Reports of the events in Myanmar have not kept the Israeli government from cooperating with those suspected of war crimes against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority Haaretz has reported disclosing secret arms deals between Israel and the Myanmar government.
According to Haaretz in September 2015 Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing the commander-in-chief of Myanmar’s army who was explicitly mentioned in a UN report as being responsible for carrying out the genocide and as a partner in formulating the ideological foundation for it visited Israel. He met with senior defense officials and with President Reuven Rivlin and visited Israeli military bases and manufacturers. Afterward he announced the purchase of Israeli weapons in a deal estimated at tens of millions of dollars.
In summer 2016 the head of the Israeli war ministry’s International Defense Cooperation Directorate paid a reciprocal visit to Myanmar. All of this was reported on the Facebook page of Min Aung Hlaing who was banned from the site Monday after being accused of using it to promote hate and misinformation.
Israel does not allow the publication of reports on the arming of Myanmar. In a hearing on petitions to the High Court of Justice filed in the last year and a half by human rights activists and attorney Eitay Mack against Israel’s weapons sales to Myanmar the war ministry argued that the court had no authority to rule on war exports. Israeli spokesmen justified the supplying of weapons with the claim that “both sides committed war crimes” claims that were rejected in a recent UN report. The court’s ruling on the petition is classified but according to testimony from Myanmar the weapons sales are continuing even in the midst of the crimes.
Israel has a long history of arming dark regimes from Latin America through the Balkans and Africa to Asia. The findings of the UN panel’s report require an examination of this method whose economic benefits cannot serve as a counterweight to the atrocities.
Haaretz said that Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit must order an investigation to determine whether the individuals who approved the arms sales to Myanmar were complicit in genocide in accordance with Israel’s 1950 Law for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. In addition he must see to it that the findings are made public.
A United Nations report issued this week found that the Myanmar military committed genocide and crimes against humanity including rape torture enslavement violence against children and the destruction of entire villages against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority. The crimes were conducted as part of a series of military operations that began in November 2016 and reached their peak in August 2017 when 725000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh out of fear.
The report written by an independent fact-finding mission and based on the testimony of hundreds of survivors calls for prosecuting Myanmar’s army commander and other top generals at the International Criminal Court or an international tribunal. The panel cited “the level of organization indicating a plan for destruction; and the extreme scale and brutality of the violence” in arguing for prosecution.
