Amnesty International suspends Israeli branch for two years
Amnesty International has suspended its Israel branch for two years after concluding that the latter’s “research and positions” did not “fully” align with those of the parent body, “undermining well-investigated findings for several years,” the nonprofit told JNS on Tuesday.
Amnesty’s Israel branch, which was founded in 1964, is one of the nonprofit’s oldest chapters, per the organization’s website. Amnesty International said that its Israel branch was guilty of “endemic anti-Palestinian racism,” which it said led to the resignation of multiple board members of Amnesty Israel over the past four years.
Earlier on Tuesday, an Amnesty Israel staffer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, confirmed the suspension to JNS and denied that the Tel Aviv-based chapter’s actions were racist against Palestinians. The source noted that Amnesty Israel consults with Palestinian and Jewish staffers about its statements and reports.
The source didn’t say how Amnesty’s decision would affect the Tel Aviv-based organization’s day-to-day operations.
Amnesty Israel has reportedly been dissatisfied with its parent body’s lack of concern for Israeli terror victims. On Dec. 5, Amnesty released the 296-page report “You Feel Like You Are Subhuman,” noting “Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”
The report accused Israel Defence Forces soldiers of “prohibited acts under the Genocide Convention—namely killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction in whole or in part.”
The Israeli branch, which is a legally independent organization, rejected the claims that Jerusalem is perpetrating genocide in the Strip.
“Our careful analysis does not find that the findings meet the definition of genocide, as carefully formulated in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” it stated.
In 2022, Amnesty called Jerusalem’s treatment of Palestinian Arabs “apartheid,” a conclusion that staff members of Amnesty Israel called “problematic,” “flawed” and at risk of producing “an adverse effect.”
Officials in Jerusalem have previously said that Amnesty Israel has violated anti-boycott legislation by campaigning for arms embargoes and promoting a blacklist of Jewish villages in Judea and Samaria.
Two years ago, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich instructed the Israeli Tax Authority to launch a formal probe into tax benefits that the local Amnesty branch enjoys under Israeli law.
Smotrich’s office said it also took issue with the fact that 80% of the organization’s budget came from Amnesty’s global headquarters, which it said raised questions about its legal independence.
JNS
