Ambiguous Diplomacy over Gaza

The basic stance of Japan on the attacks between Islamic militant movement Hamas and Israel has been calming down the situation through reaching both Israel and Palestine. As seeing what Kishida administration did in diplomacy so far, it is hard to say that Japan has been playing an effective role in persuading the both sides to stop attacking each other. Kidnaping Israeli citizens or the blast on a hospital in Gaza City, on which Palestine accused Israel and Israel attributed it to Palestine militants, generates the hatred against each other. Japan has at least been successful in evacuation of Japanese citizens from the region. 

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had telephone talks with the leaders of four Arab countries, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, United Arab Emirates and Qatar, in the night on October 18th. Kishida stated to those leaders his strong indignation on the damage to innocent civilians caused by the attack against Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, and Japan’s emergency humanitarian aid of USD 10 million for citizens in the Gaza Strip. Kishida posted to X that he would make utmost diplomatic effort for settling the situation down and improvement of humanitarian situation in Gaza, along with securing the safety of Japanese citizens.

 

Minister for Foreign Affairs Yoko Kamikawa accumulated telephone talks with world leaders this week. In the conversation with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, Kamikawa condemned the terror attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian militants and told that she was deeply saddened by the loss of lives of so many innocent civilians, asking Iran to urge Hamas and others to calm down the situation. As the chair of Group of Seven, Kamikawa explained in the telephone talks with G7 foreign ministers the importance of containing the deterioration of humanitarian situation to the minimum and stated that she was extremely taking account of the humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip. She also hoped G7 countries to cooperate with each other for evacuation of their citizens.

 

Japanese government has been giving evacuation of its citizens the highest priority in any contingencies in overseas. South Korean Foreign Ministry announced that a South Korean military plane transported 51 Japanese citizens from Tal Aviv to Seoul from a humanitarian perspective. Kamikawa expressed her deep appreciation for the assistance to ROK Foreign Minister Park Jin. In turn, an aircraft of Japanese Self-defense Force transported 18 ROK citizens from Tel Aviv to Jordan. The contingency in Middle East unexpectedly symbolized the improvement of Japan-ROK bilateral relationship, which was in the worst situation in post-war era a couple of years ago.

 

While Japan tries to keep neutral position, it inevitably leans on the side of United States in international diplomacy. Japan opposed the resolution proposed by Russia for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. And then, it voted in favor of the Brazilian-led text calling for “humanitarian pauses” to deliver lifesaving aid to millions in Gaza, which was rejected by veto of United States. “All of us, including those who referred to hypocrisy in particular, should think twice. If we are really faithful to human rights principles, and if we are doing sufficient effort to make a difference on the ground in improving humanitarian situation, actions are needed,” stated Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations, Kimihiro Ishikane in the Security Council on October 18th. The statement sounded like an allusion to Russia, which had brought Ukraine a humanitarian crisis.

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