog’s father’s role in establishing China-Israel ties. The meeting followed other international attention to West Bank settlement activity, including Britain’s warning at the U.N. Security Council that violence and settlement activity were worsening prospects for peace.
