The Chinese Communist Party is waging a targeted campaign against Uyghurs and other Muslims. Documented human rights abuses include forced labour, one million held in internment camps, torture, sexual abuse and the banning of cultural and religious expression.
For anyone who has visited Israel, where road signs are in Arabic to cater for a Muslim population who hold jobs at all levels of society, there is a stark difference. A Muslim judge indicting the top politician in China would be unthinkable, but it happened in Israel. I’m not suggesting there is no racism or that integration is perfect in Israel, but the situations are starkly different. China withholds basic freedoms from all its citizens – unlike Israel, which is a democracy, albeit, like all other democracies, a flawed one.
Likening a totalitarian empire brutally suppressing criticism to a democratic ally fighting for survival is indefensible rhetoric. Israel’s biggest critics come from within and they do so at no risk, unlike those who try to challenge the Chinese leadership. Foreign Minister David Lammy’s implied comparison of the two is pure hyperbole. Claiming that British MPs Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed were barred from entering Israel just for speaking their minds fundamentally misrepresents the situation.
China slapped sanctions on five Conservative MPs for objecting to Beijing’s treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority group. This was an autocratic superpower regime which does not tolerate any dissent; not a tiny democratic country at war, keeping out those who seek to inflame tensions whilst the country is still under attack – in this case, British politicians.
