Palestinian activists are determined to take advantage of a new Amnesty International report which parrots many of the Palestinian national movement’s most extreme talking points against Israel.
The report not only ridiculously proclaims Israel guilty of the crime of “apartheid”, but says this began with Israel’s founding in 1948.
Unfortunately, this Palestinian “success” with Amnesty will not only likely damage the standing of a once widely respected human rights NGO, but set back, rather than advance, hopes for Palestinians to achieve their legitimate aspirations.
The success of the Palestinian movement in having Amnesty condemn Israel as a perpetrator of apartheid can be traced to a decision taken by the NGO Forum at the UN’s farcical 2001 Durban World Conference Against Racism to promote an action plan for the “complete isolation of Israel as an apartheid state”. This plan was jointly developed by NGOs, including Amnesty, with Palestinian groups and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. The NGO conference at Durban was marred by extreme anti-Semitism, including Jewish speakers being threatened and shouted down, and flyers lauding Hitler.
Since then, participating NGOs like Amnesty have gradually implemented that action plan, by accusing Israel of apartheid in various ways and urging boycotts. This is done using “research” conducted by Palestinian NGOs – most affiliated with official Palestinian bodies making up the Palestine Liberation Organisation – which participated in formulating that Durban action plan.
Read the article by Colin Rubenstein in The Canberra Times and the Cowra Guardian.