Comment by shkkmo

1 year ago

I don't see how military operations outside of a country's legal territory is considered an "internal affair"

I believe parent was referring to the Uyghur genocide[1] not the Territorial disputes in the South China Sea[2].

The line of thinking is that if Israel is subject to international courts/laws regarding genocide for its action, then China will be too. China's participation in judging Israel opens itself to the same judgement.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghur_genocide

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_disputes_in_the_So...

  • That line of thinking doesn't make sense since Xinjiang is part of China while Gaza isn't part of Israel. One is a domestic question, the other isn't (going by the international recognition).

    • China: But this is a Domestic issue!

      I don't see folks buying that, sorry. In international realpolitik you play the cards you have and if your rival opens themselves up for criticism you play it.

      Rhetoric trumps logic in this one.

Gaza is kind of/maybe/sometimes/by some considered part ofisrael.

  • The notion that Gaza's more than some variety of closely-held protectorate is either aspirational or a convenient fiction, depending on who's stating it. They aren't even close to having a level of control over their own territory and affairs to be considered a sovereign state. Hell, the West Bank also can't credibly be called a sovereign state, taking into account only facts on the ground and observed behavior, and not what officials say. In some respects US tribal nations have more actual sovereignty, in ways that matter, even though they definitely aren't sovereign states, from an international relations perspective, and functionally nobody treats their tribal territory as meaningfully distinct from that of the US as a whole, in these contexts.

    However, situations like this, in which rhetoric and de jure policy conflict with de facto reality, open one up to others taking the fiction at face value. And what do you do then? Can't deny it without causing other problems. So now this may be regarded as an international matter because Gaza "isn't part of Israel".

  • No, it isn't.

    China officially recognizes the state of Palestine.

    The Isreali supreme court itself has determined that Gaza is not Isreali territory.