
By Maureen Clare Murphy – Feb 3, 2022
What makes Amnesty Internationalâs new report determining that Israel practices the crime of apartheid against Palestinians any different from those that came before it?
Certainly, Israelâs âhystericalâ reaction â (in the words of one Haaretz headline) â to the Amnesty study is notably different from its relatively understated response to similar reports recently issued by BâTselem, a human rights group in Israel, and the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
Palestinian human rights groups like Al-Haq, Adalah and Al Mezan have been advancing an apartheid framework for far longer and the reports from the above-mentioned Israeli and international groups build on their work.
Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and BâTselem examined Israelâs system of control throughout historic Palestine that privileges Israeli Jews and marginalizes Palestinians and violates their rights by varying degrees, largely depending on where they live.
And in contrast to the analyses published by Palestinian groups, those three reports, welcomed as groundbreaking and paradigm-shifting, fall short of placing Israelâs system of apartheid in the context of settler-colonialism. (A keyword search of Amnestyâs report yields three results for the terms âcolonialismâ and âcolonialâ â found in the titles of works cited in the footnotes.)
Amnesty repeatedly stresses Israelâs âintent to maintain this system of oppression and dominationâ without making the explicit point that apartheid is a means towards the end of settler colonization: removing Palestinians from the land so that they may be replaced with foreign settlers.
The rights group does state that âsince its establishment in 1948, Israel has pursued an explicit policy of establishing and maintaining a Jewish demographic hegemony and maximizing its control over land to benefit Jewish Israelis while minimizing the number of Palestinians and restricting their rights and obstructing their ability to challenge this dispossession.â
Credit where creditâs due: Amnesty blasts away Israelâs foundational mythology, acknowledging that it was racist from the beginning â a departure from the typical liberal attitude that Israel strayed from its ideals somewhere along the way.
Amnesty even points out that âmany elements of Israelâs repressive military system in the OPT [West Bank and Gaza] originate in Israelâs 18-year-long military rule over Palestinian citizens of Israel,â beginning in 1948, âand that the dispossession of Palestinians in Israel continues today.â
Amnesty also acknowledges that âin 1948, Jewish individuals and institutions owned around 6.5 percent of Mandate Palestine, while Palestinians owned about 90 percent of the privately owned land there,â referring to all of historic Palestine prior to the establishment of the state of Israel.
âWithin just over 70 years the situation has been reversed,â the group adds.
And that is Israelâs aim â the âsystem of oppression and dominationâ stressed by Amnesty is the means by which it has usurped Palestinian land for the benefit of foreign settlers.
After all, Zionist settlers didnât come to Palestine from Europe for the purpose of dominating and oppressing Palestinians; they came with the intent of colonizing their land.
As the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center, a Palestinian group, states, âany recognition of Israel as an apartheid state should be situated within the context of its settler-colonial regime.â
Amnesty also refrains from examining and discussing Zionism, Israelâs racist state ideology around which its settler-colonialism project is organized.
As Adalah Justice Project, an advocacy group based in the US, asked Amnesty on Wednesday, âIs it possible to end apartheid without ending the Zionist settler colonial project?â
RELATED CONTENT: Amnesty: âIsraelâ Imposing âApartheidâ on Palestinians
https://twitter.com/AdvocacyJlac/status/1488598952605888514?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1488598954388434956%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Felectronicintifada.net%2Fcontent%2Fwhat-makes-amnestys-apartheid-report-different%2F34771
Good to see @amnesty join @hrw & @btselem declaring Israel an apartheid state.
Important, but the apartheid frame must include recognition of Israel & Zionism as settler colonialism & racial projects. Otherwise the question of Palestine will be reduced to one of liberal equality
— Lana Tatour (@Lana_Tatour) January 31, 2022
Groundwork for accountability
Despite these critical shortcomings, Amnestyâs study lays a solid groundwork for holding Israel accountable within the flawed framework of international law and makes forceful recommendations towards that end.
Amnesty joins Palestinian groups urging the International Criminal Court to âinvestigate the commission of the crime of apartheidâ and for its prosecutor to âconsider the applicability of the crime against humanity of apartheid within its current formal investigationâ in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Given that the ICC doesnât have territorial jurisdiction in Israel, Amnesty calls on the UN Security Council to either refer âthe entire situation to the ICCâ or establish âan international tribunal to try alleged perpetratorsâ of the crime against humanity of apartheid.
Amnesty adds that the Security Council âmust also impose targeted sanctions, such as asset freezes, against Israeli officials most implicated ⌠and a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel.â
Reiterating its âlongstanding callâ on states to suspend all forms of military assistance and weapons sales to Israel, Amnesty also calls on Palestinian authorities to âensure that any type of dealings with Israel, primarily through security coordination, do not contribute to maintaining the system of apartheid against Palestiniansâ in the West Bank and Gaza.
Amnesty also states that Israel must recognize Palestinian refugeesâ right of return and provide Palestinian victims âfull reparations,â including ârestitution for all properties acquired on a racial basis.â
A notable strength of Amnesty's report is its inclusion of Palestinians in the Diaspora and recognition that Israel's system and crimes of Apartheid denies Palestinian refugees and in the Diaspora human rights, rights to land and property, and importantly, the Right of Return.
— Sam of the Nord đđ˝ @samerabdelnour.bsky.social (@SamerAbdelnour) February 1, 2022
These demands by Amnesty, which claims to be the worldâs largest human rights organization, go much further than those made by Human Rights Watch and BâTselem.
This goes some way toward explaining why Israel and its proxies and apologists attempted to pressure Amnesty to pull its report ahead of publication and, having failed to achieve that, are now resorting to the usual baseless accusations of anti-Semitism.
This is how the "Israel" debate in the US works. @amnesty writes detailed report about the lived experience of Palestinians. @ADL–which has no expertise or genuine interest in conditions on the ground for Palestinians–turns conversation to antisemitism https://t.co/bjjo61oy5D https://t.co/80lzKPPMy6
— Peter Beinart (@PeterBeinart) January 31, 2022
Thirdly:
Since news of the report broke on Sunday, Israel's leadership has been in full hasbara mode, accusing Amnesty of antisemitism as it always does when criticized. As we've written before, this couldn't be more offensive to victims of actual antisemitism around the world.— Breaking the Silence (@BtSIsrael) February 1, 2022
Yair Lapid, Israelâs foreign minister, attempted to discredit Amnestyâs report by saying it âechoes propagandaâ and âthe same lies shared by terrorist organizations,â referring to prominent Palestinian groups recently declared illegal by Israel.
âIf Israel wasnât a Jewish state, no one at Amnesty would dare make such a claim against it,â Lapid added.
In its report, Amnesty observes that âPalestinian organizations and human rights defenders who have been leading anti-apartheid advocacy and campaigning efforts have faced Israeli repression for years as punishment for their work.â
While Israel brands Palestinian human rights groups as âterrorist organizations,â it subjects âIsraeli organizations denouncing apartheid to smears and delegitimization campaigns,â Amnesty adds.
Israel may find that such tactics when employed against the worldâs largest human rights organization may not convince anyone beyond its choir.
Its attempt to âget ahead of the story,â reportedly spearheaded by Naftali Bennett, Israelâs prime minister, along with Lapid, by preemptively attacking the Amnesty report has only served to reinforce the association of Israel with apartheid.
It also ensured âthat the report got a lot more exposure than it would otherwise receive,â as one Haaretz columnist observes.
Mainstreaming the apartheid framework
There is another key difference between the Amnesty report on apartheid and those that came before it.
Amnesty International is a campaigning organization with millions of members and supporters who, the group says, âstrengthen our calls for justice.â
Amnesty has supplemented its report with a 90-minute online course titled âDeconstructing Israelâs apartheid against Palestinians.â
It also produced a 15-minute mini-documentary available on YouTube that breaks down the question of whether Israel practices apartheid for a mass audience:
So far Amnestyâs action items only include sending a polite letter to Naftali Bennett, Israelâs prime minister, opposing home demolitions and expulsions â hardly inspiring stuff.Amnestyâs US chapter meanwhile has made bizarre disclaimers distancing itself from the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions movement and even stated that the organization doesnât take a stance on the occupation itself, instead focusing on Israelâs obligations, âas the occupying power, under international law.â
We have also documented human rights violations against Palestinians by Palestinian authorities, including torture, arbitrary detention, restrictions on freedom of expression and excessive use of force against protesters.
— Amnesty International USA (@amnestyusa) February 1, 2022
Meanwhile, its chapter in Germany has distanced itself from the report and stated that âthe Germany section of Amnesty will not plan or carry out any activities in relation to this reportâ because of the legacy of the Holocaust and ongoing anti-Semitism in the country.
It is not the first time that Amnesty has limited its solidarity in ways that are enduringly shameful.
not so fun fact, neither Human Rights Watch nor Amnesty took a position on the Iraq war and Amnesty for years refused to label Nelson Mandela a Prisoner of Conscience because he wouldnât categorically denounce violence (a thing that often works to achieve political outcomes) https://t.co/RVCEgqx5mK
— Adam Johnson (@adamjohnsonCHI) February 2, 2022
Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are based in imperialist countries and were founded in the context of the Cold War, largely focusing on advocating for the rights of individuals in communist Eastern Europe.Their narrow frameworks and founding ideologies have put them in opposition to anti-colonial liberation struggles and the violence those necessitate because, as Nelson Mandela put it, âit is the oppressor who defines the nature of the struggle, and the oppressed is often left no recourse but to use methods that mirror those of the oppressor.â
These fundamental contradictions mean that Western human rights groups will always take compromised, if not harmful, positions concerning Palestinian liberation, with Human Rights Watch recently suggesting a moral equivalence between the violence used by Israel against besieged Palestinians in Gaza and that of Palestinian resistance against it.
But Amnestyâs educational materials, including a lengthy Q & A, will help prepare grassroots campaigners to respond to Israelâs apologists who seek to deflect criticism of the stateâs practices by attacking the messenger.
After all, as one astute observer put it on Twitter, that is the only arrow in the quiver of those committed to maintaining Israelâs apartheid rule and the situation of impunity.
https://twitter.com/JoeJSaltarelli/status/1488895191515901956?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1488895191515901956%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Felectronicintifada.net%2Fcontent%2Fwhat-makes-amnestys-apartheid-report-different%2F34771
Amnestyâs report is a strong indicator that an analysis beyond the 1967 occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is becoming mainstream.
Meanwhile, Israel and its proxies and abettors in the US Congress and State Department trot out tired talking points while ignoring the substance of Amnestyâs findings.
(By contrast, a few members of Congress belonging to the Democratic Party are publicly supportive of Amnestyâs findings, with Cori Bush calling for an end to âUS taxpayer support for this violence.â)
But like UN and EU officials forever droning on about their commitment to the nonexistent peace process towards a two-state solution, those parroting these Israel lobby talking points so detached from reality appear increasingly ridiculous.
These clowns have had YEARS to come up with a single other talking point and still have nothing.
Human rights orgs have been in the field for decades, painstakingly documenting every detail of the reality on the ground, and AIPAC's still droning on about "bastion of democracy." pic.twitter.com/YIXrNumPLs
— Simone Zimmerman (@simonerzim) January 31, 2022
Or this guy, who simply pretends that there are no Jews or Jewish-led organizations that have called Israel an apartheid stateâa total lie. Just look at the report from the Israeli human rights group @btselem: https://t.co/rZRsspi1Ac
— Abdallah Fayyad (@abdallah_fayyad) February 1, 2022
State Department spokesperson sounded awfully defensive here when called out on the hypocrisy of the US frequently endorsing Amnesty reports…except for its findings on Israel. https://t.co/m0BKKONNhN
— Josh Ruebner (@joshruebner) February 2, 2022
Israel fears UN report
While rejecting the term âapartheidâ and attacking Amnesty, Israel and its proxies and supporters have their eyes on an even bigger threat to Israeli impunity.
According to an Israeli foreign ministry cable seen by the publication Axios, Israel has planned a campaign attempting to discredit a permanent UN commission of inquiry into Israelâs violations of Palestinian rights in all the territory under its control.
The UN Human Rights Council narrowly passed a resolution establishing that commission of inquiry last May following Israelâs 11-day attack on Gaza during which Palestinians rose up throughout their homeland.
Palestinian groups have long called on states âto address the root causes of Israelâs settler colonialism and apartheid imposed over the Palestinian people as a whole,â as Al-Haq said ahead of the vote.
The commission of inquiry undertaken by three independent human rights experts tapped by the Human Rights Council is expected to deliver its findings in June.
Axios reported last week that Israeli officials are âhighly concerned that the commissionâs report will refer to Israel as an âapartheid state.ââ
The publication adds that âthe Biden administration doesnât support the inquiry and played a central role in cutting its funding by 25 percent in UN budget negotiations.â
A bipartisan grouping of 42 members of Congress has meanwhile called on the US secretary of state to âlead an effort to end the outrageous and unjust permanent commission of inquiry.â
RELATED CONTENT: The Act of Theatre that Shows Israelâs Contempt for Gaza
But Israel apparently fears that this intervention may not be enough.
Haaretz reported this week that unnamed âsenior Israeli officialsâ are concerned that the UN âmay soon accept the narrative that Israel is an âapartheid state,â issuing a serious blow to Israelâs status on the international stage.â
A UN consensus around Israeli apartheid âcould lead to Israelâs exclusion from various international events, including sports competitions or cultural events,â the paper adds.
In other words, Israeli officials are afraid that the state will be treated as a global pariah as South Africa was before the fall of apartheid in that country.
The steering committee of the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions movement â inspired by the global campaign that helped bring apartheid to an end in South Africa â argues that âinvestigation of Israeli apartheid by the UN and its members are necessary steps for achieving freedom, justice and equality for the Palestinian people.â
That committee urges formerly colonized states to reprise âthe leading role they assumed in the UN for the eradication of apartheid in Southern Africa.â
Human Rights Watch has called for the appointment of a global UN envoy for the crimes of persecution and apartheid.
Amnesty states that the UN General Assembly âshould reestablish the Special Committee against Apartheid, which was originally established in November 1962, to focus on all situations ⌠where the serious human rights violation and crime against humanity of apartheid are being committed.â
These moves would have implications beyond the Palestinian cause within the UN system, where âbullying and political pressure have prevented the study and debate, let alone punishment, of Israeli apartheid,â according to the BDS movement steering committee.
Ultimately, Amnestyâs study may not be fundamentally different from those that came before.
But the context in which it appears â as international consensus coalesces around recognizing Israeli apartheid, an International Criminal Court investigation is underway and amid Israeli spyware blowback â suggests that a new chapter in the global struggle for Palestinian freedom may have begun.
Maureen Clare Murphy is senior editor of The Electronic Intifada.
Featured image: A Palestinian youth places a flag on Israelâs wall during a demonstration in the West Bank village of Bilin in February 2014. Oren Ziv ActiveStills
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