DHAKA: Rohingya activists are expressing solidarity with Palestine as they drew parallels on Wednesday between their plight in Myanmar and Israel’s deadly onslaught in Gaza, which has killed over 10,000 Palestinian civilians in a month.
More than 700,000 Rohingya fled Rakhine State to neighboring Bangladesh in 2017 following a brutal crackdown by the Myanmar military that the UN said amounted to genocide, with the ongoing persecution of the minority group killing around 25,000 people.
The Rohingya, which the UN described as “one of the world’s most persecuted minorities,” have faced decades of discrimination and repression in Myanmar, where they are not recognized as an indigenous ethnic group and which denies them the right to claim citizenship.
With more than 10,000 Palestinian civilians — over 40 percent of whom are children — killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, Rohingya activists are calling attention to the similarities between Israel’s deadly onslaught in the densely populated enclave and their own plight.
“Both situations involve a significant number of civilians, particularly children, being caught up in the violence,” Korim Ullah, a Rohingya rights activist in Cox’s Bazar, told Arab News. “Thousands of children have died in Gaza. In my village of Tula Toli, the Myanmar military shot, burned alive and drowned children.”
In 2017, the Myanmar army destroyed hundreds of homes in Tula Toli village and killed an estimated 500 people in an operation the Human Rights Watch described as “a massacre of unspeakable brutality.”
Ullah said: “It is our shared experience of suffering, displacement, and statelessness that has created a sense of empathy and kinship. Our solidarity stems from a desire to support others who are going through similar hardships, to raise awareness of human rights abuses, and to advocate for international intervention and support.”
For Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist based in Europe and co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition, expressing solidarity with the Palestinians is a matter of principle.
“Being a member of an oppressed community, I consider it my moral duty to stand up, speak out, and show solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and sisters who have endured oppression for over 75 years,” Nay told Arab News over WhatsApp.
“Genocide is a process. All genocides that have occurred worldwide share similarities. We were driven out of our homes and thousands were killed under the pretext of a so-called ‘clearance operation’ in 2017. The same thing is happening in Gaza,” he said. “The suffering of the Palestinians began in 1948, and they rightfully deserve freedom and peace. The occupation must come to an end.”
For over a month, Israel has continued its deadly daily bombardment of the enclave in retaliation for an attack by the Gaza-based militant group Hamas, which killed around 1,400 Israelis.
While thousands of people across the globe have taken to the streets demanding an end to the ongoing violence in Gaza, many Western governments have said that “Israel has the right to defend itself.”
Those same countries, which include the US and UK, have stood with the victims and survivors of the Rohingya genocide and provided billions of dollars in humanitarian aid.
“I am very disappointed to see nations that have stood by our side in our quest for justice and accountability fail to do the same for the people of Palestine,” Maung Sawyeddollah, founder and executive director of Rohingya Students Network, told Arab News.
The Rohingya people have “suffered the horrors of genocide at the hands of Myanmar military,” he said, describing it as “unimaginable violence.
“And now, witnessing the hard suffering of these Palestinian people, I am deeply disheartened … In many ways, it surpasses the injustice we have faced,” Sawyeddollah said.
“We, the Rohingya people, extend an unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people. And we call upon all the nations to work toward an immediate ceasefire in Palestine.”
