Not only are parts of the claims in Amnesty International’s report and some of the facts wrong, but the basic narrative itself is a lie, says László Seres in his blog post.
As we have written on Neokohn, the report by Amnesty International (AI) on Israel, in which it accused the Jewish state of apartheid, has caused a stir.
In his opinion piece, László Seres points out that the organization claims that
Israel „maintains an institutionalized system of oppression and domination of the Palestinian population for the benefit of Jewish Israelis,” and the Jewish state massively confiscates Palestinian land and property; commits unlawful killings, torture, and forcible displacement; and drastically restricts their freedom of movement.
The author reminds us that AI did not invent the apartheid analogy against Israel (only in recent months have Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem come up with it), but as they are the most prominent documenter of human rights violations, their lies will go the furthest. Despite the rejection of the report by Israel, America, Germany and the most important Jewish organizations, the AI narrative will be the most powerful, as it is the one that has been most receptive to the leftist-Islamist opinion-shaping of the past decades.
Al Jazeera presents the report of AI to the world exactly as the world wants to see it:
Amnesty’s methodologically embarrassing report is a lie, not simply because parts of their claims, some of the facts, are wrong and fundamentally twisted (the eviction of Sheikh Jarrah, for example, which is raised as a glaring example, was the result of a valid Israeli court decision) but because the basic narrative itself is a lie. And the basic narrative is that racist discrimination against Arabs began in 1948, with the establishment of the state, and has been systematic ever since, and the State of Israel itself is therefore illegitimate.
The point here is not to criticize Israel: the aim is to demonize and delegitimize it, to see Israel itself as a problematic entity. The aim is to support the antisemitic boycott movement (BDS), openly embraced by Amnesty and HRW; to reinforce the pariah status of the Jewish state through economic, scientific and political boycotts; and ultimately to end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.
This is the mainstream European view, this is the mainstream Islamist/left woke view. What’s being reported by AI is, in Robert C. Castel’s precise wording, part of a progressive ideological jihad, and this interpretation has been in great demand for decades. The UN General Assembly condemned countries 23 times in 2020, out of which, Israel was the target 17 times (!). Coincidence? Hardly.
Amnesty is lying. Israel is an open, multicultural society, a state governed by the rule of law, with an independent judiciary and extensive human and minority rights. There is a law prohibiting racial and employment discrimination. Arabic is also an official language, and Arabs (Muslims, Christians and Druze), who make up 20% of the population, are citizens, voters and electors on an equal footing with Jews, to the extent that the current national coalition government includes an Islamist Arab party.
Amnesty is lying. Not one aspect of apartheid in South Africa can be found in the lives of Arabs in Israel.
Read the full article here.
