Israel lauds China’s ‘re-education’ camps persecuting Uyghur Muslims

An Israeli Likud lawmaker, Oren Hazan, lauded China’s persecution of its Muslim minorities in its “re-education camps”, and suggested Israel take a leaf out of Beijing’s book.

Referring to the Israeli government’s endeavors to penalize relatives of individuals who were convicted of terrorism, Hazan wrote on Twitter, "Tearing down homes – the High Court prevents it. Deporting families – it's already losing it," according to the Haaretz publication.

He went on to refer to their battle against Muslims as “combatting terrorism.”

"Then came the Chinese and apparently found the right legal outline to combat terrorism – as I am sure there is no convention, not even in Geneva, that in 2018 objects to proper education. I'm for it."

Hazan only recently resumed his attendance of Knesset (Israeli parliament) sessions, due to his six-month suspension over his insults toward fellow members of parliament.

Many refer to China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region -- home to many ethnic minority groups, including Turkic Uighur people -- as East Turkestan.

They believe that the Uighur are among a number of Turkic tribes that inhabit the region, and consider it to be part of Central Asia, not China.

Established under the pretext of “political reeducation” for China’s Muslim population, Beijing has amped up its construction of detention camps in the past three months, expanding them by an additional 700,000 square meters, according to satellite imagery.

China’s Muslim incarceration camps have attracted heavy criticism from the international community as Beijing continually denied their existence and repeatedly rejected allegations of abuses against the country’s Uighur minority for years, opting to call them “vocational camps” instead.

Xinjiang region is home to around 10 million Uighurs. The Turkic Muslim group which makes up around 45 percent of the population of Xinjiang, has long accused China’s authorities for cultural, religious and economic discrimination.