JERUSALEM -- An Israeli Cabinet minister and the speaker of Israel's parliament met Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, on Wednesday despite warnings from China of possible damage to Sino-Israeli relations.
Education Minister Yossi Sarid of the left-wing Meretz party met the Dalai Lama in parliament and called him "the world's No. 1 educator against violence."Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg, who belongs to Prime Minister Ehud Barak's Labor Party, said Israel could maintain good ties both with China and with the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner Beijing regards as its foe.
"Israel should have wider interests rather than the immediate weapons industry or the arms trade with a couple of states around the world," Burg said in a clear reference to China after his half-hour meeting with the Dalai Lama.
"We should build our commercial, cultural, educational and value exchanges with China on one hand, and on the other hand we should develop our diplomatic and international value system with recognized people like the Dalai Lama," he added.
China occupied Tibet in 1950 and refuses to recognize Tibetan independence claims.
Beijing had asked Burg to cancel his invitation to the Dalai Lama to visit the Knesset, on the eve of a trip to Israel by Li Peng, China's second most powerful figure and speaker of its parliament.
"Unfortunately wherever I go and have been . . . there have been problems," the Dalai Lama said, shrugging resignedly after the talks in parliament.
Zhang Ming, of the Chinese embassy in Israel, said, "We are opposed to the meeting because the Dalai Lama is not only a religious figure but a political one who has been engaged in activities against the motherland China."
"We cherish the bilateral relations between Israel and China and we hope to see them develop smoothly. I hope this will not affect them--but I don't know," Zhang said.
Israel says it earns tens of millions of dollars from arms sales to China which began at least 12 years ago, before they established diplomatic relations in 1992.
China recently denied it was planning to buy an airborne radar system from Israel, despite Israeli assertions the $250 million deal would soon be finalised.
In Israel for a religious conference, he repeated statements made earlier in the week that he was seeking Tibetan autonomy from China.
China has said it would hold talks with the Dalai Lama only if he stopped advocating Tibetan independence and admitted Tibet and Taiwan were under its control.