Learn about the history of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, equality and justice by exploring major events in the history of their oppression on this day of the year.
27 August
ISRAEL SOLD ARMS FOR MYANMAR GENOCIDE
On this day in 2018, UN-appointed investigators released their report accusing the Myanmar military Junta of committing genocide against its Rohingya Muslim minority. Exactly a year earlier, the Israeli High Court had ruled on a request to release information on Israel’s arms sales to Myanmar. The court refused and issued a gag order that its ruling could not be reported. “Every appeal to the court for information on Israeli arms sales is rejected to protect national security”.
باعت إسرائيل أسلحة الإبادة الجماعية في ميانمار
27 أغسطس
في مثل هذا اليوم من عام 2018، نشر المحققون المعينون من قبل الأمم المتحدة تقريرهم الذي اتهم فيه المجلس العسكري في جيش ميانمار بارتكاب إبادة جماعية ضد الأقلية المسلمة من الروهينجا. قبل عام بالضبط، كانت المحكمة العليا الإسرائيلية قد حكمت بطلب نشر معلومات عن مبيعات الأسلحة الإسرائيلية لميانمار. رفضت المحكمة الطلب وأصدرت أمرا بحجب قرارها. "كل استئناف قُدّم للمحكمة للحصول على معلومات حول مبيعات الأسلحة الإسرائيلية قوبل بالرفض لحماية الأمن القومي".
Myanmar’s military carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Muslim Rohingya with “genocidal intent”, and the commander-in-chief and five generals should be prosecuted for the gravest crimes under international law, United Nations investigators said...The investigators called for the U.N. Security Council to impose an arms embargo on Myanmar, subject its officials to targeted sanctions and set up an ad hoc tribunal to try suspects or refer them to the International Criminal Court in the Hague...
The U.N. investigators blamed Myanmar’s de facto civilian leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, for failing to use her “moral authority” to protect civilians. Her government “contributed to the commission of atrocity crimes” by letting hate speech thrive, destroying documents and failing to shield minorities from crimes against humanity and war crimes. “Our findings are grim,” panel chairman Marzuki Darusman told a news conference on Monday.
Eitay Mack, an Israeli lawyer who submitted the original petition, told Middle East Eye that this move shows how "Israel is becoming more similar to the states to which it sells arms...The petition was submitted in January, following visits by Israeli officials to Myanmar to discuss arms deals, and vice versa...Israeli arms companies such as TAR Ideal Concepts have also been involved in training Burmese special forces who are currently in the Rakhine state where most of the violence has taken place.
Israel Resists Calls to Suspend Military Sales to Myanmar, an Old Friend in Arms
Israel’s defense industry, valued at $7 billion in 2012, doesn’t fill Myanmar’s armories...Israel has mostly supplied small arms and intelligence systems, according to security analysts. But its willingness to defy past international arms embargoes made it a lifeline to Myanmar’s former ruling junta under the stranglehold of sanctions and isolation.
Ties between Israel and Burma, as Myanmar was then known, go back to 1948, when they both declared their independence; Burma was among the first countries to recognize the state of Israel...In 1955, Burma’s U Nu became the first foreign head of state to visit Israel. David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, returned the honor in 1961, declaring “in all of Asia, there is no more friendly nation to Israel than Burma.”
Israel considered these early ties “a major diplomatic success, ‘as extensive as it was unexpected,’” as Andrew Selth wrote in “Burma’s Secret Military Partners.” Given its status as part of the nonaligned movement during the Cold War, Burma proved to be a valuable ally for Israel that it could rely on in international forums.
3-minute video: Israel arms Myanmar during genocidal mass killings of Rohingya