The late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in the guard of honor with Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong in Hanoi in 1999 (French)

Vietnam is currently witnessing rare political activity in support of the Palestinians at a time when the war on Gaza is a reminder of the shared solidarity in the struggle for national liberation.

In a private place tucked away in a narrow alley in the center of the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, a group of more than 20 people listened intently to Salim Hammad (30 years old), a charismatic Palestinian, speaking fluently in Vietnamese.

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Hammad, who runs a company in Vietnam, shared an incident from his childhood in Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

Attendees listened to him recount a vivid memory of waking up one night as Israeli soldiers surrounded and raided his family home.

Earlier, he told those attending the discussion that Vietnam's history of fighting for liberation against the United States had inspired the Palestinians in their struggle against Israel's occupation of their lands.

“The Vietnamese people, with their painful and glorious history, have always been an inspiration to us in our struggle for justice. We always look up to you as a role model,” Hammad told his audience.

Young people began to raise their voices in support of Palestine

Because of the horror of the Israeli war on Gaza and the escalating death toll, Vietnamese youth began to raise their voices in support of the Palestinians. In the process, they discover the historical ties between Vietnam and Palestine and their shared battles for national liberation.

But the decades-long relationship between the two countries has been overshadowed by the recent promotion of Israeli business culture to a younger generation of Vietnamese.

Many of Vietnam's youth are focused on achieving success in their country's fast-growing free market economy, and many are inspired by Israel's startup culture while knowing little about the dark side of Israel's long occupation of Palestinian territories.

Trinh and Vuong (pseudonyms), a pro-Palestine activist couple, late last year organized the rally at which Hammad spoke and which was inspired by student activism the couple witnessed while studying in the United States.

Trinh and Vuong are part of a thriving grassroots movement among young Vietnamese who have been drawn to the Palestinian cause since the start of the Gaza war in October.

But Vietnam's strict policies against public gatherings and political activity mean that pro-Palestinian activists have to come up with quiet and creative ways to organize events without attracting unwanted attention from Vietnamese authorities.

Pro-Palestinian artwork on display in Hanoi shows a fighter from the Vietnamese national liberation struggle and a Palestinian fighter above the words in Arabic and Vietnamese: “From the River to the Sea” (Courtesy of Cat Nguyen)

Pro-Palestine discussions, merchandise, and art

In Ho Chi Minh City, Trinh and some friends organized discussions on Palestine and gave Palestine-themed drawing lessons. Trinh, a designer, worked with fellow creatives to design pro-Palestine merchandise, political art, and fans.

In November, documentaries and films about Palestine, the Nakba, and the history of the Israeli occupation of Palestine were screened under the title Films for Liberation: “Palestine Forever” with the aim of eliminating the “satanic descriptions of Palestinians” imposed on them by “Western and imperialist powers.”

On social media, a collection of fan pages featuring Palestinian poems translated into Vietnamese, pro-Palestine artwork, and analyzes of the history of the conflict appeared while the Embassy of Palestine in Vietnam called on former veterans of the war against the United States, academics, activists, and members of the public to commemorate the victims in Gaza.

On November 29, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People designated by the United Nations, the government of Vietnam also published a message from then-President Vu Van Thuong in which he spoke of the long history of brotherhood between Vietnam and Palestine and “Vietnam’s strong support and solidarity with the Palestinians in their struggle from "For justice."

But the relationship now is not what it used to be

Two images of the war were displayed on the wall at a meeting of Vietnamese pro-Palestinian activists: one of Gaza in 2023 after an Israeli air strike and the other of the rubble left after the bombing of Hanoi's Kham Thien neighborhood more than 50 years ago.

Then-US President Richard Nixon had ordered the bombing of the North Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, over the Christmas period of 1972, and the Kham Thien neighborhood suffered the most severe destruction. Over the course of 12 consecutive days and nights starting on December 18, about 20,000 tons of bombs were dropped on Hanoi, as well as the crowded northern coastal city of Hai Phong and many other areas.

The juxtaposition of the two images and the historical resonances of the two wars – whether the razing of Gaza or the bombing of North Vietnam back to the Stone Age – are part of the repertoire of shared symbols that have fueled the current mood of Vietnamese-Palestinian solidarity among Vietnamese youth.

Hong, a 20-year-old student whose father and grandparents lived through the 1972 Christmas bombings by American forces, said that history repeats itself, adding that, given what is happening in Gaza, he could not help but think about the story his father told him about someone... His childhood days when he watched in horror as bombs were dropped near the West Lake in Hanoi and shortly afterwards felt a storm blowing in his direction and the shock wave pressing against his chest.

Every day in Gaza there is another thin ore

“Now, this is specifically happening to everyone in Gaza day after day,” Hong continued. “Every day in Gaza, there is another crude oil.”

At pro-Palestine meetings across the country, similar connections are being made between Israel's war on Gaza and the US war on Vietnam, and young activists are using wartime comparisons to introduce the Palestinian cause to new audiences.

Pictures are printed on handbags and posters of a Vietnamese fighter from the war years wearing a traditional scarf, running and standing next to a Palestinian fighter wearing a keffiyeh. The fighters hold aloft a door key, symbolizing the homes that Palestinians lost in 1948 during their forced transfer by Israeli forces during the Nakba period, when at least 750,000 Palestinians were violently displaced. Under the pictures of the two fighters, the words: “From the river to the sea” were written in Arabic and Vietnamese.

Through art, discussion, and other means of expression, pro-Palestinian activists in Vietnam help their peers understand concepts such as Zionism, the Nakba, the Oslo Accords, and settler colonialism.

Step by step, they reaffirm the context and history of Palestinian loss and remove any mention of them from local media narratives and books in their narrative of Israel's emergence as an economic success story.

Salama speaks in Hanoi during an event in November to commemorate victims in Gaza (Courtesy of Tu Li)

Translating poetry as a means of protest

Phuong, a Vietnamese illustrator based in Italy who launched the online fan page “Palestinian Poems,” said she was deeply concerned by what has been happening since October in the Gaza Strip.

Fung said that she resorted to translating poetry as a way to protest and express her sadness over the war in Gaza. She has now translated more than 50 poems by Palestinian authors such as Mahmoud Darwish, Fadwa Tuqan, and Ghassan Zaqtan from English to Vietnamese.

Fung hopes she can help her readers appreciate the universal humanism of Palestinian culture and society, as reflected in the poems of Darwish and others.

She said that the Palestinians are not only victims of war, they are also a people with a rich and beautiful heritage, with advanced philosophies and arts, and the Vietnamese people need to know this.

Nguyen Binh is a young translator best known for his translations of Vietnamese works, such as the classic “The Tale of Que” into English.

Binh is now working on translating Rashid Khalidi's book "The Hundred Years' War on Palestine" into Vietnamese "to raise the voice of the unheard and to bridge the gap in Vietnamese understanding of Palestinian issues."

Vietnam's support for Palestine was unwavering

Le Hong Hiep, a senior fellow and coordinator of the Vietnam Studies Program at the Isaias Yusuf Ishak Institute in Singapore, described Vietnam's support for the Palestinian people and their struggle for liberation as "unwavering" during the Cold War and until 1990.

“This was partly due to the Vietnamese leadership’s belief that the Palestinian issue reflects their struggle for unity and independence against foreign powers,” Hiep told Al Jazeera.

The PLO established relations with North Vietnam in 1968 and established a resident representative office after the end of the war in Vietnam in 1975. The office soon became the Palestinian Embassy in Vietnam.

In 1990, Vietnam also welcomed Palestinian leaders, including Yasser Arafat, on numerous occasions. Vietnam's official position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has always been in favor of Palestinian self-determination and the establishment of a Palestinian state.

On the Palestinian side, Darwish summarized the bonds of that friendship in 1973 when the war in Vietnam entered its final stage with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1973, which ended direct American military combat in the country. "In the conscience of the peoples of the world, the torch has been passed from Vietnam to us," the poet said.

Times have changed

But times have changed, and so has Vietnam's memory of its solidarity with Palestine. Pro-Palestine activists interviewed by Al Jazeera said they had difficulty convincing their parents that the Palestinian cause was just.

Hong said his parents initially responded to the Gaza war by blaming "those terrorists who started it first."

He added that he had to spend some time explaining to them the history dating back to 1948, adding, "Only after that did they change their minds."

Vietnamese youth innovate artistically to support Palestine (Courtesy of Tu Ly)

Al-Saadi Salama, the Palestinian ambassador to Vietnam, said that local media bear a great deal of responsibility for the lack of public awareness in Vietnam about the events in Palestine.

Salama initially worked at PLO headquarters in Hanoi as Information Secretary in 1980, and has decades of experience in Vietnam. But over the past 10 years or so, he said, information about the Palestinian issue has appeared less frequently in local media, and what does appear is presented in a routine manner, he said.

They have a vague idea of ​​what is happening in Palestine

Salama explained to Al Jazeera: “Most people have a vague idea of ​​what is actually happening in Gaza and the West Bank. Local journalists often lack experience in the subject of Palestine and Middle East issues.”

As a result, he said, they are ashamed to write in-depth analyzes on this issue, choosing instead to uncritically copy and paste from Western sources and without providing context to readers.

There are rare exceptions, Salama admitted, but not enough to make a difference in the generally negative impression of Palestine at a time when a positive impression of Israel is formed in Vietnam. “For the Vietnamese, Israel is now a symbol of development, an emerging nation. They do not see the dark side of Israel.” Salama said.

Dinh Le, a well-known book market area in central Hanoi, is a short walk from the place where Hammad spoke about Palestine and his childhood.

“Emerging Nation” is a book promoting Israel

While a visitor would be hard-pressed to find books about Palestine here, there is no shortage of Vietnamese-language copies of “The Emerging Nation”: “The Story of the Israeli Economic Miracle,” a 2009 book by Dan Senor and Saul Singer.

This book was republished by AlphaBooks, which was famous in Vietnam for its business and pop science titles, and “Emerging Nation” became one of the best-selling books in Vietnam.

According to figures available on the website of the Vietnamese Ministry of Information and Communications, the book has gone through more than 12 editions with more than two million copies published.

More than a million copies of this book were distributed, according to the ministry, by order of one of Vietnam's prominent entrepreneurs who runs a project to distribute free inspirational books in areas such as entrepreneurship, science and philosophy.

Some believe that the book's popularity in Vietnam is the focus of Israel's attractive image among the public, and is often the source of the positive image of Israel in the Vietnamese media.

Free development and market economy

Experts said that Israel's popular fame also coincides with a critical turning point in Vietnam's modern history. Since the late 1980s, Vietnam has implemented economic reforms, known as Doi Moi, which have seen the country embrace free, market-oriented development and promote entrepreneurship.

At the same time, Vietnam's foreign policy prioritized national interests and independence over what had previously been described as "ideological purity" during earlier revolutionary eras.

Although officially called the "Socialist Republic of Vietnam," the country has long welcomed foreign capital and worked to normalize relations, mostly based on economic cooperation, with countries and blocs previously considered enemies.

Biden with Vietnamese President Vu Van Thuong in Hanoi on September 11, 2023, after the two past enemies raised diplomatic and trade relations to the highest level (Reuters)

Bamboo diplomacy and partnership with Israel

Hiep said Vietnam's policy approach, known as "bamboo diplomacy" due to its flexibility and pragmatism, allowed the country to forge an important partnership with Israel in "the areas of economics, technology and security."

It is likely that the fear of jeopardizing relations with Israel explains why Vietnam is reluctant to express its strong support for Palestine despite maintaining sympathy for its cause. He added that since October, the Vietnamese government has drawn attention to atrocities committed against civilians in the conflict between Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

At a press conference shortly after the war began, a Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman stated that Vietnam "strongly condemns the violent attacks against civilians, humanitarian workers, journalists and basic infrastructure facilities."

Before that, at an emergency session of the UN General Assembly on October 27, Vietnam joined the majority of member states in voting on a resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, protection of civilians, unconditional release of prisoners, and humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip.

Support for Palestine, but it is not enough

However, Hanoi has also been careful not to seriously jeopardize its relationship with Israel by openly naming Israel in its criticism. However, in an interview, a former Israeli ambassador to Vietnam described Hanoi's position on Gaza as "disappointing."

For some, such supportive gestures for Palestine are not enough to fulfill Vietnam's historic debt to the Palestinians and the PLO's support for Hanoi during the Cold War.

Vu Minh Hoang, a 20th-century diplomatic historian of Vietnam and Asia and the Pacific, noted that the PLO was among a small minority of groups and countries in the Global South that openly sided with their Vietnamese friends and condemned China for its invasion of Vietnam in 1979.

Fu said the decision cost the PLO much-needed aid and political support from China. The organization maintained a friendly relationship that lasted 14 years with China until it sided with Vietnam due to the Chinese invasion of Vietnam in 1979.

Vu, who currently resides at Columbia University in New York, told Al Jazeera that the PLO courageously stood by Vietnam when the latter needed it most.

Money explains the Vietnamese position

Despite Vietnam's statements and votes supportive of Palestine, Vu said, in general, Vietnam's position in practice appears to be more pro-Israel. To understand why, he added, one needs to "follow the money."

From 2015 to 2019, Vietnam was among the top three buyers of Israeli weapons, accounting for 8.5% of Israel's total sales during that period, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported in 2022 that over the past decade, Vietnam had purchased an estimated $1.5 billion in defense equipment from Israel, including surface-to-air missile systems, phone hacking technology and drones.

But in the past two years, there have been no recorded arms deals between Vietnam and Israel, according to recent SIPRI data.

Vietnamese translation of Emerging Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle (Courtesy of Tully)

The Vietnamese government refused to comment on the reasons for the apparent slowdown, Reuters reported this month. Simon Wiseman, a senior researcher at the institute, told the agency that the lack of general arms deals may be the result of difficult negotiations underway as Vietnam - which needs warships, fighter jets and drones - considers competing offers.

Vu describes himself as a progressive member of the Communist Party of Vietnam who believes in the ideals of international communism and human rights. He also belongs to a minority of Vietnamese scholars dissatisfied with the country's uncritical embrace of "bamboo diplomacy."

A pragmatic policy that does not care about violating human rights

The pragmatism and flexibility of the "bamboo" approach has an ironic side, Fu said, because it allows principled political positions to be ignored in pursuit of "narrow national self-interests," even if that means working with partners who blatantly violate human rights.

“The principle is: There are no eternal allies, no eternal enemies, only interests,” Fu said, quoting the words of former British Prime Minister Henry John Temple.

The late Arafat (left) receives an album about the creation of the North Vietnamese army with a picture of Ho Chi Minh on the cover from North Vietnamese Defense Minister, General Vo Nguyen Giap, during Arafat's visit to North Vietnam in 1970 (French)

Such a policy stands in stark contrast to Vietnam at the height of revolutionary politics and its struggle for liberation, he said. He added: "Say what you will, in the Cold War, Vietnam had real friends and real loyalties."

But even Vietnam's old friends have their own interests to look out for now, too. Over the past decade or so, Cambodia and Laos, once Vietnam's closest allies, have entered China's sphere of influence and supported Beijing over its territorial claims in the South China Sea, an issue that touches on Vietnam's core interests.

Vu said Vietnam had learned a lesson that "good deeds and sacrifices can go unappreciated even by your friends."

He said Vietnam's adoption of a foreign policy defined by pragmatic flexibility was a natural response to decades of crushing economic sanctions imposed by the West on the country as punishment for Vietnam's intervention in neighboring Cambodia in late 1978 to oust the Khmer Rouge, under whose rule some two million people died.

Stay clean even if you are hungry

He added that Vietnam should try to do better in terms of its political principles, and mentioned a well-known Vietnamese saying: "Stay clean even if you are hungry. Stay fragrant even if you are wearing torn clothes."

"Vietnam still can and must live up to this ideal," he said, referring to the country's revolutionary past and its struggle for national liberation.

Young pro-Palestinian activists know that Vietnam's revolutionary past is not without its problematic history as a one-party state with strict control over society and the people.

But it is Vietnam's struggle for liberation that Palestinians have connected with, and it is this history that young Vietnamese activists are now rediscovering and admiring in recent months during the war in Gaza.

"The more I learn about the history of Palestine, the more I realize how similar our struggles are. The better I understand Vietnam's resilience and courage in our fight against the imperialists, the more pride I feel about our victories," Trinh said, adding that she now wants "the same for the Palestinians."

Source: Al Jazeera