Amnesty International, founded in 1961 to help protect human rights, has failed completely to follow the guidelines claimed in its’ own statement of purpose.
“We are independent of any political ideology, economic interest or religion”
“We investigate and expose the facts, whenever and wherever abuses happen. “
But look at what their latest report, released last week, says about some recent developments in the ongoing Palestine-Israel struggle. I’d like to examine just the opening paragraphs of this 400 plus page report because it fails to present the facts correctly, uses discriminatory language, and takes a solid position supporting a political ideology..
“In May 2021, Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah, a neighbourhood (sic) in occupied East Jerusalem, began protesting against Israel’s plan to forcibly evict them from their homes to make way for Jewish settlers. Many of the families are refugees, who settled in Sheikh Jarrah after being forcibly displaced around the time of Israel’s establishment as a state in 1948. Since Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank in 1967, Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah have been continuously targeted by Israeli authorities, who use discriminatory laws to systematically dispossess Palestinians of their land and homes for the benefit of Jewish Israelis. “
Factual analysis: (You can and should check all this for yourselves.)
The buildings in question were homes of Jewish residents before the 1948-9 war. Jordanian Arab authorities, then in control (occupying power!) allowed other Arabs to move in. The arrangement was listed by UNRWA as expected to lead to registration of ownership after 3 years. Such registration never took place. When a Jewish organization found the buildings had been originally Jewish owned, they took steps to retrieve them, Because of the sensitivity of the issue the Israeli side decided to take over the land and build a school for children with learning disabilities on the site. Note that the school is for children, not Jewish children and not Arab children, but children, and the neighborhood is almost entirely Arab.
It’s also worth noting that the struggle over this location has been taken to court, twice. The first time (around 1982?) it was noted that the residents had never purchased the building or registered any claimed purchase. And since they didn’t own the building, they would be allowed to remain there if they paid rent. The families did remain, but never paid any rent. Their refusal to abide by the court decision follows a typical pattern of Palestinian behavior – If the decision isn’t in their favor, it isn’t valid. This started with the Palestinian rejection of the recommended partition of Palestine in 1947 and was reaffirmed by the Arab League Khartoum declaration after the 1967 six-day war – No Recognition, No Peace, No Negotiations. The second court case started about a year ago. It came when the residents appealed to the court to halt the eviction notice subsequent to the decision to build a school there. This case also was decided by the court, and the eviction was upheld. One cannot help but wonder why Amnesty International appears ignorant of this.
In contrast, consider Palestinian Law, which still has a law that forbids sale of Palestinian Land (Any Palestinian Land, not just that under the control of the Palestinian Authority) to Jews. Yes, Jews, not Israelis! Does Amnesty think this is discriminatory? They don’t mention it.
All this is just about the opening paragraphs of the Amnesty International report summary. It continues for another 400 pages in the same vein. The document reads as if the only sources they consulted were the files of the propaganda department of the Palestinians. The selection of words and structure of the presentation is so similar that someone familiar with Palestinian propaganda could probably be misled as to the authorship of the document. Amnesty International used to be a respected authority on discriminatory practices. This latest screed from them is certainly not indicative of independence from political or religious ideology. How sad.
Wetherhorn 