Jerusalem rebuffed Amnesty’s heavily biased report that alleges Israel committed war crimes during Operation Protective Edge. Hamas is not mentioned as a terror group. Surprised?
Israelis examine the damage to a house hit by a Hamas rocket. (Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Amnesty’s report on Operation Protective Edge, which accuses Israel of wrongdoing, is baseless and produces no evidence. It also completely ignores Hamas’s war crimes against Israel, Israel’s Foreign Ministry charged.
Amnesty International published the report on Wednesday, in which they allege that Israel committed war crimes during the summer war against Hamas terrorists.
Titled “Families under the Rubble: Israeli attacks on inhabited homes,” the Amnesty report claims that Israeli forces killed scores of Palestinian civilians in attacks intentionally targeting houses full of families. The report details eight cases where residential family homes in Gaza were allegedly attacked by Israeli forces without warning, causing the deaths of at least 104 civilians, including 62 children.
The report claims to reveal a pattern of frequent Israeli attacks using large aerial bombs to level civilian homes, sometimes killing entire families.
“Israeli forces have brazenly flouted the laws of war by carrying out a series of attacks on civilian homes, displaying callous indifference to the carnage caused,” said Philip Luther, director of Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa program.
The report completely ignores Hamas’s attacks on Israeli civilians, its use of human shields and of schools, mosques and hospitals as weapons caches and fortified positions, the terror tunnels and other war crimes it had committed against Israel.
Biased, Unfounded, Questionable Methodology
Hamas terror tunnel. (Photo: IDF)
Israel’s foreign ministry issued a statement strongly rejecting the report, saying it was unfounded and at the same time ignored documented war crimes perpetrated by Hamas.
“The report does not mention the word terror in relation to Hamas or other armed Palestinian groups,” the statement read. “By ignoring the nature of the enemy Israel faced in Gaza – a terror group recognized as such by the European Union, the United States and others – Amnesty’s report fails to contribute to the important discussion needed to solve the conflict. Instead, Amnesty serves as a propaganda tool for Hamas and other terror groups.”
The foreign ministry pointed out that Israel had launched its own inquiry into some 90 incidents of possible misconduct. “These measures are dismissed by Amnesty as insufficient, yet in comparison to Israel’s rigorous procedures Amnesty’s own methodology raises questions,” the foreign ministry said, referring to the fact that the report was written not by Amnesty staff, but by local contractors who are not mentioned by name and referred to only as “field workers.” Furthermore, there is no independent verification of their claims.
“The extreme bias of the report is best displayed in its recommendations: Hamas is not mentioned, as if the group has no responsibility for the bloodshed; meanwhile, the report dismisses Israel’s security challenges. Amnesty should understand that producing a narrow, decontextualized report restricts its capability to advance positive change,” the statement concludes.
Anti-Israel Tweet by Amnesty Executive
Kristyan Benedict, Amnesty’s crisis response manager for Syria, tweeted an offensive, anti-Israel message in response to the foreign ministry’s defense of Israel. Benedict compares Israel to the notorious Islamic State (IS or ISIS) terror group, also known as ISIL (Islamic State in the Levant), with this tweet:
#JSIL means “Jewish State in the Levant”, a comparison of Israel to the murderous ISIL used by anti-Semitic activists.
The Israeli embassy in London questioned Amnesty’s integrity. “Amnesty’s campaign manager has unfortunately compromised the integrity of his organization, by choosing to use the #JSIL hashtag, used by the most extreme activists to compare Israel with the ISIS terror group,” the embassy said in a statement.
Benedict has a history of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic tweets. Benedict was made to apologize by Amnesty, however, he is still employed by them.
Author: Aryeh Savir
Staff Writer, United with Israel
Amnesty has a history of biased anti-Israel reports. Their employee’s message speaks volumes. How should supporters of Israel react?