Calls for Amnesty charity probe over Israel ‘apartheid’ smear
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL’S incendiary new report smearing Israel as an “apartheid state” has sparked accusations of antisemitism and calls for a Charity Commission probe, the JC can reveal.
The claim that the Jewish state is guilty of human rights breaches is made repeatedly in the 278-page document published this week. The report depicts Israel as guilty of “apartheid” crimes since its very foundation in 1948.
Critics say such claims are a clear breach of the widely recognised International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.
The code adopted by the UK government and other authorities worldwide states that it is antisemitic to deny Jews their right to self-determination “by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour”. Legal figures and MPs have called for the Charity Commission to consider Amnesty’s status.
The JC can also reveal:
A leading Amnesty figure behind the report has posted photos Palestinian terrorists on social media;
South African anti-apartheid campaigners objected to unjustified exploitation of their history to attack Israel;
The report is said to be peppered with distortions of the facts which have been exposed by experts;
Hamas applauded the report’s publication;
A leading Arab-Israeli has voiced his fury against Amnesty over its “lies”.
The report, Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians, says “since its establishment in 1948, Israel has pursued an explicit policy of establishing and maintaining a Jewish demographic hegemony”. It claims apartheid is enforced in a “highly institutionalised manner” in Israel and the Occupied Territories, and says the perpetrators should be probed by the International Criminal Court. Amnesty is now calling on Britain to impose a “comprehensive import ban” on all products from Israeli settlements, as well as immediately suspending all military and
Hamas have greeted the report with ‘respect and appreciation’
and policing cooperation with Israel. Launching the report in Jerusalem, Agnès Callamard, Amnesty’s Secretary General, said it was based on “four years of meticulous research by the best legal scholars on apartheid”.
Amnesty have refused to reveal the identity of authors.
But sharing the platform with Ms Callamard was the NGO’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, long-standing Palestinian activist Saleh Hijazi.
Before he joined Amnesty, he posted photos on his social media of Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled – notorious as an air hijacker in the 70s – and Khader Adnan, a leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad who is in jail in Israel. Mr Hijazi worked previously for the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. In 2007, he was listed as a contact for campaign group Another Voice, whose slogan was: “Resist! Boycott! We are Intifada!”
Terror group Hamas said that it welcomed Amnesty’s publication “with much appreciation and respect”, saying it was “a new contribution to ending the last ugly racist occupation on the face of the Earth”.
Reacting to the report, veteran antiapartheid South African lawyer and MP Tony Leon, a former leader of his country’s opposition, told the JC: “I’m highly critical of aspects of Israeli policy, but making out Israel to be a moral criminal on a par with the South African apartheid state is politically specious and historically, absolutely wrong.
“Amnesty International is not doing is cause or its reputation any good by what is at best an undergraduate-level analysis.”
Olga Meshoe Washington, a US-based lawyer and daughter of black South African MP Rev Kenneth Meshoe told the JC: “I was born and lived under apartheid, and this report erases our experience – the denial of an adequate education; the restrictions on where we could live, who we could be with.
“It attempts to redefine what we went through, and so trivialises and negates it.
To claim that the existence of Israel is racist is antisemitic
It does a disservice to those who suffered and died so that black people could be treated equally.”
Critics claim that the report shows bias by barely mentioning violence against Israeli civilians and twisting facts and quotes.
In one egregious example, a quotation from Binyamin Netanyahu, is used on the report’s first page: “Israel is not a state of all its citizens… [but rather] the nation-state of the Jewish people and them alone.”
However, the report fails to add what he said next: “There’s no problem with the Arab citizens of Israel – they have the same rights as us all and the Likud government has invested in the Arab sector more than any other government.”
Writing in the JC, Arab-Israeli activist Yoseph Haddad said: “I disagree wholeheartedly with Amnesty,” adding:
“I am proud to be an Arab and to be an Israeli.” Amnesty raises money in Britain as a charitable trust, which means it receives tax benefits such as gift aid from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. But when it publishes reports – this one included – it does so via a limited company, Amnesty International Ltd, that the charity funds. Charity Commission rules say that when charities do this, they must ensure that the company uses its funding for charitable purposes, and the “public benefit”. UK campaign group Lawyers for Israel chief executive Jonathan Turner said: “This vitriolic propaganda does not appear to comply with the public benefit requirement that must be satisfied by charities under English law. The Charity Commission and HMRC should consider whether the sponsorship of this report by Amnesty International’s UK Charities is compatible with their charitable status and tax benefits.”
Lord Carlile QC, the former government reviewer of anti-terrorism legislation, said he had “concerns” over Israeli policy in the Occupied Territories. But he added: “As a lifelong Amnesty supporter, I am disappointed they have produced a report that is so overtly political and can only cause damage to the efforts being made by governments and individuals to secure conciliation between Jewish and non-Jewish citizens of Israel.
“This is on the very edge of their permissible role as a charity.” Tory MP Michael Fabricant, a member of the AllParty Parliamentary Group on Israel, joined the calls for a Charity Commission inquiry saying: “Some of the statements made by Amnesty International are highly questionable, if not immoral, and this is something the Charity Commission needs urgently to look at.”
Claudia Mendoza, co-chief executive of Britain’s Jewish Leadership Council, said: “The IHRA definition of antisemitism is clear: to claim that the existence of Israel is a racist endeavour is antisemitic, and unfortunately, it appears Amnesty International is doing exactly that. You can debate the rights and wrongs of Israeli government policy, but it’s impossible to do that when it’s clear Israel’s very legitimacy is called into question. That’s what you call bad faith.”
Lord Mann, former Labour MP and antisemitism tsar told the JC: “It is time for Amnesty to receive some training in what antisemitism is. How could they possibly refuse this?”
Amnesty told the JC: “The report underwent a rigorous approvals process at the highest levels of the organisation to ensure the quality of the research and our commitment to maintaining independence and impartiality. Helping to dismantle apartheid is in the public good and exactly what a human rights organisation should be doing.”