Israel denounces atrocities against Rohingya in Myanmar after diplomat’s tweet

The Foreign Ministry condemns the atrocities that occurred in Myanmar against the Rohingya after an Israeli diplomat there tweeted support for Burmese government officials facing a genocide trial in international court.

“Encouragement for a good verdict and good luck!,” Israel’s ambassador to Myanmar, Ronen Gilor, tweeted at the beginning of the week, specifically directed at Myanmar State Councillor Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Prize winner who also serves as the country’s foreign minister.

The tweet later was deleted, after a query from the Israeli daily Haaretz.

Now, the ministry says in a statement that the tweet was written “in error, and was corrected immediately.” The statement also says that “Israel strongly condemns the atrocities that took place in the Rakhine region against the Rohingya. About a week ago, Israel voted in favor of a resolution to denounce the atrocities.”

Myanmar has been accused of allowing mass rape and murder, as well as the burning down of homes in suppressing the Muslim Rohingya minority in the west of the country in August 2017. The country’s leaders will face genocide charges in the International Court of Justice in The Hague starting on December 10.

— JTA