Framing the Jewish State as war criminal
3 February 2022

Amnesty International’s report published this week is just one of several human rights NGO's over the last year to come out with a report accusing Israel of apartheid. It is all part of an orchestrated campaign to delegitimize the Jewish State. 
 
This combination of focusing on Israel and using the explosive language of “apartheid”, positions Israel as the worst perpetrator of “crimes against humanity” in the world. 
 
Putting Jewish Israel in the same category as apartheid South Africa, and German Nazi war criminals, is a deliberate ploy to delegitimize the Jewish State. 
 
All of these reports ignore the complex reality of antisemitism in the Middle East, deny the right of the Jewish people to self-determination, and stigmatize Jewish people as a nation of war criminals. 
 
By focusing only on the problems in Israel, they also ignore the fact that Israel is a democratic, safe haven for many Druze, Arab, Bedouin, Circassian, Aramean and other ethnic and religious groups in the land. 
 
In its report published on 1 February 2022, Amnesty alleges that the Jewish State of Israel since 1948 has  deliberately implemented “an overall system of oppression and domination” that “fragments” and “segregates” Palestinians (ie. non-Jews) – both within Israel and within the “Occupied Palestinian Territories”.  
“Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has pursued a policy of establishing and maintaining a Jewish demographic hegemony and maximizing its control over land to benefit Jewish Israelis while restricting the rights of Palestinians and preventing Palestinian refugees from returning to their homes. In 1967, Israel extended this policy to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which it has occupied ever since.” 

Many Jews and Arabs in Israel have reacted strongly. Some accuse Amnesty of denying the right of the Jewish people to self-determination. According to NGO Monitor, the purpose of the report is "to characterize the right of Jews to sovereign equality in their historic homeland as a violation of the [international] legal order."
 
Amnesty denies that it is attacking the existence of the Jewish State; rather, it says it is only condemning the “system of apartheid” that Israel has maintained ever since the State was established.  
 
But it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that if Israel were to implement these recommendations, it would effectively be committing suicide. Amnesty’s recommends that Israel: 

• remove all settlements and “relocate Israelis outside the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT)”
• remove the blockade of Gaza
• dismantle the security barrier 
• recognize the right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to homes where they or their families once lived in Israel or the OPT, and to receive restitution and compensation and other effective remedies for the loss of their land and property. 

 
The fact that Amnesty does not realize how existentially dangerous these recommendations are casts doubt on the sincerity – and credibility – of the authors.
 
In the coming months we will hear a lot more about Israel being an “apartheid” state. In March, the UN Human Rights Rapporteur Michael Lynck is expected to publish a report alleging just that. And in June the newly established UN Human Rights Council “Commission of Inquiry” will issue its first report on alleged crimes committed by Israel since its establishment. 
 
Slowly, the net is closing around Israel, as it becomes increasingly labeled a pariah state. One is reminded of the treatment of Jews in the 1930s. Words led to laws, which created a legal regime justifying the ghettos and finally extermination of nameless Jews who no longer existed in the eyes of their executioners. 

Alex Ryvchin hit the nail on the head: "The Jewish people know what it means to be slandered; we understand the power of words to encourage despicable deeds. This is why Amnesty’s grave insult cannot be taken lightly."
 

Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians 

Amnesty International: “Israel has imposed a system of oppression and domination over Palestinians wherever it exercises control over the enjoyment of their rights – across Israel and the OPT and with regard to Palestinian refugees. The segregation is conducted in a systematic and highly institutionalized manner through laws, policies and practices, all intended to prevent Palestinians from claiming and enjoying equal rights to Jewish Israelis within Israel and the OPT, and thus intended to oppress and dominate the Palestinian people."

Alex Ryvchin writes: “Following a process set down by Human Rights Watch, the report redefines apartheid to little resemble the crimes in South Africa and disfigures Jewish-Israelis into a familiar stereotype of greed, cruelty and bloodlust.... Amnesty has played an outsized role in the decay of the human rights sector”.

Amnesty to ToI: No double standard in accusing Israel, but not China, of apartheid
 
Times of Israel: “Our diplomatic correspondent conducted a lengthy, mutually frustrating conversation with the Amnesty officials behind the ‘apartheid’ report. We’re publishing it in full."