NGO Monitor blasts Amnesty for not condemning rockets

Amnesty International issued a press release recently titled “Civilians At Risk Amid New Attacks in Gaza and Israel” and the statement did not contain any references to Israel’s right to defend its border against terror attacks.

Not only that but Prof. Gerald Steinberg, NGO Monitor president, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that “instead of issuing a strong condemnation of the August 18 Palestinian terror attacks, Amnesty International’s statement draws a false equivalence between cold-blooded murder and self defense that targeted those responsible.”

This is what you can do for Israel today:
1. On facebook: LIKE the Amnesty International facebook page and post the following message: Deal with human rights and stop defending terrorism. Israel has every right to defend itself against terrorists according to international law.
2. On Twitter : Post the following message @AmnestyOnline deal with human rights and stop defending terrorism against Israel http://tinyurl.com/3eeh5go

The Jerusalem-based human rights watchdog organization NGO Monitor sharply criticized Amnesty International’s response to last week’s Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers, which resulted in the killing of eight Israelis and scores of wounded.

He added that “from Amnesty’s statement, one has no idea that terrorists walked up to a car and brutally murdered the four passengers. Amnesty has immorally treated both the murders and the self-defense response as ‘indiscriminate and disproportionate.’ In obscuring the facts on the ground, Amnesty again makes a complete mockery of international law and human rights values.”

Citing media reports that the assailants were dressed in Egyptian military uniforms and their illegal entry into Egypt and Israel, NGO Monitor said the attacks represent a “violation of international humanitarian law. If the terrorists indeed originated from Gaza, they also violated the sovereignty of both Egypt and Israel, a detail that was also ignored by Amnesty.”

NGO Monitor criticized Amnesty for not condemning “the more than 100 rockets launched from Gaza into Israel over the weekend, killing one and injuring dozens” or acknowledging that “10 of the 13 Palestinians killed were terrorists, and that the other three were with the terrorists at the time of their death.”

Steinberg told the Post that “without any evidence, Amnesty officials also imply that Israel is in violation of the prohibition of ‘harming civilians.’ In fact, the evidence demonstrates that Israel’s response was extremely precise – targeting the terrorists responsible for the murderous attacks. In the rush to condemn Israel, Amnesty distorts the events beyond recognition.”

Amnesty International has long drawn criticism from pro- Israel advocates because of the NGO’s reported bias against Israel and the organization’s association with radical Islamic terrorists. Last year, the head of AI’s Finland branch, Frank Johansson, defended his description of Israel as a “scum state” in an interview with the Post.

This is what you can do for Israel today:
1. On facebook: LIKE the Amnesty International facebook page and post the following message: Deal with human rights and stop defending terrorism. Israel has every right to defend itself against terrorists according to international law.
2. On Twitter : Post the following message @AmnestyOnline deal with human rights and stop defending terrorism against Israel http://tinyurl.com/3eeh5go

For full article: Jerusalem Post