Israel has accused Amnesty International of antisemitism after reacting angrily to a recent report published by the Soros-funded organization which criticized the country’s treatment of Palestinians.
The non-governmental organization (NGO) claims that Israel had been systemically oppressing the Palestinian population through governmental policy tantamount to the international definition of apartheid. The report published on Tuesday by Amnesty International, which is nearly 300 pages long, took four years to produce and had involved collaboration with other human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Israel’s B’Tselem.
The report made serious allegations about Israel’s Palestinian policy, concluding that Israel is operating a system based on segregation, deprivation, exclusion. All of these actions fall under the concept of crimes against humanity, the organization states.
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Amnesty alleged there had been systematic discrimination against Israeli Arabs, including restrictions on access to citizenship, previous forced relocations, expropriation of Palestinian land and property, blockade of the Gaza Strip, occupation of the West Bank and establishment of settlements. Amnesty’s report indicates that the Palestinian population since Israel’s founding in 1948 has involved 700,000 people, 80 percent of the then Palestinian population, having to flee to neighboring countries since the founding of the state, with the report documenting modern social disadvantages, job difficulties and reduced mobility. and opportunities.
Israel hit back with a sharp, political response to the criticism with the Israeli Foreign Ministry accusing Amnesty of “pouring oil on the fire of anti-Semitism.”
The country slammed the report as “false” and “biased,” claiming that Amnesty had used extreme language, distorts the historical context and demonizes Israel.
“Amnesty’s report effectively serves as a green light… to harm not only Israel, but Jews around the world,” read a statement published on Monday from the Foreign Ministry spokesman’s office.
