Amnesty Israel – is its position untenable?
JVL Introduction
The rejection of Amnesty International’s report on genocide in Gaza by Amnesty Israel seems shocking – but perhaps highlights how pervasive is the dominant “Israel as victim” narrative throughout Israeli society. Here the former Chair of Amnesty Israel outlines their reasons for resigning, actually a week before that Report was published. The dominant reason was the lack of space given to Palestinians’ voices, even within such an organisation, supposedly devoted to human rights for all but which seems, like so many rather promotes a Jewish Israeli world view. The rallying cry of Disabled people “Nothing About Us without Us” came to mind as applicable to Palestinians in Israel too. And we also know that Palestinian voices are not heard nearly enough – if at all – in those western countries that back Israel.
LL
This article was originally published by The Forward on Tue 10 Dec 2024. Read the original here.
Why I resigned as chairman of Amnesty Israel
Israeli human rights groups can’t advocate for Palestinians without Palestinians.
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There are Israelis that campaign out on the streets against the Genocide, I’ve seen videos of them being beaten, kicked and hit with batons by the Israeli IDF. It has never been shown on the BBC or reported in the Press. The problem is, The Zionist Israelis see Palestinians as less than second class citizens, they have a hate towards Palestinians that most of us can’t explain. This is why Palestinians that actually live in Israel have zero input and no say about what is decided politically. That’s why it’s an Apartheid State, they may have positions on authoritative groups but have zero input in serious decisions that affect Palestinians living in Palestine. 75 years of Nakba are culminating in full on Genocide, they are using the Hamas attack to complete the Ethnic Cleansing that’s been happening for at least 75 years.
This is there opportunity to complete the job, believing that they have the perfect excuse and everything is in their favour, the US wants to get its hands on the Gas that’s under Gaza, which Netanyahu has taken advantage of, he’s already signed Licenses to BP and other US Oil/Gas Companies to extract the Gas. Germany and other European Countries are desperate for the Gas, because since the Nordstream Gas Pipelines were blown up their Industries are struggling. It’s why they are reluctant to condemn Israel. All this is giving Netanyahu a cavalier attitude towards committing Genocide and much more.
Good to hear that there are decent Israelis. Many of the better educated are fleeing to live in secular countries and most of the World’s Jews choose not to live in the racist Jewish caliphate
Brodsky’s analysis of Amnesty Israel’s ethical and structural faults as a human rights organisation is compelling; and his resignation from it is a proper response to them. Organisations and their top managers that are DETERMINEDLY blind to fundamental failings usually can’t be reformed by lone individuals, even when they’re in positions of power.
In this case, Brodsky’s resignation and the publicity over it may have provided the jolt which will one day unblock the cultural and structural logjams at Amnesty Israel. I hope that’s what happens.
Broader developments MAY also encourage Amnesty Israel and its top managers to reconsider their views. A Franco-Israeli lawyer has put a case to a (French?) court for 7 Israeli ministers / ex-ministers and one well-known Israeli journalist to be charged with war crimes. If the lawyer wins his case then the simultaneous charges for horrendous crimes against so many of Israel’s “Establishment” figures MAY prompt real heart-searching within the rest of the population.
I remember years ago, JfJfP had organised a meeting and discussion with visiting members of Amnesty Israel. Rosamine asked them various questions pertaining to the position of Palestinians in Israeli society, and she was distinctly unimpressed by the response which seems similar to the reasons discussed in this article. As mentioned, Palestinians formed only a token appearance in the what should be common aims and ideals for Amnesty internationally. Adalah is an organisation more acquainted with fighting for human rights of the Palestinians, and Samidoun the most active in pursuing justice for prisoners.
I read Bernard’s post about Israelis campaigning on the streets against the genocide immediately after seeing this snippet from today’s “Haaretz”:-
“In Tel Aviv, dozens of women dressed in black protested against starvation in Gaza, announcing that “THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT USES FOOD AND WATER AS WEAPONS OF WAR. IT IS STARVING AN ENTIRE POPULATION, HARMING MILLIONS OF PEOPLE. A REGIME THAT STARVES MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN DOES NOT HAVE A RIGHT TO EXIST.”
I can barely imagine the courage it must have taken for those few dozens of women to make these statements to hostile crowds.
The Women in Black have been courageously speaking the truth in public and enduring abuse and threats for many years
The perpetrator claims victimhood, a classic, fascist tactic.