Amnesty official under fire
Australia’s B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) has denounced a series of anti-Israel twitter posts by Kristyan Benedict, campaigns manager for Amnesty UK, in which he accuses the Israeli government of “getting away with murder every day” and “facilitating the murder” of Ali Saad Dawabsheh.
Kristyan Benedict
Mr Benedict also claims that the death of Ali Saad Dawabsheh “gives Israel’s establishment an opportunity to justify its collective punishment of Palestinians”. Mr Benedict also retweeted a post by terrorist group Hamas accusing Israel of “war crimes”. Last year, Mr Benedict compared Israel to ISIS and in 2012 he was ordered to apologise after a tweet that he posted about three Jewish British MPs was deemed by Amnesty UK as “inappropriate and offensive” but not “antisemitic”.
Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the ADC, said: “Once again Amnesty UK has shown that it has zero credibility when it comes to Israel and that it is part of the problem rather than the solution.
Regrettably, Amnesty UK officials never miss an opportunity to lambast Israel, showing their grossly distorted and biased perspective. Only four months ago we denounced the decision by Amnesty UK to reject a motion tabled at its Annual General Meeting that would have supported a campaign against the increase in antisemitism in Britain and that would have lobbied the government to tackle the rise in attacks. To use the death of an 18 month old baby as an opportunity to defame Israel is outrageous and immoral.
These disgusting tweets by Mr Benedict are part of a longstanding pattern of rushing to judgment and stigmatizing Israel. Mr Benedict conveniently chose to ignore the fact that after the murder of Ali Saad Dawabsheh, Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu condemned the attack as “terrorism”, and that numerous Israeli politicians, including Israel’s President, as well as Jewish leaders around the world, said they were shocked by this evil act.
Further, Prime Minister Netanyahu has said that Israel was committed to” find the perpetrators and to bring them to justice”. Instead of dismissing Mr Benedict for his incitement, and for his one-sided and inflammatory anti-Israel statements, which include retweeting a post from a terrorist group that has openly declared that it wants to obliterate Israel, Amnesty UK has chosen to stand by its senior director and to legitimize such hateful statements.
With the explosion of antisemitism across Europe, Amnesty UK has failed, time after time, to show leadership as a human rights campaigner on this pivotal issue, and continues to employ a person who delights in abusing and vilifying Israel.”
This is just rubbish- You may differ with the man’s politics, but anti-Semitic? Grand Chairman Abramovich fail to mention that Benedict is brutal on the perpetrators of violence in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East, and has just tweeted, for example, about the death of one of Pinocet’s lieutenants which he celebrates. Why is his general human rights perspective missing from Dr D.A.’s comments?
And with respect to the claim that the tweet cited at the top of the article states that the murder of the babby “gives Israel’s establishment an opportunity to justify its collective punishment of Palestinians”– yes, but that is only part of what Benedict is alluding to. Read what the Benedict’s tweet links to–nothing more than an opinion of the Israeli leader of the Opposition Isaac Herzog, who stated that the full force of state power should be used against what he says are Jewish and Islamic terrorists, and I quote “would class them as terrorist organizations. And even consider demolishing the homes of these terrorists and their families. Everything that is used to strike against Islamist terrorism should be used here too.”
“The opposition leader also demanded that the media stop whitewashing such attacks and call “this by its true name. It is not a revenge attack, nor is it a price tag. It is terrorism. Period. And they are terrorists. Period. Jews and Islamists who endanger the security of Israel.” [https://twitter.com/timesofisrael/status/627438146075013120].
And Benedict was cleared of claims of anti-Semitism last year-bad taste yes, anti-Semitism no. But the ADC fails to mention that he was cleared, as if the case is still open.
Strong politics in pointing out t. Certainly. Antisemitic? No.
And before people start banging on about AI support for Hamas– AI has denounced Hamas for its war crimes, for example http://tinyurl.com/qc3e88a.
Doesn’t ADC have anything better to do than issue such statements on a cold Sunday?
Mr Stillman, The article does not accuse Mr Benedict of anti semitism, it accuses him of unfair anti Israel statements. It actually accuses AI UK of rejecting a motion to work against anti semitism in the UK. So please check the facts and actually read the article before knee jerk responses
No. The whole thrust of the article is towards the last paragraph, as are all the complaints about AI from the sources that the ADC draws upon -critique of Israel is simplistically collapsed into antisemitism
Hi John, do you have their email addresses. Please publish them here so we can complain to them
We all need to be active in these matters.
Its no good leaving it to only “official bodies.”
My suggestion is that as individuals we write to Amnesty in UK and Australia, and to David Cameron’s office in UK.
Cease all donations to Amnesty.
Tell all our friends
This benedict individual must be fired forthwith, with a public apology.
But we can assume this will not happen.
So our organizations that represent us should keep logging these occurrences, sothat we can present these facts when needed.