Amnesty International issued a clarification that it never reported that Israeli services taught "neck-kneeling" to American police.
The clarification was issued after British Shadow Education Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey was fired for sharing an interview which included the claim that Israeli security forces were responsible for the murder of George Floyd, and African American man who was killed last month when a police office knelt on his neck for over eight minutes.
Labour Party and Opposition Leader Keir Starmer called the claim an “an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory."
Many of Long-Bailey's defenders have cited a 2016 report by human rights organization Amnesty International which was critical of the training programs many American police forces undergo in Israel as evidence in support of the claim that Israel is at least partly to blame for the death of George Floyd or police brutality in America.
Amnesty International has now clarified that the 2016 report never stated that neck-kneeling. "The precise nature of the training offered to US police forces by Israeli officials is not something we’ve documented," the organization told the New Stateman on Thursday.
“Allegations that US police were taught tactics of ‘neck kneeling’ by Israeli secret services is not something we’ve ever reported and the article in question has rightly been amended to acknowledge that," Amnesty added.
“The US police themselves have a longstanding record of using excessive force against members of the public - including Black Lives Matter protesters, something we reported on earlier this week,” the statement concluded.
Amnesty International has historically been very critical of the state of Israel. In 2017, the organization called for a global boycott of all products from Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. A study published last December by British anti-Semitism expert David Collier of Jewish Human Rights Watch concluded that Amnesty has an obsession with Israel that is anti-Semitic in nature.
According to Collier, Amnesty's "targets are not chosen for their actions but rather for their identity. A controversial action by India is almost certain to receive attention. Persecuted Christians are blatantly ignored. Attacking Israel is top of the list. Pakistan can literally make opposition figures disappear and Amnesty International can rarely even be bothered to yawn."
"Amnesty’s activity is inherently racist. When directed towards Israel, the cumulative obsession can clearly be labelled anti-Semitic," he said.