The Israeli embassy in Beijing on Wednesday accused China of “blatant anti-Semitism” after a state TV report on U.S. foreign policy broached Jewish conspiracy theories to explain the ongoing Palestinian Hamas terrorist violence.
AFP reports the official CGTN broadcast questioned whether U.S. support for Israel came from shared democratic values, saying “some people believe that U.S. pro-Israeli policy is traceable to the influence of wealthy Jews in the U.S. and the Jewish lobby on U.S. foreign policy makers.”
“Jews dominate finance and and internet sectors,” host Zheng Junfeng says, speaking in English. “So do they have the powerful lobbies some say? Possible.”
Zheng then accused the U.S. — China’s top geopolitical rival — of using Israel as a “beachhead” in the Middle East and as a proxy in an undeclared war on pan-Arabism.
In a tweet, the embassy responded, saying “we have hoped that the times of the ‘Jew’s controlling the world’ conspiracy theories were over, unfortunately anti-Semitism has shown its ugly face again.”
“We are appalled to see blatant anti-Semitism expressed in an official Chinese media outlet,” the tweet said.
AP reports spokesperson Erez Katz Volovelsky said the embassy had nothing to add to its tweet and had so far received no reply from CGTN, which CCTV operates for foreign audiences, similar to Russia’s RT.
There was no immediate comment from CCTV and Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said he was “not aware of the situation.”
China has criticised the United States for blocking a joint statement on the crisis at the U.N. Security Council as the Communist single-party state seeks to position itself as the most important world power in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, stepping up to fill the leadership vacuum created by President Joe Biden at the United Nations.
To that end, Foreign Minister Wang Yi has called for an immediate ceasefire on both sides and for Israel to lift its blockade of Gaza as soon as possible.
He also offered to host Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in China for direct peace talks.
AFP, AP contributed to this story
