Chinese Scholar Challenges Israeli Officer Over Gaza Civilian Deaths at Beijing Forum

English , International - بین الاقوامی , / Friday, September 19th, 2025

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Source: Anadolu Agency

A tense confrontation between a leading Chinese scholar and an Israeli diplomat at the Beijing Xiangshan Forum has gone viral, highlighting growing international anger over the heavy civilian death toll in Gaza.
The exchange featured Professor Yan Xuetong, a respected Chinese academic, and Elad Shoshan, the military attaché at Israel’s embassy in Beijing. Shoshan attempted to defend Israel’s military campaign, saying the war continued only because the Palestinian group Hamas still held Israeli hostages.
Professor Yan strongly rejected this explanation. He accused Israel of losing its moral compass and committing grave violations of international law by killing tens of thousands of civilians. “Your military should have shot the terrorists, not the children and not the women,” Yan said. “When you shoot children and women, you lose the legitimacy to carry out any actions.”
While the Israeli officer claimed his army sought to minimize civilian casualties, Yan challenged the statement, saying more than 70,000 civilians had been killed since October 2023. He dismissed Israel’s narrative, remarking: “The fact is not decided by you. Facts are decided by the international community, not by your government. Your government has no legitimacy to decide what is fact.”
Yan compared Israel’s actions to a bank robbery, noting that no police force would respond by killing innocent staff and customers before targeting the actual robbers. He stressed that indiscriminate attacks destroy a country’s legitimacy on the world stage.
On solutions, Yan argued that Israel should agree to a two-state solution and begin cooperating with the Palestinians instead of waging war. When Shoshan repeated that the conflict would only end once all Israeli hostages were released, Yan dismissed this as mere propaganda, saying few outside Israel accepted such reasoning.