This is an appalling report that should be rejected by everyone who seeks Israeli–Palestinian peace. It makes a mockery of both objectivity and the victims of Apartheid South Africa, who suffered under an evil regime that bears absolutely no resemblance to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
At its core, the Amnesty report is not about Palestinian rights or the occupation, it’s about Israel’s existence. Given Amnesty calls for an end to the Jewish majority of Israel, the inescapable conclusion is that Amnesty has come to the position that Jews, alone in the world, may not exercise the right to self-determination.
The report is a one-sided attack on Israel, where the conclusion of ‘apartheid’ was predetermined, and aspects of the conflict were selected on the basis that they could be made to fit that conclusion. If they couldn’t be twisted or decontextualised in a way to fit the apartheid lie, they were ignored.
In creating such a report, Amnesty will fuel the antisemitic attempts to hold Israel to a standard not applied to any other country and will further motivate those who enact violence against Israelis and Jews around the world.
The full participation of Palestinian citizens of Israel is ignored or downplayed in the report. That Israel’s governing coalition has an Arab party, that there are Arab cabinet members, Arab High Court justices and more are all ignored by Amnesty, because they are unfortunate truths that would prove the lie of Amnesty’s claims.
Ironically, the report is released as Israel’s President is in the United Arab Emirates. The Arab world is turning its back on conflict and forging peace with Israel, but Amnesty appears intent on stoking the flames of Israel hatred, justifying violence against Israel and making Israeli–Palestinian peace more difficult to achieve.
What is tragic is that such an important organisation has allowed itself to be manipulated by key members who are much more interested in pursuing their ideological hatred of Israel than they are of pursuing human rights.
All people of good conscience and who wish for genuine Israeli–Palestinian peace should reject this report and call for Amnesty to withdraw it.
