AMALLAH (Xinhua) — Palestine on Monday celebrated the inauguration of the first Confucius Institute in the country at a leading university near East Jerusalem.

The ceremony, attended by Palestinian and Chinese academics and officials at the Al-Quds University, celebrated the official opening of the Confucius Institute at Al-Quds University, which offers Chinese language teaching and cultural exchanges.

Teachers and academics at the Palestinian university say the institute is important because it meets the growing Palestinian demand to learn Chinese language, enhance the Palestinian people’s understanding of Chinese culture and consolidate the traditional friendship among the two peoples.

Imad Abu Kishek, a professor and president of Al-Quds University, said he is proud that his university is joining the wide network of affiliates of Confucius Institute around the world, which helps promote the bilateral relations between Palestine and China and also promote the university’s international status.

President of China’s Jiangxi Normal University Mei Guoping said that the cooperation with the leading Palestinian university would help improve the academic achievement on joint studies.

“The aim of Confucius Institute is to enhance people’s understanding of Chinese language and culture, … to promote China’s friendly relations with the world and enhance the sustainable cultural development to build a harmony world,” Mei said.

Al-Quds University first started offering courses in Chinese language in 2015. A year later, Confucius Institute Headquarters in China began sending Chinese teachers to the university.

In 2018, Al-Quds University and Confucius Institute signed an agreement on the establishment of Confucius Institute at the Palestinian university’s premises, in partnership with Jiangxi Normal University.

Currently, Confucius Institute in Palestine offers Chinese language teaching and providing Chinese language teaching resources, and holding the HSK examination (Chinese Proficiency Test) and tests for the certification of the Chinese language teachers, as well as other language and cultural exchange activities.

Palestinian Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Fadi Al-Hidmi told Xinhua that the importance of this institute is that it consolidates the historical ties between Palestine and China.

“The two nations are already in contact in the economic sphere, and China is a big supporter to the Palestinians, … so it will add more to this momentum of excellent relationship between China and Palestine,” he explained.

Founded in 1984, Al-Quds University provides undergraduate studies, higher education and community services within the Jerusalem district and many parts of the West Bank, with some 13,000 enrolled students currently.

BASTOGNE, Belgium (AP) — Side by side, the Allies and former enemy Germany togethermarked the 75th anniversary of one of the most important battles in World War II — the Battle of the Bulge, which stopped Adolf Hitler’s last-ditch offensive to turn the tide of the war.

At dawn on Dec. 16, 1944, over 200,000 German soldiers started the most unexpected breakthrough through the dense woods of Belgium and Luxembourg’s hilly Ardennes. Making the most of the surprise move, the cold, freezing weather and wearied U.S. troops, the Germans pierced the front line so deeply it came to be known as the Battle of the Bulge.

Initially outnumbered, U.S. troops delayed the attack enough in fierce fighting to allow reinforcements to stream in and turn the tide of the battle by Christmas. After a month of fighting, the move into Germany was unstoppable.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper paid tribute to over 19,000 U.S. troops who died in one of the bloodiest battles in the nation’s history.

“Their efforts not only defended America but also ensured that the peoples of Europe would be free again,” Esper said, calling the Battle of the Bulge “one of the greatest in American history.”

U.S. Army veteran Malcolm “Buck” Marsh took the tributes in stride Monday as he addressed royalty, military leaders and top government officials.

“It is great to be here but I’m glad I’m not digging a foxhole,” Marsh said.

Bent, slow, yet sturdy, the veterans returning to the battlefield continued to amaze the crowds. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi marveled at the composure they must have had during the battle when many were still teenagers.

She said European leaders also lauded the grit and courage of soldiers who were so young – and yet so willing to fight for the freedom of others.

“I said, ‘Well, they didn’t come here because you were Americans. They came here because they were Americans. And that’s what we do,’ ” Pelosi told The Associated Press.

Even though German deaths also exceeded well over 10,000 in the battle that stretched deep into January, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier took special time to thank the U.S. troops.

“On this day, we Germans would like to thank the United States of America. The American armed forces, together with their allies, liberated Europe and they also liberated Germany. We thank you,” Steinmeier said.

“Those who died were victims of hatred, delusion, and a destructive fury that originated from my country,” he said.

Germany is now an ally of the United States and its wartime partners in NATO. During the poignant ceremonies at the star-shaped Mardasson memorial in Bastogne, the current discord between the United States and several European allies over trade and security were never mentioned.

Even if it was a relatively warm 6 degrees Celsius (43 F) as opposed to the shivering conditions 75 years ago, the commemoration took place under leaden skies and rain with fog hanging low.

Hitler had hoped the advance would change the course of World War II by forcing U.S. and British troops to sue for peace, thus freeing Germany to focus on the rapidly advancing Soviet armies in the east.

Out of the blue at dawn, over 200,000 German troops counter-attacked across the front line in Belgium and Luxembourg, smashing into battle-weary U.S. soldiers positioned in terrain as foreign to them as it was familiar to the Germans.

Yet somehow, the Americans blunted the advance and started turning back the enemy for good, setting Allied troops on a roll that would end the war in Europe less than five months later.

This battle gained fame not so much for the commanders’ tactics but for the resilience of small units hampered by poor communications that stood shoulder to shoulder to deny Hitler the quick breakthrough he so desperately needed. Even though the Americans were often pushed back, they were able to delay the German advance in its crucial initial stages.

“It was ultimately the intrepid, indomitable spirit of the American solider that brought victory,” Esper said.

When the fortunes of war turned, it was most visible in the southern Ardennes town of Bastogne, where surrounded U.S. troops were cut off for days with little ammunition or food.

When Brig. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe of the 101st Airborne received a Dec. 22 ultimatum to surrender or face total destruction, he offered one of the most famous — and brief — replies in military history: “”Nuts.” Four days later, U.S. troops broke the Nazi encirclement.

“News of their fierce defense quickly spread, boosting the morale of allied forces all along the Western Front,” Esper said.

After the fighting in the Battle of the Bulge ended on Jan. 28, 1945, Allied forces invaded Germany, eventually leading to the Nazi surrender and the end of the war in Europe.

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Casert reported from Brussels. Photojournalist Virginia Mayo contributed from Hamm, Luxembourg.

When is OK not okay?

Some West Point cadets and U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen flashed what looked like a sideways OK finger gesture during a live television broadcast over the weekend at the Army-Navy football game. Now military officials are probing their intentions. Was it an affirmation? An innocent made-you-look “circle game?” Or a sinister white supremacy signal?

Screenshots and clips of the hand gestures captured by cameras at Saturday’s game in Philadelphia went viral on social media. Some Twitter users condemned the gesture as a “white power” sign. Others called it the “gotcha” or “circle game” popular with children, where someone flashes an upside-down OK sign below his waist and punches in the shoulder anyone who looks at it.

The circle game, around for generations, was featured in the early 2000s sitcom “Malcolm in the Middle” and has made a resurgence as a photobomb prank in sports team photos–along the same line as “bunny ears” fingers. In more recent years, it became an internet meme in a online game of “gotcha.”

But the Anti-Defamation League said the gesture, with the thumb and forefinger touched in a circle and the other fingers outstretched, has also been appropriated as a signal for white supremacy. That started as a hoax perpetuated on the online message board 4chan. The original idea was to take an innocent and common gesture and arbitrarily transform it into something that would enrage liberals.

The campaign was so successful, the gesture came to be used semi-sincerely by Neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klansmen and other white nationalists to signal sympathizers in public places.

Brenton Tarrant, the white supremacist accused of killing 50 people at two New Zealand mosques, flashed the sign to reporters at a court hearing last March.

Mini-scandals involving the hand gesture have become regular media fodder. In 2018, the U.S. Coast Guard suspended an officer who appeared to be making the hand sign during a Hurricane Florence television broadcast.

A high school in a Chicago suburb yanked all copies of its yearbook from distribution amid concerns about a photo in which students displayed the gesture. The Chicago Cubs last May banned a fan from games after he flashed the symbol behind a broadcaster.

The true intentions of the cadets and midshipmen who were recorded making the gesture while smiling and laughing during Saturday’s game are unclear.

Heidi Beirich, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s intelligence project which investigates hate groups and extremism, said it was important that the military schools investigate to find out the context for the students and future active-duty military members using the symbol.

“Do the investigation, find out if it was harmless or not,” she said.

“If these people are influenced by white supremacy, they can’t be allowed to continue in the military.”

There have been longstanding concerns about white supremacists in the military. In 2008, an FBI report found white supremacist leaders were making a concerted effort to recruit active-duty soldiers and recent combat veterans. A Military Times poll in 2017 found more than 30% of service members saw white nationalism as a significant threat to national security.

The Pentagon reaffirmed military policies forbidding extremist advocacy in 2017, after the Anti-Defamation League reported a Marine staff sergeant was the leader of the white supremacist group Vanguard at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Against the backdrop of concerns about hate groups in the military, both the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, said they have appointed officers to investigate the motivations behind the hand signals flashed by their students.

Lt. Col. James Sink, professor of military science at Arizona State University and a 2000 graduate of West Point, said it may turn out the actions were innocent, if ill-advised.

“Honestly, it looks to me like they’re playing the game we used to call the circle game,” Sink said Monday. “I think the Army’s done a lot since the 1990s when I came in to rid our ranks of white supremacists.”

Oren Segal, director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, said people should let the investigation run its course and not jump to conclusions about the motivations behind the students’ gestures.

Segal said even if the motivations turn out to be innocent, the public discussion generated is a victory for white supremacists.

“This was started as a way to troll the media, to think something as simple as an OK symbol is representative of hate,” Segal said. “Every time there’s a public discussion like this, white supremacists who use this symbol for nefarious purposes are celebrating the fact that people are talking about them.”

“If nothing else, the public scrutiny of this latest controversy demonstrates these gray areas that extremism and hate operate in,” Segal said. “It’s an area that makes use of pop culture, day-to-day symbols, and tries to co-opt them for hate.”

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Associated Press writer Deepti Hajela in New York City contributed to this report.