Amnesty International accused of ‘obsession’ with Israel in new damning report
200-page study by researcher David Collier lifts the lid on over 40 staff, volunteers and employees who've shared reportedly antisemitic material and praised terrorists
Jack Mendel is the former Online Editor at the Jewish News.
Amnesty International has an “obsession” with Israel according to a forensic 200-page report into humanitarian charity.
The in depth investigation by researcher David Collier, commissioned by Jewish Human Rights Watch (JHRW), claimed the organisation has an institutional anti-Israel bias, whilst lifting the lid on over 40 staff, volunteers and employees who have shared allegedly antisemitic content online, as well as praised Palestinian terrorists.
JHRW says it will be submitting evidence of claimed bias to Amnesty’s Global Assembly and International Board, while considering referrals to regulatory bodies in the UK, including the Charity Commission and the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Key findings of the report, entitled ‘Spotlight on Amnesty International: From Bias to Obsession”, includes at least 20 case studies of its staff around the world, as well as the organisation’s neglect of other human rights abusers, and other oppressed minority groups, including Christians in the Middle East.
Accusing the charity of having been “hijacked” by anti-Israel activists, the report says “there is a clear trend towards more hostile and far-reaching action” against the Jewish state within the organisation.
It says: “ ‘activists’ use of Amnesty campaigns shaped to conform to the demands of the wider boycott movement is so subtle, that the Amnesty hierarchy may not even be aware that the organisation has been hijacked in this fashion.”
Amnesty International responded to the report, saying: “David Collier is an individual with a very clear agenda. He did not approach us for comment or give us right of reply before publishing any of these allegations.”
Amnesty International is an independent and impartial organisation that adheres to the highest research standards in all its work. Any research outputs produced by Amnesty are subjected to a rigorous review process including multiple layers of approvals by research managers and experts in policy and international law.”
The organisation is committed to uncovering human rights abuses and violations wherever they occur and will continue to do so.”
Collier told Jewish News: “The research took months to put together, but the bias was easy to find. It is right in front of everyone – all people need to do is open their eyes. How they have been allowed to get away with this for so long – how they ever justified this internally- are the questions everyone needs to start asking”
In the past, Amnesty International UK caused consternation within the Jewish community, after it refused to host a Jewish Leadership Council event in 2018, on the grounds that the human rights group is “campaigning for a ban on Israeli settlement goods’.
At the time, the JLC’s lawyers said the charity may have acted illegally, with more than 1,000 people signing a letter calling for Amnesty to apologise.
Earlier in 2019, Amnesty set up a ‘barbed wire beach‘ in the centre of London to protest TripAdvisor’s listing of settlement properties.
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