TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A prominent Chinese scholar was seen confronting an Israeli official about the military offensive in Gaza in a video that has since gone viral on social media.
Yan Xuetong, dean of Tsinghua University's Institute of International Relations, clashed with Elad Shoshan, the military attaché at the Israeli embassy in Beijing, at the annual Xiangshan forum in Beijing on Wednesday, as reported by The Independent on Friday.
On the sidelines of the annual defense forum, Yan confronted the military representative, saying that Israel should only shoot "terrorists."
"Not the children! Not the women! When you [shot] the women and the children, you lost the legitimacy to carry out any actions for that reason," the scholar said in a video that went viral on Chinese social media platforms Weibo and X.
Yan then used a bank robbery as an analogy and asked Shoshan whether police officers should kill hostages to catch criminals.
In the exchange, Shoshan claimed that Israel was doing "all that we can, not to hurt the citizens."
Yan hit back, saying Israel killed "more than 70,000 civilians."
"The fact is not decided by you... the facts [are] decided by the international community. It's not decided by your government. Your government has no legitimacy [or] the right to decide or defend what is fact," Yan said.
The UN Human Rights Council concluded this week that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, issuing a report calling on the international community to end it and take steps to punish those responsible.
Despite the findings, the Israeli military has continued to escalate its ground offensive on Gaza City, forcing more than a quarter of a million Palestinians to flee the territory.
The international community and global organizations have urged the Israeli military to abandon its plans to seize the city, warning that such an offensive could further exacerbate an already dire humanitarian crisis.
Yan suggested that Israel go to the UN and agree to a two-state solution to establish a Palestinian state.
"Once you have two states, you can work with the Palestinians together to fight against the terrorists. If you do not work with the Palestinians together, you can never win the war over terrorists," the scholar said.
Shoshan denied the accusations, adding that the war would end when Hamas released Israeli hostages and surrendered its weapons. Yan responded by saying that such "propaganda" had been "too much" and "no one believes it, except for a few Israelis."
Israel's two-year offensive on Gaza has killed more than 65,200 Palestinians, according to health authorities in the Gaza Strip.
Last week, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and urged Israel to commit to a Palestinian state.
The resolution calls for the establishment of a viable and sovereign Palestinian state, the disarmament of Hamas and its exclusion from governance in Gaza, and the normalization of relations between Israel and Arab states following Israel's attack on Qatar.
Earlier, China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, noted that Gaza belongs to the Palestinian people. "It is an indivisible part of the Palestinian territories. Changing its status by force will not bring peace, but only new chaos," Wang said.
China on Thursday condemned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's accusation that Beijing is helping orchestrate a "political blockade" against Israel.
"China is shocked by the Israeli leader's remarks," the Chinese Embassy in Israel said, calling the claims baseless, "damaging China-Israel relations, and something that China is deeply concerned about and firmly opposed to."
Speaking before a large delegation of US officials earlier this week, Netanyahu accused China and Qatar of "organizing attacks against Israel... [via] social media in the West and the United States."
He told i24News: "There are currently attempts to impose a blockade on Israel by various entities and countries, led by Qatar. First of all, a media blockade funded with enormous funds, both from Qatar and from other countries like China."
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