Amnesty International

Amnesty International Fails Again

By: Paula R. Stern
June 2007 

A new Amnesty International Report on the West Bank has charged Israel with the "destruction of hope" of Palestinians. Funny that they do not identify this supposed destruction with ongoing Palestinian corruption, internal fighting, the embezzlement and misuse of millions of dollars that should have been spent on education, on health care, on roads and infrastructure.  

The report's bias becomes obvious from its very title: "Enduring Occupation: Palestinians under siege in the West Bank," and goes downhill quickly from there. No mention is made of Israel's having withdrawn from Gaza, the ongoing rocket attacks on the people of Sderot, the huge number of attempted suicide bombings that have been stopped by Israel's security forces.  

Amnesty calls the Security Fence a "the wall of death," but ignores the fact that for many Israelis, it is a wall of life, protecting hundreds of thousands of people from suicide bombers and other terrorist attempts. Since the so-called "wall of death" has been constructed, the rate of suicide bombings has dropped by more than 90% (as has the rate of car thefts and many other violent and non-violent crimes).   Amnesty attempts to justify the one-sided, biased report that is only directed at Israel by saying, "...you cannot ask armed groups to conduct investigations, or to put in place mechanisms, because that's not what armed groups are supposed to do. "

Isn't that convenient? Isn't that just too easy for Amnesty?   No, Amnesty's intention is clear for all to see, made more obvious than ever by its latest failure to live up to the test of honesty, integrity and true research. To unmask the simple truth, the reality is that if Jews or Israelis are doing it, it will be condemned by Amnesty International, by the United Nations General Assembly and by as many other self-serving and prejudiced organizations that can be found.

Amnesty admits its own limitations: "we have not carried out studies on textbooks used in the PA or by other authorities on that matter. As far as the issue of armed struggle of different parties throughout the world that wish to conduct wars, or armed struggles, as an organization we're not opposed to that." That doesn't stop them from commenting and condemning Israeli actions of self-defense.  

It would be nice to say that this report has damaged Amnesty's credibility, but sadly, it has no credibility left to harm. Thus, this report simply becomes another mound of useless information added to a long history of poor judgments. If Amnesty International were to actually try to research its work, it would likely find its members endangered, kidnapped and murdered in Gaza.  

Luckily for them, the chances of this happening are about as remote as Hamas honoring a real ceasefire, Bashar Assad ever really working for peace, or Mahmoud Ahmedinejad planning only non-violent uses for his nuclear development.