Amnesty International’s antisemitic agenda

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By Ruthie Blum

(JNS) Amnesty International released its latest broadside against Israel on Thursday, accusing the Jewish state of committing genocide in Gaza. The nearly 300-page report—“‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza”—is typically mendacious.

Laden with hyperbolic hostility and “proof” gleaned from bogus Hamas data, it portrays Israel’s defensive war against the Iran-backed terrorists as the deliberate attempt by a villainous regime in Jerusalem to annihilate a whole population of Palestinians..

Talk about the inversion of reality—par for the course with the “human-rights organization” that makes a mockery of its mandate. In truth, every accusation in this polemic masquerading as research could and should be directed at Hamas.

Indeed, every word of the diatribe-disguised-as-research could and should have been penned about Hamas. According to Amnesty’s summary of the document, “International jurisprudence recognizes that the perpetrator does not need to succeed in their attempts to destroy the protected group, either in whole or in part, for genocide to have been committed,” since “the commission of prohibited acts with the intent to destroy the group, as such, is sufficient.”

Uh, yes. Hamas failed to achieve its genocidal goal prior to, during and since Oct. 7, 2023. But the will was and still is there.

There’s antisemitic irony for you. According to Amnesty’s own definition, both the acts committed and the intent behind them meet the criteria for genocide.

So as not to be called out for its blatant bias against Jews, Amnesty employs a not-so-neat trick. The ploy is as old as it is transparent: Only mentioning the “atrocity crimes committed … by Hamas and other armed groups against Israelis and victims of other nationalities, including deliberate mass killings and hostage-taking” in order to stress that the above “can never justify Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”

This sleight of hand allows Amnesty to claim that Israel is engaged in a “campaign of systematic extermination in Gaza, marked by the deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure, medical facilities and evacuation routes.”

To support its ludicrous lies, Amnesty relies on sources aligned with the Islamic Republic’s aim of wiping Israel off the map. Predictably, the report disregards Israel’s exhaustive efforts to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza—a Herculean challenge given the terrorists’ deliberate use of civilians as shields and cannon fodder.

None of this is surprising. For the better part of two decades, Amnesty has been fixated on singling out Israel for condemnation.

In February 2022, Amnesty labeled Israel an apartheid state. This term, originally associated with South African segregation, has been misappropriated by anti-Israel activists to paint the Jewish state as inherently racist.

Amnesty ignored the active participation of Arab citizens in Israeli society, from serving in the Knesset to holding prominent roles in medicine, academia and law. It omitted the historical context behind Israel’s security measures, designed to thwart relentless waves of Palestinian terrorism, and distorted the legal and political realities on the ground.

During “Operation Protective Edge” against Hamas in 2014, Amnesty accused Israel of grave violations of international law. Overlooking substantial evidence of Hamas’s use of schools, hospitals and mosques as weapons depots and command centers, Amnesty decried Israel’s defensive measures. It issued reports lamenting civilian casualties and damaged buildings while downplaying Hamas’s use of densely populated areas to provoke such tragedies.

Meanwhile, Amnesty remained silent on Hamas’s brutal treatment of its own people, including executions of alleged “collaborators” and the forced recruitment of child soldiers. Nor did it acknowledge Israel’s unprecedented measures to warn civilians—via phone calls, leaflets, and “roof-knocking”—before conducting strikes.

The aftermath of “Operation Cast Lead” in 2008-09 prompted a similarly warped narrative. Amnesty’s report “22 Days of Death and Destruction” portrayed Hamas as a minor player, rather than a bloodthirsty terrorist group that had fired thousands of unprovoked projectiles into Israel.

During the Second Intifada (2000-2005), when Palestinian suicide bombers attacked buses, cafés and nightclubs, Amnesty directed its ire at Israel’s counter-terrorism measures, such as the construction of a security barrier to reduce attacks on innocent Israelis.

Despite Israel’s complete withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, forcibly removing every last Jew from the Strip, Amnesty continues to describe the enclave as “occupied.” The pattern is undeniable: Amnesty seizes every opportunity to vilify Israel.

Founded in 1961 by British lawyer Peter Benenson to advocate for prisoners of conscience, Amnesty won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1977 for its defense of human dignity and a United Nations human-rights prize the following year. Once lauded for impartiality, it has devolved into a slanted advocacy group with a pernicious agenda.

Amnesty’s animus toward Israel transcends politics. Naturally. Considering the existence of the Jewish state to be illegitimate means never having to care about the ideological makeup of the ruling coalition in Jerusalem.