What’s behind Russia’s ‘soft power’ moves on Israel-Palestine? | Israel-Palestine conflict News

Palestinian chief Mahmoud Abbas is in Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Of their first face-to-face assembly since 2021, the pair are anticipated to debate Israel’s struggle on Gaza.

The Kremlin has maintained relations with each Israel and Palestine, however consultants say its precise sway over the conflict is restricted and the assembly has extra of a symbolic nature.

“When you’re looking at Russia’s engagement with the Palestine question, it’s about more than just Palestine,” Samuel Ramani, writer of Russia in Africa, advised Al Jazeera.

“It’s about really cementing themselves within the Arab world, by showing that they have solidarity with Palestinian cause while the Americans are supporting Israel. So that these meetings are not just about Palestine, they’re also about Russia’s soft power in the Middle East.”

In contrast to the USA and European Union, Russia has not blacklisted Hamas as a “terrorist” organisation, welcoming the group’s delegates to Moscow shortly after their victory within the 2006 Palestinian elections and treating them as a official political pressure.

In February, Russia hosted a convention with representatives from Hamas, Fatah and Islamic Jihad, aimed toward bridging the generally bitter divides between them.

“But nothing ever came of it,” famous Ruslan Suleymanov, an unbiased Russian knowledgeable on the Center East now based mostly in Baku.

“That’s generally all that Moscow is capable of; it doesn’t have any serious influence over Palestinian factions. Besides its support for Palestine, Moscow also has to criticise Western countries for their support of Israel. Russia today takes an anti-Western, and consequently anti-Israeli position. For example, when the UN Security Council convenes to discuss British-US proposals [on Gaza], Russia has always used its power of veto, which Palestinians appreciate. But this doesn’t convert to any kind of capital.”

Russia’s personal motions for a ceasefire in Gaza on the UNSC in October had been voted down by the US, UK, France and Japan.

Russia’s emergency ministry has additionally reportedly dispatched a whole lot of tonnes price of help, primarily meals and hygiene merchandise, to the besieged Palestinian enclave, to be distributed by the Egyptian Pink Crescent Society.

“It’s simply important for the Kremlin to show yet again that it’s playing some role, but I don’t think it will amount to anything,” added Suleymanov.

“Abbas will soon be 90 years old. It’s obvious a transition of power in Palestine is imminent. I think the Kremlin understands this as well, and if they aren’t already they will be closely watching who will take Abbas’s place. Maybe this will also be under discussion.”

Russia and Israel

In the meantime, Israel’s historical past with Russia is deeply intertwined.

Escaping pogroms and persecution, Jews from the Russian Empire shaped the primary wave of mass migration from Europe to Palestine.

After World Warfare II, the USSR initially supported the 1947 partition plan, ostensibly on the grounds that Western nations had failed to guard their very own Jewish populations, and was the primary to recognise the Jewish state.

The fledgling Israeli military even obtained weapons from communist Czechoslovakia, then subordinate to the Kremlin. Soviet chief Joseph Stalin could have thought Israel a helpful wedge towards British pursuits within the Center East.

However the USSR quickly disavowed Zionism, as a substitute arming and equipping neighbouring Arab nations in addition to Palestinian liberation actions.

As a pupil within the Nineteen Seventies, Abbas earned his doctorate at Moscow’s Patrice Lumumba Peoples’ Friendship College, writing a controversial thesis on what he argued had been shared pursuits between the early Zionists and the Nazis.

Israeli researchers have even claimed, based mostly on Soviet paperwork, that Abbas was a KGB agent – a suggestion Abbas has rubbished, accusing the researchers of trying to derail peace talks.

After the 1967 Six-Day Warfare, the Kremlin minimize off diplomatic ties with Israel fully till the tip of the Chilly Warfare, solely re-establishing contact as communism collapsed within the early Nineties.

Trendy Russia has tried to stability its relationship with Israel with help for Palestine.

Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have publicly loved a pleasant rapport, even being noticed watching ballet collectively. Complicating the connection is Russia’s involvement in Syria the place it collaborates with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, a sworn enemy of Israel.

“There are things each want from the other,” mentioned Mark N Katz, professor emeritus at George Mason College, including that on the identical time, Israeli officers “fear” that ought to relations deteriorate, Moscow may hurt the Jewish neighborhood in Russia.

“Moscow doesn’t want to see Israel doing anything to arm Ukraine, and they have been appreciative that the Israelis have been restrained in this regard. Israelis, for their part, cite the deconfliction agreement between Russian and Israeli forces with regard to Syria, whereby the Israelis pound the Iranians and Hezbollah, but don’t harm the Russians,” mentioned Katz.

In accordance with Ramani, “the Israelis are increasingly acting in a unilateral fashion in Syria, sometimes merely just informing the Russians, instead of consulting with them and engaging with them”.

To date, Israel has refused to sanction Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. However relations have noticeably cooled.

“Remember the openly anti-Semitic comments by Putin about Zelenskyy’s Jewish roots, or [foreign minister Sergey] Lavrov’s comments on Jews’ responsibility for the Holocaust … all this happened long before October 7,” mentioned Suleymanov.

“But after October 7, relations became even more strained. In Israel it’s now completely unacceptable when Russia accepts Hamas. If before October 7, this was understandable because it was assumed Moscow would act as an intermediary, now this is seen completely differently. And when Putin compared the bombardment of Gaza to the siege of Leningrad, this was also taken very poorly in Israel.”

Israel is house to a considerable Russian-born diaspora, and the Kremlin has used its channels with Hamas to facilitate the discharge of some Russian-Israelis taken captive on October 7.

“Because Russian-Israeli relations have been so strained over their criticisms of the war and [their relations with] Iran, the Russians now have smaller-scale diplomatic goals, like for example, they were engaging with Hamas to get Russian hostages out from their territory,” defined Ramani.

The Iran issue

In July, Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran, for which Iran, Russia’s shut ally, has promised retaliation.

Russia’s international ministry strongly condemned the killing, casting it as a counterproductive transfer for ceasefire negotiations and urging all sides to indicate restraint.

“I think if there’s an Israeli-Iranian conflict, what are the prospects for the US entering such a war, and what can Russia actually do?” mentioned Katz.

“Russian forces [in Ukraine] are fairly stretched: one week it seems they’re on the advance, now of course it seems like they’re on the back foot. Will Russia have the capacity of acting in a way that determines the conflict?”