Israel’s Amnesty chapter rejects parent group’s genocide allegations
A banner published on the website of Amnesty International on Dec. 5, 2024. Source: Screenshot.
(JNS) — The Israeli branch of Amnesty International on Dec. 5 publicly rejected the claim by the group’s international headquarters that the Jewish state is perpetrating genocide against Palestinians.
“Amnesty Israel does not accept the main findings of the report by Amnesty International Global Movement which accuses Israel of genocide,” the Israel branch wrote in a statement.
The Israeli branch also said that there was “no dispute” among its members that “Israel’s actions in Gaza, carried out in response to the Hamas-led massacre against civilians in Israel on October 7, 2023, establish suspicions of widespread violations of international law and may amount to crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.”
But, the Tel Aviv-based branch wrote, “Our careful analysis does not find that the findings meet the definition of genocide, as carefully formulated in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.”
Amnesty Israel is a locally registered nonprofit that is legally independent of the London headquarters of Amnesty International.
The reaction came in response to a report published Thursday titled “‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza” on Amnesty International’s world website under the headline: “Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”
Israel has roundly rejected the claim.
“The deplorable and fanatical organization Amnesty International has once again produced a fabricated report that is entirely false and based on lies,” the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem said in a statement.
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) on Dec. 4 published a statement calling the Amnesty International charges “baseless and malicious.” David Litman, a senior analyst at CAMERA, told JNS that “Few have done more to erode confidence in the cause of human rights than Amnesty.”
In 2022, Amnesty International called Israel’s treatment of Palestinians “apartheid,” prompting no rebuke by the Israeli affiliate.
According to unverified data provided by the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza, some 44,000 people have died as a result of Israel’s actions in Gaza. The figure does not differentiate between combatants and civilians.
Israel went to war on Hamas in Gaza after thousands of its terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, murdering some 1,200 people and abducting another 255, according to Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies. Israel has killed about 17,000 terrorists in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, according to the INSS. The IDF killed another approximately 1,000 terrorists inside Israel at the time of the Hamas-led invasion.
