Amnesty to release new report accusing Israel of ‘serious human rights violations’
A spokesperson for the human rights group confirms new report into the conflict between Israel and Islamic Jihad in Gaza last August will be published later this month
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
Amnesty has confirmed it is to publish a new report outlining what it claims are “serious human rights violations committed during the course of a sustained Israeli military offensive in Gaza in August.”
The research , due to be published before the end of the month, comes as the human rights organisation steps up its campaign calling for the UK government “to do significantly more to support the human rights of Palestinians.”
Asked if the new report would also include details of human rights abuses committed by Palestinian terror groups such as Islamic Jihad or Hamas, a UK Amnesty spokesperson said they were still waiting on full details of the content.
Ahead of the report’s publication Amnesty were also promoting an event in London on Monday night to “rally opposition against attempts in the UK to outlaw political activism based on boycotts, sanctions and divestment (BDS) campaigns.”
The event, chaired by the South African writer Gillian Slovo, was called Protecting The Right to Boycott: Preventing Impunity.
Fighting had erupted between Israel and Islamic Jihad last August after militants were targeted over claims they were planning terrorist attacks.
The conflict lasted for three days, with Israel confirming they had killed 20 militants.
Islamic Jihad fired at least 1,000 rockets into southern Israel in retaliation for what Israel described as the“pre-emptive” offensive to thwart a planned major attack by the militant group.
Egypt and Qatar brokered a ceasefire.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) managed to kill two senior Islamic Jihad commanders, on top of arresting another, Bassam al-Saadi, in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
Sixty people in Israel suffered minor injuries, but the majority of Islamic Jihad’s projectiles were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defence system.
According to the local Palestinian authorities, 47 people were killed, among them 16 children.
A further 360 people were injured, and more than 650 housing units were damaged over three days.
In February Amnesty released a 280-page report alleging Palestinians are now living under system of “apartheid” in the occupied territories.
It claimed Israel was seizing Palestinian land and property, and that there have been “unlawful killings, the forcible transfer of Palestinian people from their land, and the denial of nationality and citizenship to Palestinians”.
The report concluded they were all “components of a system amounting to apartheid under international law.”
Amnesty have faced claims they have an obsession with Israel.Jerusalem-based watchdog NGO Monitor produced a detailed response to February’s report which said Amnesty’s conclusions were “fundamentally flawed” and “construct a fraudulent and libellous narrative of Israeli cruelty.”
In June Amnesty International’s general secretary Agnese Callamardclaimed that those who criticise its “apartheid Israel” report are “weaponising antisemitism”.
An Amnesty spokesperson promised to send Jewish News a copy of the new report ahead of its expected publication at the end of next week.
They also stressed the organisation produces a “very wide range” of research throughout the year.
Over the past month reports have been published by Amnesty on rights abuses in Iran, Latvia, Botswana, Mali, Indonesia, Somalia and Afghanistan.
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