Does Amnesty International support Palestinian terrorism?
Jack Elbaum
One would think a human rights organization such as Amnesty International would have a unique concern for, you know, human rights. Unfortunately, events that have played out over the past two days in Israel would prove that person so very wrong.
Earlier today, two Palestinian terrorists affiliated with Hamas murdered four Israeli civilians at a gas station in the West Bank community of Eli. Those killed were 21-year-old Harel Massoud, 60-year-old Ofer Fairman, 17-year-old high school student Elisha Antman, and 17-year-old Nachman Shmuel Mordoff.
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It would be reasonable to expect that Amnesty International, which spends a lot of time focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, might put out a statement denouncing the terrorist attack. Instead, it decided to tweet out some of its characteristically vapid platitudes about … Israeli “apartheid.”
Yes, you read that correctly. In response to a Palestinian terrorist attack, the so-called human rights group tweeted a condemnation of alleged Israeli “apartheid.”
Amnesty wrote, “Apartheid is deprivation. Apartheid is segregation. Apartheid is fragmentation. Apartheid is dispossession. Israel’s apartheid over Palestinians is a crime against humanity.” Aside from the reality that the claim Israel is committing apartheid is ridiculous, the fact this is Amnesty’s reaction to terrorists killing innocents is telling.
Amnesty pretends that there are no Palestinian terrorists who gun down, stab, or bomb innocent civilians, even though they do regularly. In doing so, it acts like all Israeli actions in response to, and in order to prevent, these attacks happen not because of legitimate security concerns but rather because Israel simply feels like it. Amnesty thus completely distorts the conflict so that it appears Israelis are interested in oppressing Palestinians, and so that no Palestinian actions are ever the reason for subsequent Israeli reactions. But the issue here is obvious: That is in no way how this conflict works.
An example from yesterday illustrates this perfectly. The Israel Defense Forces went into Jenin, a city in the West Bank, to arrest two people wanted for terrorist activity. As the IDF was conducting the raid, it came under heavy fire from Palestinian militants. Additionally, while leaving the city, the Islamic Jihad terrorist group detonated a roadside bomb against one of the army vehicles, resulting in IDF injuries and a subsequent shootout. Six Palestinians were killed, including at least three members of Islamic Jihad. There is no indication anybody who was uninvolved was killed, although, tragically, there were civilians injured.
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In response to this, Amnesty tweeted “Palestinian civilians bear the brunt of these deadly military raids that are part of Israel’s apartheid system. End Israel’s Apartheid.” There was no mention of any roadside bombing, gunmen, Molotov cocktails, or a shootout. In the picture Amnesty paints, only one side actually does anything.
This is a scandal because what this amounts to is a respected human rights organization refusing to say anything about Israeli civilians being killed by terrorists but being quick to condemn the IDF for killing confirmed terrorists — as just happened.
This all raises the question if the reason Amnesty tweeted about Israeli “apartheid” right after a terrorist attack is that it believes “resistance,” a euphemism for jihadist violence, is actually necessary to get rid of this supposed apartheid.
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This question is not just rhetorical. Amnesty must answer: Does it believe terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians are a legitimate channel by which Palestinians can work to oppose Israel?
We all should look forward to hearing its answer.
Jack Elbaum is a summer 2023 Washington Examiner fellow.