It’s a perfectly legitimate question to ask why representatives of the Myanmar military were spotted at an Israeli weapons and security conference in Israel. Israelis themselves have been asking pointed questions over their country’s political and military links with a regime that has been heavily criticized for its human rights abuses, particularly concerning the alleged ethnic cleansing of the Muslim ethnic minority, the Rohingya.
While Israel-Myanmar links are certainly a relevant domestic issue, there are plenty of Western democracies that have ties to unsavory regimes around the world, which begs the question as to why Newsweek has chosen to publish the story of the Myanmar military representatives in Tel Aviv.
The answer, unsurprisingly, appears to be an attempt to damage Israel’s name by linking it to ethnic cleansing.
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Newsweek journalist Cristina Maza writes:
Members of Myanmar’s majority-Buddhist population, however, consider the Muslim Rohingya to be ethnic Bangladeshi foreigners with an extremist, pro-Islam agenda. This view has often been invoked to justify the decision to drive the Rohingya from the country.
Experts note that the situation has some parallels to Israel’s relationship with the indigenous Palestinians. Israeli authorities claim that the Palestinians are ethnic Jordanian immigrants despite the fact that many have lived in what is now Israel before the state of Israel was founded.
Anonymous sources? No sources
Who are the “indigenous Palestinians?” Who are these “experts” who believe the situation of the Rohingya is similar to that of Israel’s relationship with the “indigenous Palestinians?”
It appears that Maza is referring to Palestinians living in Israel – Israeli Arabs who are citizens of the country and have the same rights under the law as their fellow Jewish citizens. Using the word “indigenous” to describe these Arabs is meant to imply that the Jews are not indigenous themselves. This is patently false.
In addition, while the Myanmar regime has, in what is widely held to be a grotesque human rights violation, forced the Rohingya to flee their villages and seek refuge in neighboring countries, any parallel with Israeli Arabs or even Palestinians living in the disputed territories is an insult to the intelligence.
Israel is not committing ethnic cleansing anywhere. Period.
Israel is not forcing its Arab citizens out of the country where they constitute some 20% of the population. To suggest otherwise is a blatant lie.
Related Reading: News Literacy: How to Judge Anonymous Sources
False citation for a false charge
Which “Israeli authorities” claim that “the Palestinians are ethnic Jordanian immigrants?” There are some right-wing organizations and individuals that believe a Jordan could be a Palestinian state by virtue of the fact that it has a Palestinian-majority population. But there are no “Israeli authorities” or state bodies that officially promote this as a policy.
Moreover, the charge leveled that these imaginary Israeli authorities claim that Palestinians living in Israel (Israeli Arabs) are “ethnic Jordanian immigrants” is utterly absurd.
Lack of transparency to disguise a non-credible source
So far Maza has relied on anonymous “experts” and non-existent “Israeli authorities” to promote an entirely illusionary narrative. She continues in her effort to link Israel to ethnic cleansing:
In an op-ed published in 2015, American-Palestinian journalist Ramzy Baraoud highlighted the similarities between Myanmar and Israel and pointed out that many high-level Israeli officials, including former Israeli President Shimon Peres and the country’s first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, have visited Myanmar.
“Following the ethnic cleansing of the original inhabitants of Palestine, Israel immediately went on to fashion an alternative and particularly biased narrative about how it was established, and to deny Palestinians any historical link to their homeland,” Baraoud wrote. “The Myanmarese did just that too.”
It’s worth noting that Maza does not cite the media outlet from which she quotes Ramzy Baraoud. Nor does Newsweek provide a hyperlink to the original article. This is hardly surprising. Baraoud’s op-ed wasn’t published in the New York Times, Washington Post or any other credible Western news source. Instead, it appears in Gulf News, a daily English language newspaper published from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. This is the same newspaper that once published a Holocaust denial piece before it was taken down. Even The Guardian said at the time that “Gulf News has not been regarded as one of the world’s greatest truth-telling newspapers.” Is this the best that Cristina Maza can come up with for her online research? No wonder she won’t tell Newsweek’s readers her source.
Related Reading: Defining Bias: Lack of Transparency
Ultimately, Maza’s article is a journalistic embarrassment that should never have been published by Newsweek.
We’ve sent an official complaint to Newsweek. Watch this space.
