Amnesty International is one of the oldest human rights organizations. But the NGO’s recent report on Israel is self-discrediting.
Last Tuesday, Amnesty International released a report titled “Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians.” The document has received considerable attention from major U.S. news outlets and policymakers. But it is steeped in falsehoods and omissions. The claim that Israel is an “apartheid” state is worse than inaccurate— it is an absurdity. In Israel, all citizens have the right to vote, including Muslims and Arabs.
Indeed, more Arabs have voted in Israel in the last year alone than have voted in the Palestinian Authority-controlled West Bank or Hamas-ruled Gaza. Neither the PA nor Hamas have held elections in more than a decade. In contrast, Israel has Arab political parties that have been key to deciding recent elections and whose members now serve in the ruling coalition government. Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has 14 Arab members from six different parties.
Arab and Muslim citizens not only have the right to vote, but they have sat on Israel’s Supreme Court, have run hospitals and corporations, and have served as generals in the Israeli military. Indeed, it was an Israeli Arab judge, George Karra, who sentenced former Israeli President Moshe Katsav to prison in 2011.
Apartheid? Hardly.
Elsewhere, Amnesty International tips its hand when it warns of “Jewish demographic hegemony.” That is: There are too many Jews in the Jewish state. Other states are allowed to have ethnic majorities or even official religions, but Israel alone is held to a different standard. By contrast, not a single Jew lives in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, and Palestinian leaders have made it illegal to even sell or rent land to a Jew in the West Bank.
The NGO blames Israel for other imagined crimes, claiming that Israeli forces intentionally killed paramedic Razan al Najjar in 2018. In fact, as even the New York Times conceded, Najjar was likely killed unintentionally by a bullet ricochet amid Hamas-orchestrated border riots. Amnesty International also omits the numerous instances of Palestinian Arab rulers rejecting proposals for Palestinian statehood if it meant recognizing Israel’s legitimacy.
The PA rejected, and Israel accepted, U.S. proposals in 2000 at Camp David, 2001 at Taba, and 2008 after the Annapolis Conference. The latter offer, made by Israel, included more than 93% of the West Bank, with land swamps for the remaining areas, and a Palestinian state with its capital in eastern Jerusalem. The PA, however, declined — failing to make a counteroffer. By depriving Palestinian rulers of independent agency and responsibility, the NGO seeks to blame the Jewish state for the continuance of a conflict which it has, on numerous documented occasions, sought to end.
“International law demands that Israel opens its border to the children and grandchildren displaced in the 1948 War,” Amnesty claims. But this claimed “right to return” is based on U.N. General Assembly resolutions, which are but recommendations. Even then, they only apply to original refugees, not descendants, and only if they agree to live “at peace with their neighbors.” What peace?
Well, Hamas calls for Israel’s destruction, and the PA has refused to quit paying salaries to those who kill and maim Jews.
Top line: Amnesty International’s report shows little concern for human rights or truth, but plenty of ill intent.
The writer is a senior research analysis for CAMERA, the 65,000-member, Boston-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis.
