What to do after the Amnesty Report
JVL Introduction
Phyllis Bennis, writer and political activist, has long been a leading advocate for Palestinian rights.
Here she looks at the importance of the recent Amnesty International report, as Amnesty joins other leading human rights organisations worldwide in naming the Israeli regime as an apartheid regime.
With its 10 million supporters worldwide, Amnesty’s stance can be a game changer.
It has chapters at over 600 colleges and high schools in the US alone —in all of which Israeli apartheid and Palestinian rights will now become a regular component of the broad human rights agenda the young activists take up.
Amnesty’s urgent recommendations including
- recognising the refugees’ right to return,
- calling on the UN Security Council to impose a “comprehensive arms embargo on Israel”,
- refering cases for investigation by the International Criminal Court or to establish “an international tribunal to try alleged perpetrators of international crimes”, and
- re-establishing the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid, to coordinate and provide educational resources for the global anti-apartheid movement. Its mandate would include the Rohingya in Myanmar and the Sahrawi people in Western Sahara, for starters, as well as the Palestinians.
This article was originally published by Common Dreams on Thu 17 Feb 2022. Read the original here.
It's Settled That Israel Is Committing the Crime of Apartheid—Now What Should We Do About It?
The international movement for Palestinian rights and justice laid the ground for recent declarations by Amnesty International and other human rights organizations. Now we have to follow up.
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I essentially agree with this. The Report has come in for criticism because it doesn’t proceed from a settler colonial paradigm and that Amnesty supports the idea of a Jewish state which is inherently a racist apartheid state.
However Amnesty is not and never will be a political organisation. What it has done is help in the delegitimisation of the Israeli state and that is possibly our most important political task.
The crucial clause is “recognising the refugees’ right to return”. If that is achieved (as it should be) that is the end of Israel as a predominantly Jewish State. That’s easy for me to say as a non Jew. But I fully recognise that this is a very bitter pill for many of you reading this.
But Ethnic Cleansing should never be rewarded anywhere and I will fight with my last breath for Jews to feel safe and welcome wherever they are, not just in Israel.
In the end the only solution to this 70 year long conflict is a secular state where Jew, Palestinian, Christian, Muslim and Atheist feel equally safe and welcome. That could be a wonderful beacon of hope for all its citizens and those of us who believe in God have to pray that it will come into being. Hate damages everyone perpetrators and victims alike. It is no way for anyone to live.
Wow! Feeling hopeful that significant change WILL happen in my lifetime for the first time in decades. Maybe repeat miracles (first in South Africa, then in Israel) do happen …
Greenstein is incorrect. Amnesty does not support Israel as a Jewish state in the sense of an ethnocratic state that awards superior sights to its Jewish citizens – otherwise, it would make no sense for it to condemn Israeli apartheid. At a press conference in Jerusalem, its General Secretary Agnes Caillamard stated that Amnesty supports the Jewish people’s right to self-determination and recognizes the state of Israel, but no further.
“One of the most important consequences of the Amnesty report is its insistence on holding accountable all those responsible for Israel’s apartheid policies.”
Are you reading this Keir Starmer? Priti Patel?….
Major damage has been done by unquestioned recognition & blind acceptance of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism. To disagree is tantamount to being guilty of a ‘hate’ crime & the Amnesty International Report is by definition guilty & anti-Semitic.
How do I feel, well, a sense of relief that this report isn’t pulling any punches or adding any sentences that gives Israel ‘any’ excuse for their behaviour. It fully and unequivocally condemns it.
I am also very anxious that nothing will come of it, the leaders past and present should be brought to trial at the International Court in The Hague, they have broken many aspects of international law against the Palestinians but because of UN resolutions that were vetoed by the US, nothing changed and it led to Israel becoming more vicious and cavalier in their actions towards the Palestinians.
Let’s hope and pray that something definite is done, one that solidly puts the brakes on the Israeli Government.
What can we do? In practical terms, I think JVL should be proposing a model motion for members/supporters to put to Labour Party bodies. This needs to be kept as simple as possible and designed to appeal to the widest range of possible sympathisers, along the following lines:
‘This branch welcomes the recent Amnesty International report on Palestinians and Israel and notes its statement that “the racial discrimination against and segregation of Palestinians is the result of deliberate government policy. The regular violations of Palestinians’ rights are not accidental repetitions of offenses, but part of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination.”
This branch calls on the National Executive to review its policies in the light of this report and to make a statement opposing Israeli apartheid.’