http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/131597Report: Amnesty Intl. Suffers 'Anti-Israel Obsession'
by Maayana Miskin
(IsraelNN.com) The human rights group Amnesty International (AI) has failed to uphold its own moral principles due to an “anti-Israel obsession.” So concludes the annual NGO Monitor report on the organization, which was released Wednesday.
In 2008, Amnesty International released nine in-depth reports on Israel, more than the number of reports on any other Middle Eastern country. A total of 56 documents on alleged Israeli human rights violations were released in 2008, compared to 19 documents on abuses committed by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. The only Middle Eastern country with more reports in 2008 was Iran, with 151.
The third-most criticized country was Iraq, where many of the organization's reports focused on alleged offenses committed by the United States Armed Forces.
Iran, Israel and Iraq were the three Middle East countries most covered in news reports in 2008, leading NGO Monitor researchers to suspect that AI may issue its reports based on media interest and not solely on a country's number of alleged human rights violations.
Distorted Language, No Context
NGO Monitor also found that AI used distorted language to imply Israeli violations of international law. For example, the group titled a report on Gaza “Trapped: Collective punishment in Gaza,” a headline that accused Israel of illegal collective punishment, despite the fact that international law does not require Israel to open its borders with Gaza or to provide Hamas-run Gaza with any form of aid.
Other inflammatory language used in reports included claims that the IDF used “unprecedented” force in Gaza, that Gaza Arabs faced “virtual imprisonment,” and that Arab civilians in Gaza were on “the brink of human catastrophe.”
AI reports consistently failed to provide independent, verifiable resources to confirm the numbers and percentages used in its reports, NGO Monitor found. In addition, the group failed to mention the context of events, including terrorist attacks on Israel and Israeli humanitarian aide to Gaza and the PA.
Amnesty International also failed to mention the Gaza-Egypt border in reports blaming Israel for Gaza's relative isolation.
Inflammatory Reporting on 'Operation Cast Lead'
NGO Monitor also researched some Amnesty International reports from the beginning of 2009, most of which were written during the three-week Operation Cast Lead counterterrorist action in Gaza. The reports issued during Cast Lead were highly biased, the group found, accusing Israel of “indiscriminate” and “disproportionate” attacks. Amnesty International's workers lack the military knowledge needed to determine whether Israeli strikes were or were not necessary to fight terrorism, the group stated.
AI's investigative team in Gaza included Chris Cobb-Smith, an “expert” who was involved in promoting the myth of an Israeli “massacre” in Jenin in 2002, NGO Monitor discovered.
Conclusion: Amnesty International 'anti-Rights'
NGO Monitor concluded that in 2008, Amnesty International blatantly violated its own policy of political neutrality and universal morality. Its reports lacked credibility due to the misuse of international law and lack of citations or appropriate background, the group found, and as a whole the documents on Israel and the PA promoted a pro-PA agenda.
Professor Gerald Steinberg, NGO Monitor's Executive Director, said, “Amnesty International’s activities in the Middle East are totally divorced from reality, and constitute a continued attack on the moral foundation of human rights.... By any measure, Amnesty International consistently goes far beyond legitimate criticism, and has made a mockery of human rights and international law.”
Due to its focus on Israel and its often false claims, “at least in the Middle East, Amnesty International has become the leading anti-human rights organization,” Steinberg concluded.
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