+972 MAGAZINE
By Eitay Mack April 23, 2021
Public pressure has forced Israel to halt arms sales to the brutal military junta, but the state’s political support remains strong.
Myanmar's military marches in a parade in the city of Naypyidaw, Myanmar, March 27, 2021. (Mil.ru/CC BY 4.0)
The message that the world was silent during the extermination of Jews during the Holocaust is routinely cited by the State of Israel and its Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem. And yet, Israel itself is complicit in silence surrounding a present-day atrocity: the crimes committed by the Myanmar military junta, which Israel is supporting with weapons, training, and political backing. Although legal, media, and public pressure has forced some change in Israel’s defense export policy to Myanmar, political support for the junta has remained strong.