SOCIAL POST: In 2024, Palestine was invited to BRICS...
The bloc invited the State of Palestine to apply for membership, an unusual move considering Palestine is not an emerging economic powerhouse like existing members. Why?
BRICS, inaugurated in 2009, initially focused on economic collaboration to address macroeconomic and currency challenges post-2008 crisis. It created the Contingent Reserve Arrangement and the New Development Bank (NDB). Its agenda now includes climate change, anti-terrorism, and cybersecurity. BRICS’s outreach to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) accelerated after COVID-19 and the Ukraine war exposed supply chain vulnerabilities. Excluded from US-made vaccines, BRICS members turned inward and partnered with MENA to stabilize supply chains and confront currency policy shifts through expansion.
Facing economic strain and dollar shortages, MENA states like Egypt and Tunisia found BRICS ties essential. Local-currency trade reduces dependence on Western financial systems. BRICS also gains access to strategic trade routes, boosting economic resilience and sovereignty. Western sanctions on Russia increased BRICS-MENA energy cooperation. UAE imported Russian oil, Tehran and Moscow formed a gas hub, and Saudi Arabia doubled Russian fuel oil use. BRICS’s push for non-dollar pricing in energy weakens Western monetary dominance significantly. Under Russia’s 2024 presidency, BRICS prioritized de-dollarisation to reduce reliance on the US dollar. Tools like BRICS Pay challenge SWIFT and offer new financial paths for Global South nations, including Palestinians, aiming to escape Western-dominated economic systems.
At the 2024 Kazan Summit, BRICS reaffirmed support for Palestine and a two-state solution, condemning Israeli violence. Yet BRICS’s position reflects members’ individual stances. China, Russia, and South Africa lead diplomatically, each pushing Palestinian reconciliation. BRICS membership offers Palestinians economic recovery and digital growth. BRICS Pay QR and B2B alternatives weaken Israeli financial control. Access to NDB, AI development, vaccine research, and SEZs in Gaza and the West Bank fosters Palestinian innovation and resilience.
Despite Western resistance, BRICS could elevate Palestine’s global status. Membership offers economic and diplomatic tools to escape US-Israeli domination. This Global South realignment marks BRICS expansion as the most serious challenge to US unipolarity to date.