The leaders of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) and European Jewish Congress (EJC), as well as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) strongly criticized a recent report by Amnesty International accusing Israel of Apartheid, saying that the report demonizes Israel and is part of a "diplomatic lynching."
WJC President Ronald S. Lauder said that "this report highlights, once again, the repeated bias Israel is targeted with as the only Jewish state. By issuing this one-sided and blatantly politicized report which totally ignores both Palestinian acts of terrorism and Israel’s obligation to defend its citizens against such terrorism, Amnesty International UK is consciously participating in the ongoing insidious campaign to demonize the State of Israel."
“The report does absolutely nothing to offer a constructive way forward and has no real interest in promoting the human rights of Palestinians or advancing peace and a lasting two-state solution. It will only serve, like previous similar prejudiced reports, to fuel the fires of antisemites under the guise of political correctness. The working definition of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance also clearly states that the application of such double standards is antisemitism. I will never stop condemning and fighting against this and all other abusive attempts to delegitimize the State of Israel,” Lauder said.
EJC President Dr. Moshe Kantor said that "there is nothing new in Amnesty’s sudden discovery of the word ‘apartheid’, in relation to Israel,” EJC President Dr. Moshe Kantor said. “They are in lock step with anti-Israel and antisemitic activists in a coordinated diplomatic lynch against the Jewish State, and the mere concept of Jewish self-determination and collectivity.”
“It is clear from the tone and language used that they are seeking the end of Israel, and are using all of their supposed good name and diplomatic capital to launch a full-frontal attack against the Jewish State. That they use the terminology of ‘apartheid’ while Israel’s Arab citizens sit in the Knesset, are ministers in Israel’s current government and sit as judges on the country’s Supreme Court, shows just how disingenuous and twisted this imagery is. These are extremist political activists disguised as human-rights advocates, and their obsessive focus on Israel should dispel any notion of objectivity, neutrality or accuracy.
“This report will become a weapon used against Jews around the world,” Dr. Kantor continued. “We have seen that every time that there are high-profile attacks against Israel with these types of scurrilous lies, people think Jews everywhere should be made responsible for it. As a result, Jewish students and members of the academia will be forced to express fealty to these distortions, and attacks against Jews and Jewish institutions will increase. None of the authors of the report will be able to ignore the direct line from their work with a rise in antisemitism.
“We call on all other Amnesty International chapters to distance themselves from this libelous report so as to ensure it does not affect or damage the good work they are involved in.” Kantor concluded.
The ADL released a statement saying: “We have reviewed Amnesty International UK’s upcoming report on Israel and strongly condemn it as an effort to demonize Israel and undermine its legitimacy as a Jewish and democratic state. In an environment of rising anti-Jewish hate, this type of report is not only inaccurate but also irresponsible and likely will lead to intensified antisemitism around the world."
"This new report goes beyond criticizing Israeli policies and actions to painting Israel's very creation as illegitimate, immoral, and faulted. Amnesty International’s allegations that Israel’s crimes go back to the sin of its creation in 1948, serve to present the Jewish and democratic state as singularly illegitimate at its foundational roots. Such a hateful characterization not only delegitimizes the Israeli state enterprise and the Jewish right to self-determination in its historic homeland, but also undermines the vision of a mutually negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that will provide security, dignity, and self-determination to both peoples.
"In addition, by using extreme language to attack Israel – including calling it an apartheid state, accusing it of ethnic cleansing and of committing war crimes – it feeds into an environment that emboldens those who seek to dismantle Israel, and casts aspersions on those who support a Jewish and democratic state, including the vast majority of Jews around the world and creates fertile ground for a hostile and at times antisemitic discourse. In an age of expanding antisemitism, this cost simply cannot be ignored.
"ADL strongly disagrees with many condemnatory conclusions made in the report regarding Israeli policies and actions, particularly in its lack of context and regarding the inaccurate characterizations of Israel's treatment of its Arab citizens. Finally, we reject altogether the report’s call for a right of return of all Palestinian refugees, which would mean in effect, the end of Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.
"ADL believes human rights organizations play an important role in civil society. Israel’s actions, like those of every country, should be subject to scrutiny and criticism, and indeed, ADL itself has called out certain Israeli policies. However, in issuing this report, Amnesty International is clearly not seeking to constructively inform or even challenge Israeli policies. The report instead adds to the false and malicious drumbeat that depicts the Jewish state as uniquely, fundamentally, and inalterably malign, a hateful, biased characterization that must be rejected. Amnesty International's rhetoric is irresponsible. These are not simply abstract words but the kind of spurious charges that, time and again, have placed Jews in danger around the world,” the ADL statement concluded.
Amnesty's report, titled 'Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel system of domination and crime against humanity,” is scheduled to be published tomorrow.