Amnesty International has lost its moral way

Alex Ryvchin 31 January 2019

Amnesty International has unveiled a new campaign to pressure digital tourism companies such as Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb and TripAdvisor to delist properties held by Israelis living in the West Bank, and calling on governments to pass legislation that would result in the total boycott of those living in Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria .

It is just the latest attack in a long war waged by Amnesty and other once-respectable human rights organisations intent on turning public opinion against Israel and bringing about its economic and political isolation.

The origins of this lie in an infamous non-governmental organisations forum of the UN World Conference against Racism held in Durban, South Africa, in September 2001. The conference lives long in the memory for the appalling racism that marred an event convened for the very purpose of combating such conduct. Posters displayed Jewish caricatures and Nazi icons, and participants circulated copies of the anti-Semitic fabrication, Protocols of the Elders of Zion. US congressman Tom Lantos called it “the most sickening display of hate for Jews since the Nazi period”. The UN’s human rights commissioner, Mary Robinson, told the BBC “there was a horrible anti-Semitism present”.

In 2002, following an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin in response to the Passover massacre in Netanya, in which a Palestinian suicide bomber murdered 30 civilians during a celebratory feast, Amnesty accused Israel of carrying out war crimes and massacres of Palestinian civilians. The allegations, promptly reported by the BBC and other news outlets, placed the Palestinian civilian death toll at more than 500. But 52 Palestinians died, the majority of them combatants, along with 23 Israeli soldiers, in fierce urban combat.

False allegations of a massacre made by Amnesty lubricated the machinery of the political campaign against Israel, leading to street protests, campus hearings, reams of condemnations and anti-Israel resolutions across civil society and government.

In 2015, Amnesty was forced into a humiliating admission that it had lobbied the Australian government to accept murderous Lindt Cafe terrorist Man Haron Monis as a genuine refugee.

Last April, Amnesty’s secretary-general called Israel’s democratically elected government “rogue”. In 2010, the head of its Finnish branch called Israel a “scum state”. Its British campaign manager has likened Israel to Islamic State and been condemned for his attacks on Jewish parliamentarians.

Perhaps as revealing as Amnesty’s fixation on Jews living on the “wrong” side of a long-defunct armistice line has been its relative silence on the disturbing trend of rising anti-Semitism. In April 2015, Amnesty UK rejected an initiative to “campaign against anti-semitism in the UK”, as well as “lobby the UK government to tackle the rise in anti-Semitic attacks in Britain” and “monitor anti-Semitism closely”. It was the only proposed resolution at the annual general meeting that was not adopted.

The skewed morality revealed by Amnesty’s obsession with Israel reflects a broader decline in the non-governmental sector. Whereas groups such as Amnesty and Human Rights Watch once led the struggle against Soviet tyranny and actively defended the rights of political prisoners, today they serve an increasingly narrow political agenda, one aligned with anti-Western, anti-capitalist forces. Amnesty’s apparent contempt for Israel, its ho-hum attitude to anti-Semitism, and its inordinate condemnations of democracies all stem from this malaise.

Of course, the settlements are a point of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Indeed, the parties identified settlements as a final status issue in the historic Oslo Accords signed between the Palestine Liberation Organisation and Israel in 1993. It was agreed that the questions of which settlements will be annexed to Israel and which will be dismantled or transferred to Palestinian sovereignty are to be resolved in direct negotiations in the context of a final peace agreement. But the pursuit of peace is not aided by Amnesty’s political manoeuvres and attempts to isolate Israel, which perpetuate conflict by other means.

The UN, the "State of Palestine" and the Torture of Women

by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  January 15, 2019 at 5:00 am This is the kind of story that the "State of Palestine" does not intend to raise during its chairmanship of the largest bloc of developing countries at the UN. It seems that, from the point of view of the Palestinian Authority leadership, Jbara's ordeal does not fall within the category of human rights. Jbara's story has barely attracted the attention of the international mainstream media. As far as many foreign journalists covering the Middle East are concerned, a Palestinian woman complaining about torture in a Palestinian prison is not newsworthy. Had she been detained by Israel, Jbara would have most likely made it to the front pages of the world's leading newspapers and magazines in a matter of minutes. The PA regularly complains about human rights violations of Palestinians held in Israeli prison for security-related offenses. But when the PA's own security forces detain and torture a mother of three, Palestinian leaders are found elsewhere -- like at the helm of a UN bloc. The Palestinian Authority's recent arrest and torture of a Palestinian  mother of three is the kind of story that the "State of Palestine" does not intend  to raise during its chairmanship of the largest bloc of developing countries  at the UN. Pictured: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas  addresses the  UN General Assembly on September 27, 2018 in New York City.  (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images) A Palestinian mother of three has accused the Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces of torturing her and threatening to rape her during the two months she was held in a PA prison in the West Bank. The accusation by the woman, Suha Jbara, 31, came on the eve of PA President Mahmoud Abbas's visit to New York, where he is scheduled to assume the chairmanship of the largest bloc of developing countries in the United Nations, known as the "Group of 77 and China." As chairman of the group, which represents 134 nations, Abbas and the "State of Palestine" will negotiate and co-sponsor proposals and amendments on various developmental, humanitarian and legal issues that are on the agenda of the UN

On January 11, Jbara, who was released last week from detention, held a press conference in Ramallah in which she detailed the various methods of torture she experienced at the hands of her Palestinian interrogators. Her horrific experience, however, does not seem to be on the agenda of the UN or the Group of 77 and China, headed by Abbas. Apparently, the UN group's members, who voted in favor of naming the "State of Palestine" as chairman of the group, do not care much about the human rights record of the PA security forces in the West Bank.

Jbara, a dual citizen of the US and Panama, was arrested by the Palestinian Authority security forces in early November 2018 at her home near the West Bank city of Ramallah. According to Jbara, she was accused of "illegally collecting donations" for families of Palestinians killed or wounded during clashes with the Israeli army.

Bizarrely, the PA is accusing Jbara of something that the PA itself has done for years and is still doing: paying salaries to Palestinians in Israeli prison and the families of Palestinians killed while carrying out attacks on Israelis. According to Jbara, her interrogators also accused her of "collaborating" with Israel. During her detention, she went on hunger strike for 27 days.

The torture, according to Jbara, included pouring cold water on her face, solitary confinement for several days, strip-search, sleep deprivation, lengthy hours of interrogation and verbal abuse.

"The first stages were the worst," Jbara told the Palestinian Wattan TV station.

"They interrogated me for several hours, without taking into consideration that I felt sick. They moved me from one office to another. I saw a number of detainees who were blindfolded and handcuffed. The interrogators were pouring cold water on their faces and some of the detainees were lying on the floor. It was a horrifying experience for me."

Jbara also said that the Palestinian interrogators threatened to take her three children away from her. "They used my children to blackmail me," she reported. The interrogators apparently also threatened her mother, her sisters and her with sexual assault. "I'm now in a very bad health condition," she said. "I even have difficulty walking."

Last month, a representative of Amnesty International met with Jbara, while she was still being held in Palestinian detention, and heard about her brutal treatment at the hands of her interrogators. "The Palestinian authorities must urgently investigate the torture and ill-treatment of Suha Jbara, an activist who has told Amnesty International that she was beaten, slammed against a wall and threatened with sexual violence by her interrogators," the organization wrote.

According to Amnesty's report, Jbara described how, upon her arrest, she had a seizure, lost consciousness and was taken to a hospital. Armed security officials later dragged her barefoot, out of the hospital, and transferred her to the Jericho Central Prison.

There, when she asked for a drink, a male interrogator threw water in her face, slapped her, punched her in the chest and back, and threatened her with further violence. She was blindfolded and handcuffed throughout her interrogation, and was not allowed to drink water or use the lavatory.

"He insulted me all the time," she said, "used very dirty and violent sexual language, threatened to bring a doctor to look into my virginity and say that I was a whore, and threatened to hurt my family and to take my kids away from me."

According to Saleh Higazi, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International:

"Suha Jbara has described her torture in harrowing detail. In her testimony she gives an account of ruthless interrogators who have shamelessly flouted Palestine's obligations to treat prisoners humanely and violated the absolute prohibition under international law of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment."

Yet, Jbara's story has barely attracted the attention of the international mainstream media. As far as many foreign journalists covering the Middle East are concerned, a Palestinian woman complaining about torture in a Palestinian prison is not newsworthy. Had she been detained by Israel, Jbara would have most likely made it to the front pages of the world's leading newspapers and magazines in a matter of minutes.

This is the kind of story that the "State of Palestine" does not intend to raise during its chairmanship of the largest bloc of developing countries at the UN. It seems that, from the point of view of the Palestinian Authority leadership, Jbara's ordeal does not fall within the category of human rights.

The PA regularly complains about human rights violations of Palestinians held in Israeli prison for security-related offenses. But when the PA's own security forces detain and torture a mother of three, Palestinian leaders are found elsewhere -- like at the helm of a UN bloc.

Actually, Palestinian leaders can rest easy concerning their torture of Palestinians. By being selected to head the bloc of developing countries, Abbas and the leaders of the "State of Palestine" will be in the company of countries rewarded for human rights violations -- including Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Venezuela and Yemen -- just elected as the vice-president of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, despite Yemen being ranked "as the worst country in the world on gender inequality (149th out of 149)" -- as well as several countries in Africa and Asia. That group exemplifies the old saying: birds of a feather flock together -- and these birds are definitely of the predator type.

New Palestinian "Concern" for International Conventions

Bassam Tawil  October 30, 2018 

Full article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13196/palestinians-prisoners-rights

While Hamas has been violating international laws by denying visits or any communication with the Israelis it holds captive, Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prisons continue to enjoy basic rights, including meeting with an attorney, receiving medical treatment, religious rights, basic living conditions (such as hot water, showers and sanitation), proper ventilation and electric infrastructure.

The families of the Palestinian terrorists held in Israeli prisons know where their sons are. They also know that their sons receive proper medical treatment and while away their days reading, exercising and watching TV. But the Israelis held by Hamas can only dream of seeing daylight as they languish in captivity.

Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that rules the Gaza Strip, does not like a bill making its way  through Israel's Knesset that would prevent visits by family members of terrorists in Israeli prisons. The bill, sponsored by MK Oren Hazan (Likud), would prevent such visits to terrorists who are members of groups that hold Israeli prisoners and deny them visits.     

The proposed Israeli law is a temporary measure, aimed at forcing Hamas to release information about the Israelis held in the Gaza Strip. There would be no need for the law were Hamas prepared to honor international and humanitarian conventions and allow visits by the Red Cross and other international agencies to the Israelis it is holding.

In response, Hamas denounced Israel's proposed law as "racist," and said in a statement that it was a "flagrant violation of all laws and humanitarian conventions." Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem claimed that the bill was "part of Israel's policy to impose restrictions on the prisoners."

Suddenly, Hamas is concerned about "international law and humanitarian conventions"? Not quite. There is a catch. Hamas is only concerned about them when Palestinian terrorists are involved. As for the rights of Israelis held by Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group apparently still believes they are not entitled to any rights.

Palestinians: A Story Not Heard in the West

by Bassam Tawil  June 5, 2018 

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12422/palestinians-gaza-human-rights

A Palestinian mother of five just spent 23 days in prison. During her incarceration, she was held in unspeakable conditions and denied family visitations. She was also prohibited from consulting a lawyer.

This is a story that no one has heard in the West.

Why? Because the Palestinian woman, Samah Abu Ghayyath, was detained not by Israel, but by Hamas, the Palestinian terror group that rules the Gaza Strip.

Abu Ghayyath would have been "fortunate" if she had been arrested by Israel. Then, the case would have reached the pages of major media outlets around the world and "pro-Palestinian" activists would have staged demonstrations and online campaigns to support her and denounce Israel.

By contrast, for instance, consider the example of Ahed Tamimi, a Palestinian teenage girl from a village near Ramallah in the West Bank. In December 2017, Tamimi was detained by Israeli authorities for physically assaulting an Israeli soldier. After agreeing to a plea bargain, she was sentenced to 8 months in prison.

Tamimi has since become a symbol of the Palestinian "struggle" against Israel. She is glorified by many in the mainstream media in the West and advocates of Palestinian human rights around the world, who have turned her into an icon.

Abu Ghayyath, however, the woman from the Gaza Strip, has been less fortunate than the golden girl from the West Bank.

Unlike Tamimi, the arrest of the mother of five in early May by Hamas did not spark an international outcry. Western journalists and human rights organizations did not endorse Abu Ghayyath, as they were quick to do with Tamimi, a girl who hit an Israeli soldier.

Had Abu Ghayyath been arrested by Israel, her name would have appeared on the front pages of The New York Times and in the broadcasts of the BBC and CNN. The only ones who picked up her ordeal and demanded her release, however, were a few Palestinian women's groups and, of course, her family.

Predictably, only a handful of Palestinians -- and no Westerners -- dared to denounce Hamas for arresting the woman.

Abu Ghayyath still has not been formally charged with committing any crime. Hamas will not say why she was held in detention for 23 days. She herself appears to be too afraid to talk about the hard days she spent under interrogation in Hamas prison. In addition, her personal computer and mobile phone were confiscated.

This is yet another reminder of the dangerous double standard of the international community. Where all those who claim to be "pro-Palestinian" and are spewing hatred against Israel and Jews at college campuses in the US and Canada? If they really want to help the Palestinians, let them stand up and shout about the rights of women and gays living under Hamas's repressive regime, and journalists who are being harassed and arrested by Mahmoud Abbas's security forces.

Yelling lies about Israel and Jews does not make one "pro-Palestinian." It only makes one an Israel-hater. Hating Israel does not improve human rights conditions for Palestinians living under Hamas and Fatah. Instead, it serves as a distraction and even facilitates Fatah and Hamas in suppressing public freedoms and human rights.

Gazans setting fires further into Israel with helium balloons.

From TOI:

Cross posting from http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2018/06/gazans-setting-fires-further-into.html 

Hadashot television news reports that the fires sparked by Gazans in southern Israel today are reaching farther into Israel because the Gazans have changed their tactics.

In recent weeks, Gazans have launched firebomb-carrying kites into Israel, where they fell into dry fields and sparked major brushfires.

Today, authorities are battling helium balloons carrying long-burning materials like charcoal. The balloons are capable of flying several kilometers into Israel and sparking fires farther afield.

Firefighters are battling at least four brushfires today sparked by Gazan arsonists.

Why is Israel allowing helium into Gaza to begin with?

Because helium is needed for many medical applications, including many respiratory diseases. I'm guessing, but it is entirely possible that the helium in Gaza is coming from hospitals.

Now imagine what would happen if and when Israel bans helium imports into Gaza to protect itself from massive forest fires.

Yup, the "human rights" NGOs will castigate Israel for depriving Gazans of the medical benefits of helium. Reuters will have stories about Gazans with COPD who cannot breathe because of Israel's evil.

Just wait.

Word to the Palestinians: Grow Up!

by Stewart Weiss  Feb 1st

For 70+ years, through three generations, the Palestinians have been fed, wet-nursed, coddled and accommodated by a global set of ‘parents.'

Although the human being is the most sophisticated and capable of all of God’s creations, at our earliest stages we are among the most vulnerable and the most helpless. A newborn giraffe will start walking within an hour of birth; after 10 hours, the baby giraffe will be able to run and keep up with the herd. But it will take years for a human infant to become even partially self-sufficient; until then he will be completely dependent on others for his every need. As a result of this, the child experiences instant gratification; his food will be brought to him, he’ll be bathed and gently tucked in bed, and if he cries, his parents will rush to satisfy his every request.

Responsible parents know there comes a point when the child must learn to fend for himself, when it is permissible – even preferable – to say “No!” Otherwise, that child will likely become a demanding, spoiled, incorrigible brat who will struggle to find his place in society.

This is precisely what has happened to the Palestinians. For 70+ years, through three generations, they have been fed, wet-nursed, coddled and accommodated by a global set of “parents.” Rather than earn their keep and live within their means, they have been handed billions and billions of dollars – much of which has either been stolen by their handlers or illegally used to purchase weapons. Rather than move out of their squalid camps into decent housing – as Israel has offered numerous times – they have been cruelly kept in cramped surroundings by so-called “leaders” who foment their anger and prolong their agony for political and monetary gain. Rather than drop their refugee status and integrate into a variety of countries – as hundreds of thousands of Middle Eastern Jews did, and as millions of others are doing today in Europe – they tenaciously cling to their persecution complex as if it were a warm blanket.

So it comes as no surprise that when they finally get a long-overdue “spanking” by a head of state and berated for their atrocious behavior, the Palestinians react like that proverbial spoiled child and throw a tantrum. They threaten, they throw things (stones, Molotov cocktails, etc.), they curse, they break things (like signed agreements and diplomatic relations), they call the president names, they lock themselves in their room or they run and hide under the UN’s and the Europeans’ skirts. In typical infantile behavior, they blame everyone – except themselves – for their problems.

Though they are the arch-villains of mayhem, glorifying suicide bombers and naming stadiums after child-killers, they call the Israelis “terrorists.” At the same time that they refuse to come to the table and negotiate, they blame Israel for being “intransigent.” While they fabricate a false narrative of their history in the region, they deny the legitimate, universally affirmed more than 3,000-year presence of the Jewish people in Jerusalem.

Sadly, there is no shortage of misguided Jews who rally to their cause, Jews who act as their apologists, accomplices and enablers, and no lack of media people who glorify their “suffering” – some of whom write in this very paper, spinning out monotonous, single-issue op-eds ad nauseam that are so vacuous and boring that intelligent people long ago stopped reading them.

What can be done about this dangerous, destructive enfant terrible? Is there any hope for him, any therapy or behavior modification that can turn him into a responsible citizen of the world? 

Ironically, Israel itself offers the best model for attaining maturity and accelerating growth. Israel, too, was in a precarious position when we returned to our homeland and many non-believers were sure we would be dead aborning. We had every reason to feel persecuted – no nation ever endured more than we had – yet we shrugged off the urge to rant and recriminate and we set about the process of nation building.

We offered to live in peace with our neighbors, we agreed to a partition of our ancient homeland; we elected a government-in-waiting and raised up a fledgling army. We worked the land until our hands bled; carrying a plow in one hand and a gun in the other, as we made the desert bloom while dodging bullets. Rather than sit idly and bemoan our fate, we changed our fate. We had some help along the way from a few friends, but mostly we did this all by ourselves. 

So, Palestinians, if you ever hope to mimic our achievements and hold your head high with self-respect – even royal bearing – stop your interminable whining, stop pointing fingers at everyone around you, and grow up. It will take a lot of work, a lot of effort, but that’s because life, real life, is much more than child’s play.

Palestinians: The Diploma for Terror

• A glance at the Palestinian leaders and senior officials tells a clear story that Palestinian Authority jobs go to "graduates" of Israeli prisoms.

• Besides sending a message to Palestinians about who is valued in Palestinian society, the Fatah leader is also making it clear that the path to leadership and employment passes through Israeli prisons. Abbas's senior representative is telling Palestinians that there is no need for them to pursue actual education: Israeli prisons are the best "universities.”

• The longer the time spent in prison, the higher the military rank. Ten years will earn them the rank of Colonel. More than that will earn them General. The path to winning a job with a PA ministry also passes through Israeli prisons. These are the leaders touted as role models to young Palestinians.

The full story by Bassam Tawil , a Palestinian Human Rights activist can be read at 

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10143/palestinians-terror-awards

Fake News Reportiing

With thanks to Honest Reporting

A question was asked by an anti-Israel activist at an event organized by Israel’s Foreign Press Association. The activist was also the holder of an official press card issued to him by Israel’s Government Press Office. The questioner was Antony Loewenstein, a self-described freelance journalist for publications including The Guardian. Yet when Honest Reporting asked The Guardian directly about him, incredibly Peter Beaumont, the newspaper’s Israel correspondent replied in an email: “I don’t anything [sic] about Antony Loewenstein.”

Either way, Loewenstein was at the press conference. The Jerusalem Post described the exchange as follows:

“You talked before about the idea that since Oslo, Israel has done little or nothing wrong, but the truth is that 2017 is the 50th anniversary of the occupation.

There are now 600,000- 800,000 settlers, all of whom are regarded by international law as illegal, including your good friends in Amona apparently.”

“Is there not a deluded idea here that many Israeli politicians, including yourself, continue to believe that one can talk to the world about democracy, freedom and human rights while denying that to millions of Palestinians, and will there not come a time soon, in a year, five years, 10 years, where you and other politicians will be treated like South African politicians during Apartheid?” he asked.

Lapid pushed back stating: “The problem is that the Palestinians are encouraged by The Guardian and others saying we don’t need to do anything in order to work for our future because the international community will call Israel an apartheid country.”

[See the video below for Lapid’s complete response.]

Ship of Fools. Flotilla of Idiots.

This is a cross posting from Rolene Marks Roro’s Rantings, for the complete blog with videos see:

http://www.israelrising.com/zeytoun-oliva-ship-fools-flotilla-idiot

Picture the scene – 13 self-righteous “human rights’ activists set sail for Gaza. Thirteen women from 13 different countries boarded the Zeytoun-Oliva determined to “end the siege on Gaza”. Armed with appalling singing voices and a YouTube account filled with moronic videos, they took to the high seas (okay, the Mediterranean) to liberate the people of Gaza from the frightful maritime blockade that is enforced by Israel. Legal and necessary, this blockade is in place to prevent the smuggling of weapons and material that Hamas and other groups based in the Gaza Strip use to rain terror on Israel’s citizens like fire rockets, dig tunnels, you know, all that war stuff that is a gross violation of the human rights of Israelis to live in peace.

Hardly Boudicea and her army but flotillas are cause for concern because apart from their intention of conducting an illegal breach of the blockade, they have been known to have weapons on board and activists whose behavior is anything but peaceful. Mavi Marmara anyone?

The same day as the Zaytoun-Oliva was sailing to “break the siege on Gaza” we saw proof just why it is necessary to enforce such measures as rockets fired by ISIS supporting Salafists were fired into Israel from Gaza. Landing in a residential area, Code Red warnings sent traumatized residents scrambling for shelter. Imagine if this was your city.

I am sure these ISIS supporters would have been thrilled to receive a special delivery of 13 new sex slaves with a boat to spare. Please ladies, save the sanctimonious lectures and song and learn a little bit about the region you are coming to.

You say that you want to highlight the plight of Palestinians, especially the women? I could not agree more. Their plight should be highlighted because they live under siege – they are besieged by a bunch of autocratic lunatics who base their ruling on a genocidal  charter that calls for the total destruction of all Jews and enforces a medieval rule of law. That is not very human rightsie…..

Yes, the plight of Palestinian women does need to be highlighted. They live as second class citizens  and are denied the many rights that their male counterparts enjoy, provided of course that they are Hamas supporting, fully heterosexual, Allah fearing and don’t complain. Some of these women have been subjected to honour killings for crimes such as being a victim of rape. For Olympic atlete, Lee Anne Naidoo  who hailsfrom South Africa, I have a special message for you. Hamas who run the Gaza strip object hugely to same sex relationships. Your concern for the Palestinians is admirable but your sexual orientation will not garner you any  tolerance and  may find you flung off the top of the nearest building. This is not a sarcastic message, it is a fact.