Amnesty International Boycotts UK Jewish Event to Support BDS

Siding with anti-Semites and opposing open debate, Amnesty International has cancelled a debate with the UK’s Jewish community over the UN’s biased human rights agency. 

By: JNS.org and United with Israel Staff

Amnesty International sparked outrage among the British Jewish community after citing support for the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in its withdrawal from an event it had organized with the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC), an umbrella group of major British Jewish organizations.

The event, a panel discussion on Israel and the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), was scheduled to take place Wednesday at Amnesty International’s London offices.

Human rights lawyer Danny Friedman was slated to chair the panel, with speakers Fred Carver of the UN Association and Hillel Neuer of UN Watch joining the discussion.

Amnesty withdrew from hosting the event last Friday, citing its campaign “for all governments around the world to ban the import of goods produced in the illegal Israeli settlements.”

“We do not, therefore, think it appropriate for Amnesty International to host an event by those actively supporting such settlements,” the group stated.

Amnesty Has ‘Lost its Moral Compass’

In response to Amnesty’s withdrawal from the event and expressed support for BDS, the JLC said, “We have long argued that the aggressive criticism of Israeli government policy creates an environment where anti-Semitism thrives, and it is highly regrettable that on this occasion Amnesty International UK’s decision has targeted the Jewish community.”

“When a world human rights movement seeks to shut down open discussion, they have lost their moral compass,” Hillel Neuer stated. ” What is Amnesty afraid of … heads spontaneously combusting?” Neuer jokingly asked.

“Amnesty disgracefully cancelled, but we will not be silenced. I am coming to the UK this week to call for a revival of the founding values of human rights, hijacked by despots and their apologists,” he added.

Last November, Israeli Strategic Affairs and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan requested that Amnesty International’s eligibility quotas to operate in Israel be rescinded due to its support for BDS.

The UNHRC is infamously biased against Israel, with nearly half of its resolutions focused solely on Israel, while it ignores war, strife and atrocities committed around the globe. Israeli leaders and officials have cited the UNHRC for its “obsessive hostility” toward Israel and “one-sided mandate.”

Over the past 10 years, the UNHRC has passed 62 resolutions condemning Israel. Meanwhile, actual human rights abusers, including the world’s worst offenders in Syria, Iran, and North Korea, have received far fewer condemnations.