Fulfilling the pledge would be a violation of international law, as Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank is universally recognised as illegal
The cynicism is breathtaking. Or maybe it’s just foolishness. With Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te and his minions at the Democratic Progressive Party, it’s often hard to tell.
While Israel is busy committing genocide in Gaza, and Jewish settlers and the military are running rampant across the occupied West Bank, Taipei has pledged to donate to an Israeli settlement for a health project there.
At least 964 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed between the start of the Gaza war in October 2023 and the middle of this month. About 1,400 Palestinian homes have either been demolished or face being torn down, according to the UN Human Rights Office.
But rest assured the health project won’t be serving Palestinians, nor has there been any pretence that it would.
Now, Israel doesn’t need the donation. The GDP per capita of Taiwan and that of Israel are comparable, with the island’s only slightly higher. Couldn’t Taiwan at least donate to some project inside Israel proper, and thus avoid any controversy? But that would be a waste of time for Israel. The whole point, of course, is to make Taipei donate inside the illegal military occupation! Why? Because the donation, if and when it is made, would be interpreted as Taiwan’s tacit endorsement of the illegal Israeli occupation.
However, it would also be a direct breach of international law. The Israeli military occupation is universally recognised as illegal. A year ago, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an advisory opinion stating that all states must prevent trade and investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the unlawful occupation by Israel.
The donation is believed to be the first of its kind made by any government directly to an illegal settlement. Most foreign aid and contributions have been made to the Israeli government, and so can be distributed discreetly.
Israel’s diplomacy over many years has had to draw outside parties to help legitimise its occupation and settlements on Palestinian land. Taiwan, it seems, is the latest to take the bait.
Lai probably thinks he is being clever.
Israel and China enjoyed good relations before the Gaza war. But since then, Beijing – like the entire world outside a handful of fully complicit Western governments, but especially the United States – has taken a highly critical stance on Israel’s conduct in the Gaza war.
Taipei thinks that’s an opening to drive a wedge between the two countries. Even before the war, it had been on a diplomatic mission to draw closer ties, claiming Israel and Taiwan were natural friends by virtue of their shared democracy.
A friendly gesture towards Taiwan may well be Israel’s way of thumbing its nose at Beijing. But both China and Israel know that after Gaza, both sides will have to make nice again at some point.
Meanwhile, Taipei is making donations to Israel like it does with Palau, Tuvalu and eSwatini, three of only 12 state entities that formally recognise it.
Israel might have taken offence, or it just wants to take Taiwan for a ride. “Why don’t you donate to a health project in one of our West Bank settlements? It would be for a very good cause,” someone must have said.
It’s amusing to look at an official photo of a smiling Abby Lee Ya-Ping, Taiwan’s representative to Israel, surrounded by burly Israeli men, during a visit to the Binyamin Regional Council, which governs dozens of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Those men certainly understood the significance of what they were doing, but did Lee?
Maybe she and Lai really do. Maybe they think it’s worthwhile going against the whole world, just to pay court to the pro-Israeli Christian far-right – of which American ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee is a card-carrying member – within the administration of Donald Trump and the US Republican establishment.
As I have said, with Lai, cynicism and foolishness go hand in hand.
