By Sarah Stern, EMET—
Dating back to the International Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa in 2001, many of the human-rights organizations that the public turns to for objective data have increasingly not been part of the solution, but part of the problem. With 1,500 organizations present, the Durban conference transformed itself into a hate-fest that sparked the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and imbued the attendees with a particular sort of ancient loathing.
The most flagrant recent example is Amnesty International. On April 10, The New York Times published a story about a Gazan activist, Rami Aman, 38, who runs a group titled “The Gaza Youth Committee.” He had posted an invitation to Israelis on Facebook saying, “Meet Gazan Activists,” describing the event as, “Finally an opportunity to speak with Gazans who not only do not hate us, but who are working tirelessly to open channels of communication between Gazans and Israelis.”
Mr. Aman was summarily arrested and hasn’t been heard from ever since. His crime? Conducting a Zoom meeting between Palestinians and Israelis.
Iyad al-Bozom, a Hamas spokesman, charged him with the crime of “holding a normalization activity” that he says “is a betrayal of our people and their sacrifices.”
Even more disturbing is that the person who had “snitched” on Rami Aran, Hind Khoudary, is employed by Amnesty International as a research consultant. Ms. Khoudary wrote on her Facebook page, “the worst sin any Palestinian can commit is normalization; which is any joint activity between Palestine and Israel. In other words, any form of joint activity, cooperation or dialogue with Israelis is unacceptable, even engaging with Israeli ‘Peace Activists.’ These actions are collaboration with enemies of us, the Palestinians.”
Amnesty International lists its mission on its website as: “We work to protect people, wherever justice, truth and dignity are denied. Amnesty International is a global movement of millions of people demanding human rights for all people-no matter who they are or where they are.”
Unless, of course, you would like to see “normalization” between Palestinians and Israelis.
How can a so-called human-rights organization such as Amnesty International employ an individual who is so imbued with hatred? Where is its objectivity?
Yet this sort of overt bias against the State of Israel is nothing unusual for a multitude of organizations that hide their aversion to Israel and the Jewish people behind the sanctimonious shield of human rights.
Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, tweeted on March 29: “Coronavirus quarantine versus Israeli siege. Gazans ask: What is 14 days of isolation when they’ve had 14 years?”
Of course, if Mr. Roth were a bit more intellectually honest, he would understand that 14 years ago, Israel made the internally gut-wrenching decision to disengage from the Gaza Strip, which pitted Jew against Jew. Many Israeli soldiers were ordered to evict Jews from their homes. Rabbis had said they would leave the synagogues to be turned into mosques because “after all, we all pray to the same God.” Jews left greenhouses intact for the Palestinians because they wanted “the nascent Palestinian state to have some sort of an economic infrastructure.” Continue Reading….