Palestinian Ambassador Waleed Siam on Gaza, Israel and a Japan-mediated agreement

The Embassy of Palestine in Japan is in the quiet, upscale Minami Azabu neighbourhood in Tokyo. In a sunny room on the upper floor, we sat in big, stately chairs and drank coffee from elegant china with Ambassador Waleed Siam. The civilised surroundings were a far cry from the barbarism being seen in occupied Palestine.

Ambassador Waleed Siam is a seasoned diplomat who has been in Japan since 2003. He spoke of cold-blooded murder, destruction and the ruin of cities. The pall of ancient hatreds stuck to our conversation. The human race appeared inhumane in light of what the ambassador revealed.

He offered a ray of hope, however. Perhaps Japan, he said, could act as a mediator, ending the reign of terror now gripping the people of Gaza. In this exclusive interview, we share the horrors of hate made real in the world and the promise, though slim, of better days for Palestine.

We began by asking for updates on the situation in Gaza, where war waged by Israel has raged for more than a year since a cross-border incursion by Hamas on 7 October, 2023. Ambassador Siam condemned that attack repeatedly.

He also condemned Israel’s ongoing response.

“Just two days ago, Israel burned a camp of tents, burning children, women and men who had no help at all,” he said. This was on 14 October, when the Israeli military bombed tents sheltering displaced individuals in central Gaza, killing four and wounding many.

“On social media, there are pictures of fires and of people running while they burn. Have we seen such images in any war in history around the world?” asked Siam. “But, well, Israel can do whatever it wants, unfortunately.”

We pointed out that a famous photograph from the Vietnam War showed children running having been burned by napalm by America’s South Vietnam ally. Not quite the same, but very similar.

“Yes, that’s right,” he replied.

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The US has been providing weapons and funding to Israel since 7 October to support its military objectives in the region. We asked if there was a chance that Japan, also an ally of the US, could break away from Washington and act independently.

“If you had asked me this question five years ago, I would have said that it would be very hard for Japan to break away from US policy,” said the ambassador, acknowledging Tokyo’s record of aligning closely with Washington. “But during the Trump administration, the US president declared Jerusalem to be the eternal capital of Israel. The Palestinian delegation at the UN voted against it. Japan also voted against it.”

He added that when the State of Palestine — not the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) — applied to be a full member of the UN, Japan backed the application.

Palestinian Ambassador to Japan Waleed Ali Siam.

The Japanese government’s evolving positions and its efforts to support Palestine, said Siam, suggest that Japan could diverge from US influence in various international policies, particularly regarding the Middle East.

“There are reasons for this,” the ambassador explained. “Japan depends on oil and gas from the Middle East; over ninety per cent. So, its interests are in the Middle East, and this helps it to counter pressure from the US when Tokyo is crafting its own Middle East policy.”

Japan has also invested a lot in the Middle East, he pointed out, especially in Palestine.

“I believe that the amount is around $2.7 billion from the time of the Oslo Accords [1993] until the present.”

In the ambassador’s opinion, the situation in Palestine can no longer be considered a “conflict”; it is about the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, which is unlawful according to international law as reiterated in July by the International Court of Justice. Because Japan has always opposed the occupation, rejected illegal settlements and backed the two-state solution, he sees the country as a viable mediator.

We turned our discussion to an incident that occurred in August this year involving a memorial ceremony in Nagasaki to commemorate the victims of the 1945 atomic bombing. The US Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, refused to attend the ceremony on the grounds that the Israeli ambassador was one of three ambassadors (the others were from Russia and Belarus) were not invited due to their countries being involved in military offensives.

Several Japanese media outlets defended Emanuel’s actions. We asked whether Japan should stand up for international law despite external pressures, especially with the Hidankyo group winning the latest Nobel Peace Prize.

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According to Siam, Japan has to stick with the rule of law. “You must look at the geopolitics of Asia, he explained. “Japan has not formalised its relationship with North Korea. It takes a hard stand against China and against Russia. Does Japan choose the rule of law, or does it choose to follow Washington and pay the price for it?”

He then expressed his belief that Washington will never fight for Japan. “Never. I have long said that it is unimaginable that an American soldier would fight for the Japanese. There was a lie in the past, told by [US Presidents] Johnson and Nixon and others, that it was all about communism, communism, communism. It doesn’t work like that any more.”

In examining external pressures, we also inquired about the potential influence of the Israel lobby in Japan.

“I prefer to use the term Zionist lobby,” the ambassador replied. “I think Japan must also go through the Zionist lobby sometimes to lobby Washington. But while there are some footprints of the Zionist lobby in Japan, it is not yet well established.”

He explained this by noting that there is no religious aspect that the Zionists can use in Japan. “Buddhism, Shinto, there is no interest among people of these faiths in Japan in other religions, so Zionist Jews cannot use the argument that the Muslims or the Christians are coming to destroy you.”

While Zionists may be able to influence big Japanese companies exporting to the US, by putting pressure on the American government to use tariffs against Japanese companies, for example, the ambassador argued that this approach has failed in the past and will continue to fail because the Japanese people can do their own lobbying.

“This is why, since last October, we have not seen any movement by the Zionist lobby in Japan,” he noted. “We have also seen many Japanese politicians speaking straightforwardly against the Israeli atrocities and genocide.”

Whether one agrees or not, the US has significant influence in the Middle East.

To end our conversation, we asked about the role of Washington in fostering peace and stability in Palestine.

“I have not seen, personally, that American policy has been positive for the Palestinians at all,” said Ambassador Siam. “The government in the US is sending weapons to Israel, including heavy bombs that were not even used in Afghanistan. The Israelis are using two-thousand-pound bombs, supplied by the Americans, on Gaza, which is among the most densely-populated places in the world.”

In his mind, this incomprehensible. “What the Americans say about Gaza and what they do are completely opposite; it’s hypocrisy. US Senator Lindsey Graham spoke of ‘nuking’ Gaza. An American senator. Nuke Gaza? Imagine me saying such a thing about Israel. I would be kicked out of Japan.”

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