Israel slams Amnesty ‘apartheid’ report
AMNESTY International declared on Tuesday that Israel has maintained “a system of oppression and domination” over the Palestinians going all the way back to its establishment in 1948, one that meets the international definition of apartheid.
The accusation was levelled against Israel both within its borders and in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In a report unveiled in Jerusalem, the group did not directly compare Israel to apartheid South Africa, but said it was evaluating Israel’s policies based on international conventions.
Ahead of the report’s release, Israel called it “false, biased and antisemitic” and accused the organisation of endangering the safety of Jews around the world.
“The USA, the European Union and its member states and the UK, but also those states that are in the process of strengthening their ties – such as some Arab and African states … must recognise that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid and other international crimes,” read the report, calling on those actors to “use all political and diplomatic tools to ensure Israeli authorities implement the recommendations outlined … and review any cooperation and activities with Israel to ensure that these do not contribute to maintaining the system of apartheid.”
Amnesty International also called for a weapons and military assistance embargo and a ban on products from Israeli settlements.
Amnesty’s Secretary General Agnes Callamard said, “Whether they live in Gaza, East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, or Israel itself, Palestinians are treated as an inferior racial group and systematically deprived of their rights.
“Israel’s cruel policies of segregation, dispossession and exclusion across all territories under its control clearly amount to apartheid.”
With the release of the report, the London-based group joins other rights groups in making the apartheid accusation against Israel. Human Rights Watch levelled the charge last year, a few months after leading Israeli human rights group B’Tselem began describing Israel as an “apartheid” regime.
None of the reports compared Israel to apartheid South Africa. Instead, they evaluated Israel’s policies based on international conventions such as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which defines apartheid as “an institutionalised regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group”.
While Callamard said, “We recognise the right of the Jewish people to self-determination. We recognise the existence of the Jewish State of Israel,” in its report Amnesty traces such policies back to the establishment of the state in 1948, claiming, “Israel has pursued a policy of establishing and maintaining a Jewish demographic hegemony and maximising its control over land to benefit Jewish Israelis while restricting the rights of Palestinians and preventing Palestinian refugees from returning to their homes. Israel extended this policy to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which it has occupied ever since.”
However, inside Israel, Arabs have citizenship including the right to vote and some have reached the upper echelons of politics, business, law, medicine, academia and entertainment.
Israel accused Amnesty of antisemitism and of delegitimisation.
“Its extremist language and distortion of historical context were designed to demonise Israel and pour fuel onto the fire of antisemitism,” the Foreign Ministry stated, adding, “Amnesty’s report effectively serves as a green light … to harm not only Israel, but Jews around the world.”
It went on to claim, “The report consolidates and recycles lies, inconsistencies and unfounded assertions that originate from well-known anti-Israeli hate organisations, all with the aim of reselling damaged goods in new packaging.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said the group was echoing “the same lies shared by terrorist organisations”.
“Israel isn’t perfect, but we are a democracy committed to international law, open to criticism, with a free press and a strong and independent judicial system,” he said.
“Amnesty doesn’t call Syria – where the regime has murdered over half a million of its own citizens – an apartheid state. Nor Iran, or other murderous regimes around the world. Only Israel.”
TIMES OF ISRAEL
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