Amnesty defends campaigns manager after retweet of Hamas account

Amnesty international has failed to condemn its campaigns manager over a series of social media posts including retweeting a message from Hamas.

The Israeli Embassy accused Kristyan Benedict of “exploiting the horrible murder of Ali Dawabsha in order to incite against Israel” following a series of social media posts after the killing of the 18-month-old in an arson attack blamed on settlers.

Benedict wrote: “Palestinian baby burned to death in settler attack. They see their government getting away with murder every day.” He later retweeted a post from Hamas related to “Israel’s war crimes”.

Amnesty pledged to look into the issue. But in defending him, UK’s Head Of Priority Campaigns Fionna Smyth said today: “Our work is focused on exposing human rights violations by all parties in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and in working toward justice and accountability.

“Kristyan Benedict’s tweet concerning an Amnesty report on Rafah clearly conveyed a message about the need for justice and accountability, including through the International Criminal Court. Kristyan’s tweet on the dreadful killing of 18-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsha referred to a past history of a lack of accountability over so-called “Price Tag” attacks and settler violence in the West Bank.
 
Saying they had published a report condemning indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israel last summer, she added: “We condemn human rights abuses committed by all parties, whether Hamas, by other armed Palestinian groups, or indeed Israeli forces.”
In the original complaint, deputy ambassador Eitan Na’eh said: “It reflects extremely unprofessional conduct, which has direct bearing on Amnesty’s credibility as an international human rights organisation.”

Benedict previously provoked anger by using a Twitter hashtag that compared Israel to IS.