Israel-Palestine Tensions: China trying to end decades-old stalemate

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Israel and Palestine are taking their struggle to the United Nations Security Council. Each side, taking aim at the other. China has usually stayed out of the fray. But Beijing is now taking a more active role in the pursuit of peace. CGTN UN correspondent Liling Tan reports.

Once again, the Security Council served as a platform for the Israelis and the Palestinians to take aim at each other, and for their allies to trade barbs.

RIYAD MANSOUR PALESTINIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE UN "We have seen this demonization before, it is repugnant and we firmly reject it."

NIKKI HALEY US AMBASSADOR TO THE UN "A speech that indulges in outrageous and discredited conspiracy theories is not the speech of a person with the courage and the will to seek peace."

It's a scene that has played out many times here, where international attempts to resolve the conflict has borne little fruit. Now China is undertaking a more active mediator role, building on a proposal by Chinese president Xi Jinping to end the conflict.

WU HAITAO CHINESE AMBASSADOR TO THE UN "China will proceed from this basis and endeavor to play a more constructive role in promoting a solution to the question of Palestine."

LILING TAN NEW YORK "China's proposal includes advancing the two-state solution based on 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state. In December, Beijing held an Israeli-Palestinian peace symposium in Beijing to try to ease tensions after an incendiary U.S. move to recognize contested Jerusalem as the capital of Israel."

But over six thousand kilometers away from the conflict's epicenter, how much leverage does China really have here.

JONATHAN CRISTOL WORLD POLICY INSTITUTE "The U.S. provides a tremendous amount of aid to Israel and to the Palestinian Authority and so the U.S. has a lot of leverage, and I'm not quite sure what leverage China has to be able to pressure a settlement."

But there is talk here of China filling in funding gaps, the economic leverage it has from its Belt and Road Initiative, and its distance from the conflict could also be an advantage.

AHMED FATHI, MANAGING EDITOR AMERICAN TELEVISION NEWS "China has a sort of even-handed relations with the Arabs and the Israelis. They don't have the historical involvement in the issue with regards to the Palestinian sufferings. So China in a nutshell can be an honest mediator in this issue."

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been ongoing for 70 years, and despite numerous attempts by multiple parties to find a solution, it remains elusive. Liling Tan, CGTN, New York.