Israel Accuses Amnesty International of Inciting Anti-Semitism for Labelling It 'Apartheid' Regime
Israel has asked Amnesty International to withdraw an upcoming report by the group, accusing the UK branch of the organization of "being corrupted by racism and xenophobia". In labeling Israel as an "apartheid state", Amnesty would be following in the footsteps of other groups such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Israeli NGO B'Tselem.
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The report by Amnesty International is scheduled to be released on Tuesday. But its embargoed version has supposedly been leaked on social media.
Among its several recommendations, the paper compiled by Amnesty reportedly calls for international sanctions and an "arms embargo" against Israel over its policy towards the Palestinians.
While Amnesty has on several occasions criticised what it calls Israel's "institutional discrimination" against the Palestinian population, it has never classified Tel Aviv's policy as falling under the category of "apartheid", which the Rome Statute of 2002 described as a "crime against humanity".
"In publishing this false report, Amnesty UK uses double standards and demonisation in order to delegitimise Israel. These are the exact components from which modern anti-Semitism is made", a statement from the Israeli Foreign Ministry said on the eve of report's release.
The Foreign Ministry further said that the upcoming report "once again" showed that "anti-Semitism is not just a part of history", but also part of "today's reality".
"The report denies the State of Israel's right to exist as the nation-state of the Jewish people. Its extremist language and distortion of historical context were designed to demonise Israel and pour fuel onto the fire of anti-Semitism", the official statement added.
Tel Aviv has also claimed that Israel is a "strong and vibrant democracy that grants all its citizens equal rights, regardless of religion or race".
In a video statement, Israel's Foreign Minister Yair Lapid accused Amnesty of quoting "lies spread by terrorist organisations".
"Israel is not perfect, but it is a democracy committed to international law and open to scrutiny, with a free press and strong Supreme Court", Lapid stated.
Lapid further questioned why Amnesty hadn't declared Syria, Iran, or any "other murderous regime" in Africa or Latin America as an "apartheid state".
War crimes committed by Israel since June 2014 are already the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC). Israel has said that it won't cooperate in the investigation.
