The Israeli embassy is located in Rangoon, the capital of Myanmar, outside the city center, opposite Lake Inya. It is protected by local guards armed with automatic weapons, and is surrounded by thick walls that cannot be climbed. I visited the city in December 2018, to interview the Israeli ambassador Ronin Gilor, about the very small Jewish community in Myanmar, but when I started talking about the persecution of the Myanmar army against the Rohingya Muslims, which is a closely related issue to anyone with ties to Myanmar, as well Israeli arms sales to this army, Ambassador Gilor refused to answer my questions.

Ambassador Gillor had presented to the leader of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, "an open invitation to visit Israel," and she had previously won the Nobel Peace Prize, but she turned into a pariah to not take any position on the continuing crimes committed by her country's army against Rohingya Muslims.

Last week, Gillor launched a tweet in which he wished "courageous Soo Che" good luck while traveling to the International Court of Justice to personally defend the charges brought by the International Criminal Court against her country for genocide against the Rohingya, after which Gellor removed the tweet. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that this tweet was written "in error."

Sales of Israeli weapons and technologies to Myanmar brought contempt to Israel, but after Gilor's tweet, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs suddenly condemned the "atrocities that took place in the Rakhine region against the Rohingya." It seems that Israel had previously refused to use the word "Rohingya" in respect of the Myanmar government, which rejects this word, because it does not recognize the Rohingya as its citizens, but rather considers them "Bangladeshis", and yet the new Israeli statement is still negative, as it refused to mention the perpetrator of these "atrocities" ».

The worst crimes

Now, while Myanmar is facing charges of the world's worst crimes, it is imperative that Israeli leaders do no more than ever provide them with facilities to commit genocide or openly tolerate it.

In 2016, the Myanmar army escalated the abuses it had been waging against Rohingya Muslims for a decade, setting fire to villages, throwing young children into the fire, raping women, and beheading boys. About a million Rohingya people were forced to flee, after thousands of them were killed. "It is an ongoing genocide that is happening there at the moment," but the head of the UN fact-finding mission in Myanmar told officials in the United States at the end of last October, but Israel had not released anything until last week, and it appears that this is due to the relationship that It connects it with Myanmar, which dates back to the days when this country was known as Burma.

In 1948 the two countries arose, Yoon was the first Prime Minister of Burma, and he enjoyed good relations with Israel, and he has good relations with the first Israeli Prime Minister, Ben Gurion, and he was also the first Burmese Prime Minister to visit Israel. The Israeli-Burmese relationship was at its peak, Ambassador Gilor told me last year, because it was Burma that paved the way for Israel to establish ties with India and China.

Most Burmese do not know anything about Judaism, but the head of the Jewish community in Myanmar, Sami Samuel, told me while we were at the only Jewish temple in Yangon that the Burmese "respect the Israelis a lot."

For its part, Israel has exchanged this respect by giving the green light to Israeli arms manufacturers, to supply arms to the Myanmar army since the fall of 2017, despite accusations of violence against the Rohingya, and the European Union and the United States imposing sanctions and arms embargoes on Myanmar.

After the High Court protest, Israel claimed that it had stopped selling advanced weapons to the Myanmar army, but the Myanmar ambassador to Israel said that the latter was still selling weapons to his country. Myanmar officials were seen in June 2019 at an arms exhibition in Tel Aviv, which undermined Israel's position and credibility.

In fact, it is not in Israel's interest to have Gilor support Mrs. Suu Kyi in the media in Myanmar. Last December, the Israeli ambassador to Myanmar commented on the Rohingya crisis, saying, "Su-chi is now the leader of a country. She is no longer a human rights activist, but a leader of her state, and therefore has to take care of many things, for example the relationship with the Myanmar army, which is very important Gilor did not mention the word Rohingya but rather called them "Rakhine people", a state in Myanmar bordering Bangladesh, which the Rohingya considered to be their homeland, and the Myanmar army expelled them. Here, Gillor is once again flattering when he pronounces the words preferred by the Myanmar government.

It seems that Israel's acceptance of these atrocities is the result of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, continuing his policy of opportunism traditionally, as he maintains relations with any country that can establish diplomatic relations with him regardless of whether it is ruled by bad leaders and dictators and killers as well, and perhaps the fact that Israel is isolated In the Middle East it is pushing it to extend its diplomatic arms as far as it can, but tolerating genocide in Myanmar is an unacceptable exaggeration.

Criticism

Despite recent Israeli criticism of Myanmar, even if it is heading in the right direction, Israel still allows criminals in this country to do what they like, and Gilor's support for Mrs. Suu Kyi will continue to reflect the form of Israeli policy towards Myanmar, which is represented by great unconditional support Even if you commit genocide, as you do now with the Rohingya. The politician and jurist from the Gambia, Abu Bakr Tambadou, who brought the Rohingya case to the International Criminal Court, said Irish philosopher Adamud Burke, as he stood in the courtroom a few steps from Suu Kyi: “The only thing that is necessary for the victory of evil is that nothing does good. “Every day that goes by without any movement means that more people will be killed, more women will be raped, and more children will be burned alive,” added Tambado. What is their guilt? Just because they were created different from others ».

It was the brief international approach that presented many priorities for the protection of Jews in Europe that led to the Nazi Holocaust, and the Israeli indifference to what Myanmar was doing to give it the tools and scope to commit atrocities against the Rohingya, which is a sad distortion of the cry of the Allied leaders. After the Second World War, when they said, "It will not happen again", and they meant the killing and extermination that happened in that war, but unfortunately, it happens again and perhaps more horrificly at the hands of an ally state.

Israel’s acceptance of atrocities against the Rohingya is the result of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continuing his opportunist policy traditionally, establishing relations with any country with which he can establish diplomatic ties regardless of whether it is ruled by bad leaders, dictators, and killers as well.

• Israel had previously refused to use the word "Rohingya", out of respect for the Myanmar government, which rejects this word because it does not recognize Rohingya as its citizens, but rather considers them "Bangladeshis", yet the new Israeli language of speech is still negative, as it refuses to mention the perpetrator of these "atrocities" ».

Charles Dunst - freelance journalist based in Southeast Asia