Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova released the following statement on Saturday in response to the latest Israeli-Hamas war that broke out after the group’s large-scale sneak attack:
“Russia is gravely concerned over a sharp escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
In this we regard we would like to reaffirm our principled and consistent stance that this conflict, which has continued for 75 years, cannot be resolved by force and can be settled exclusively by political and diplomatic means, by engaging in a full-fledged negotiation process based on the well-known international legal framework stipulating the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with a capital in East Jerusalem that co-exists with Israel in peace and security.
We regard the current large-scale escalation as another extremely dangerous manifestation of a vicious circle of violence resulting from chronic failure to comply with the corresponding resolutions of the UN and its Security Council and the blocking by the West of the work of the Middle East Quartet of international mediators made up of Russia, the United States, the EU and the UN.
We call on the Palestinian and Israeli sides to implement an immediate ceasefire, renounce violence, exercise restraint and begin, with the assistance of the international community, a negotiation process aimed at establishing a comprehensive, lasting and long-awaited peace in the Middle East.”
While concise, it still reveals a lot about Russia’s approach towards this conflict, which might surprise many members of the Alt-Media Community (AMC) who wrongly thought that it favors Palestine.
To begin with, it’s important to point out that Zakharova emphasized the consistency of her country’s position, which is the peaceful creation of an independent Palestinian state in line with international law. The second detail is that it then envisages both states co-existing in peace and security. Reading between the lines, Russia’s is implying that Palestine shouldn’t pose any credible security threats to Israel that could provoke the latter into taking military action, including preemptively and preventively.
Few among the AMC are aware of it, but President Putin strongly backs Israel’s right to defend itself, especially against what its leadership considers to be terrorism but which Palestine’s supporters consider to be legitimate means for pursuing national liberation after decades of occupation. This article here collected dozens of the Russian leader’s statements on Israel from the official Kremlin website between 2000-2018 to prove just how passionately he feels about this.
It adds context to the rest of the statement regarding the “vicious cycle of violence” and resultant call “to implement an immediate ceasefire”, the wording of which has been criticized by Palestine’s supporters as laying equal blame on their side every time fighting erupts whenever someone says that. Those who read the abovementioned article, however, will learn that Russia’s top policymaker has absolutely zero sympathy for the controversial means through which some Palestinians have sought independence.
President Putin is of the opinion that their struggle should remain peaceful, but if violence is inevitable, then both parties should comply with international law. Killing and kidnapping unarmed settlers-civilians, particularly children, is unacceptable in his view. He considers this terrorism and believes that it’s played a role in perpetuating the conflict. That’s not to imply that Israel is innocent, but just that Russia can never endorse such tactics after they were earlier employed against it in the 1990s-2000s.
Despite some Palestinians committing what President Putin sincerely considers to be terrorist attacks, the Russian government doesn’t think that this discredits their national liberation cause. These crimes don’t define that movement, and while they can never be justified from the Kremlin’s perspective, the argument can be made that they’re partially the result of those people’s desperation. This explains why Russia regularly calls on Israel to implement relevant UNSC Resolutions in order to relieve their suffering.
Israel’s refusal to do so worsens the Palestinians’ desperation, which creates fertile ground for some to exploit their situation by recruiting them to carry out terrorist attacks, thus fueling the “vicious cycle of violence” after Israel then exploits that as its excuse for not implementing those selfsame resolutions. Readers are entitled to their own interpretation of events but the preceding one summarizes Russia’s stance and shows why it believes that both sides are at fault every time violence breaks out.
The AMC was misled about Russia’s position towards the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by agenda-driven influencers who lied about this for years to generate clout, push an ideology, and/or solicit donations. Far from being in favor of Palestine like many of these folks wrongly think, Russia believes that it’s just as much to blame for everything as Israel is. That’s why it once again called on both sides “to implement an immediate ceasefire, renounce violence, (and) exercise restraint”, not just Israel.
