Pod Save America Hosts Call on Democrats to Cut All Israel Military Aid, No Longer Accept AIPAC Funding
Jews, Israelis Targeted in Austria Amid Surge in Antisemitic Incidents; Local Jewish Community Calls for Action
‘All of Our Strength’: Over 1,000 Pro-Israel Activists Gather in DC for Solidarity Conference
‘Devastated’: Wesley LePatner, Killed in Manhattan Mass Shooting, Was a Jewish Communal, Philanthropic Leader
Sen. Angus King Vows to No Longer Vote for Israel Military Aid Until Gaza Conditions Improve
Europe Won’t Pressure Israel to ‘Commit Suicide’ Amid Gaza Backlash, Palestinian State Push, Says Israeli FM
Israel’s National Soccer Coach Attacked in Athens Before Soccer Fans Chant ‘F–K Israel, Free Palestine’ at Match
New York Judge Sentences Neo-Nazi to 5 Years for Livestreaming Bomb Threats Against Jewish Hospitals
US Pressures Lebanon to Issue Cabinet Decision to Disarm Hezbollah Before Talks Continue
UK Plans to Recognize Palestinian State in September Unless Israel Meets Conditions, Starmer Says
Watchdog: Amnesty International Claims of Israeli ‘War Crimes’ Have No Credibility
Error: Contact form not found.
by Ben Cohen
"Trigger-Happy:" a recent Amnesty International report attacking the Israeli military. Photo: Screenshot / Haim Schwarczenberg.
As Amnesty International prepares for tomorrow’s release of a report that is expected to excoriate Israel for alleged war crimes committed during the summer 2014 war in Gaza, an influential Israeli monitoring organization is urging skepticism with regard to the claims made in the publication.
“Amnesty, which played a central role in the discredited UN Goldstone report of 2009, routinely minimizes the moral crimes of terrorist organizations, while baselessly alleging Israeli violations of international law,” said Professor Gerald Steinberg, the President of NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based research and advocacy organization that counters anti-Israel propaganda from the numerous private advocacy groups covering the Palestinian conflict with Israel. “By granting Hamas virtual impunity, Amnesty empowers the terror group and its affiliates to commit more war crimes and atrocities.”
Citing admissions by senior Amnesty officials that their organization is ill-equipped to comment on military matters, NGO Monitor asserted that “Amnesty’s publications related to armed conflicts notably lack credibility. ”
For example, NGO Monitor said, “Amnesty’s Secretary General Salil Shetty acknowledged in a February 10 interview: ‘We are not an expert (sic) on military matters. So we don’t want to, kind of, pontificate on issues we don’t really understand.’ Yet Amnesty’s admitted lack of military expertise has not stopped the NGO from publishing hundreds of unfounded accusations against Israel’s military, including its most recent report.”
At the height of the most recent clashes in Gaza, the third such Israeli military operation since 2008, Amnesty’s U.S. branch called on the Obama Administration to immediately curb the supply of weapons to Israel.
“It is deeply cynical for the White House to condemn the deaths and injuries of Palestinians, including children, and humanitarian workers, when it knows full well that the Israeli military responsible for such attacks are armed to the teeth with weapons and equipment bankrolled by US taxpayers,” said Amnesty spokesman Brian Wood at the time.
“Amnesty’s claims had no validity when they were first made, without evidence, during the fighting, and they have no more credibility now, despite the façade of ‘research’ and ‘investigations,'” NGO Monitor’s Steinberg concluded.
