[Salon] Foreign Ministry says upcoming Amnesty report accusing Israel of apartheid is 'antisemitic

[Chas Freeman <cwfresidence@gmail.com>]

FM: John Whitbeck

As noted in the HAARETZ article transmitted below, even before today's release of Amnesty International's lengthy report on the many ways in which the Israeli government practices apartheid against the Indigenous population of all of historical Palestine, the Israeli Foreign Ministry has attacked Amnesty International for "antisemitism".

This is unsurprising -- indeed inevitable. When one cannot attack the message, one can only attack the messenger, and there is no non-psychedelic way in which the definitions of the crime of "apartheid" in the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (ratified by most UN member states but, notably, not by Israel or the United States) and in the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court (toward which both Israel and the United States are fiercely hostile) can be interpreted so as not to apply to the practices of the Israeli government. The definitions fit like a glove.

The dumbed-down (and hence significantly defanged) definition of "antisemism" incontinently applied in recent years by Zionism apologists effectively means that anyone who genuinely believes that all people are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights, anyone who is not unconditionally enthusiastic about ethnic cleansing, racism and apartheid when inflicted by Jews upon non-Jews and, indeed, anyone who believes that Palestinians are human beings and should be treated as such must, by virtue of holding such perverse views, be "antisemitic".

The world's two leading human rights organizations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and Israel's own leading human rights organization, B'Tselem, which is less easy to demonize as "antisemitic", have now all declared that the Israeli government's policies against the Palestinian people constitute the crime against humanity of apartheid "from the river to the sea".

In light of this long overdue but welcome recognition of reality, optimists may hope that the world is getting closer to crossing a moral, ethical and even political Rubicon after which even most citizens of the United States -- excluding, of course, the irredeemably immoral political prostitutes infesting every level of America's embarrassing system of government -- will no longer refuse to recognize reality and will insist that their governments act accordingly, as the world did when it finally awoke to the evil of the South African version of apartheid, which even Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu publicly characterized as less abusive than the Israeli version.

When -- and only when -- American politicians perceive that their unconditional support for ethnic cleansing, racism and apartheid is likely to have adverse professional or financial consequences for them personally will an effective American declaration of independence from Israeli domination and control become possible. At least today, I am cautiosly optimistic that that that day could arrive before I reach life's check-out counter.

Today's Amnesty International press release for its report can be accessed at https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2022/02/israels-system-of-apartheid.

The full report can be accessed at https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/5141/2022/en.

                   https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-says-upcoming-amnesty-report-is-false-and-antisemitic-1.05580544

                  HAARETZ

Foreign Ministry says upcoming Amnesty report accusing Israel of apartheid is 'antisemitic'

Amnesty has said attempts to smear the report, which accuses Israel of apartheid, are meant to divert attention away from human rights violations against Palestinians

Jonathan Lis, Hagar Shezaf | Jan. 31, 2022 |

The Foreign Ministry has published a harsh response against Amnesty International in response to a report accusing Israel of apartheid against the Palestinians that the organization is expected to release Tuesday.

“In publishing this false report, Amnesty U.K. uses double standards and demonization in order to delegitimize Israel. These are the exact components from which modern antisemitism is made,” read the statement.

Amnesty International has rejected the claims of antisemitism and argued that they are an attempt to divert attention from the violation of Palestinians’ human rights.

The report examines Israel’s conduct toward the Palestinians. Sources that have seen it say the report accuses Israel of apartheid against Palestinians living in Israel, in the West Bank, in the Gaza Strip, and also against Palestinian refugees. Apartheid is defined as a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

The organization’s researchers asked to meet Foreign Minister Yair Lapid in October in order to discuss the report’s findings, but their request for an audience was never granted. According to the organization, Israel has stopped responding to its requests for comment on its reports since 2012. A copy of the report was also delivered to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett pre-publication.

Lapid called Amnesty “a radical organization echoing propaganda,” and said it “quotes lies spread by terrorist organizations.”

The Foreign Ministry’s statement emphasized that Israel "absolutely rejects all the false allegations that appear in the report,” which it said “consolidates and recycles lies, inconsistencies, and unfounded assertions that originate from well-known anti-Israeli hate organizations.”

The statement argues that "The State of Israel is a strong and vibrant democracy that grants all its citizens equal rights, regardless of religious or race,” and ends in a call upon the organization to retract the report.

In response to the Foreign Ministry’s statement, Amnesty International responded that its report “details how the State of Israel has established a cruel mechanism of institutionalized discrimination, repression, and control against the Palestinian people. This is a clear violation of its obligations under international law."

According to Amnesty, any attempt to argue that the report is motivated by antisemitism is “false and groundless” and intended to divert attention from the human rights violations suffered by the Palestinians. The organization stressed that its criticism is directed at authorities in Israel and not at Israeli citizens or the Jewish people.