This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
JERUSALEM – The hits from international organizations keep on coming at Israel; the latest iteration in the form of a nearly 300-page report from the supposed human rights organization Amnesty International, which accused the Jewish state of committing genocide in Gaza.
Amnesty International pulled no punches, titling its report, "'You Feel Like You Are Subhuman': Israel's Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza" on the organization's website under the headline: "Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza." Amnesty said Israel sought to deliberately destroy Palestinians by mounting deadly attacks, demolishing vital infrastructure and preventing the delivery of food, medicine and other aid.
The report grudgingly admitted Hamas committed atrocities, the brutal murders of some 1,200 civilians of Oct. 7, 2023, which ignited the war, although it was quick to denounce Israel, and claimed the response to the onslaught could not be justified.
However, this fails to take into consideration a number of factors. There was a ceasefire at 6:28 on Oct. 7, which Hamas, and the thousands of Gazans who poured through the gaps in the border fence, obliterated in their videoed campaign of murder, pillage, rape, and destruction, as the terrorist group orchestrated the largest single most deadly massacre of Jews in some 80 years. It also ignores Hamas leaders' own words, when they exclaimed repeatedly that given half a chance they would gladly and willingly carry out further atrocities. Israel has pointed out it was Hamas' actions and intentions which should be described as genocide, not the war it has fought to dismantle Gaza's terrorist infrastructure.
Amnesty said the United States and other allies of Israel could be complicit in genocide, and called on them to halt arms shipments.
"Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now," Amnesty International chief Agnès Callamard said in the report. Callamard was previously the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, and the former director of the Columbia University Global Freedom of Expression project. Given both of these two institutions' animus toward the Jewish state, it should come as no surprise she has given her name to a report such as this.
The report makes multiple suggestions for how the international community should heap pressure on Israel, yet it makes no mention of the 100 hostages still held in Hamas captivity. It is thought only about 50 of them are still alive; and the fate of the youngest of them – Kfir Bibas – who was only nine-months old when abducted is still unknown.
Amnesty International said it reviewed over 100 statements by Israeli government and military officials and others since the start of the war that "dehumanized Palestinians, called for or justified genocidal acts or other crimes against them," as part of its self-appointed remit to investigate the genocide claims. It clearly solicited information and data from workers – likely Hamas-aligned on the ground in Gaza – yet it did not interview or seek comment from those on Israel's side.
Predictably, the backlash has been swift against the organization, with even the Israel branch of the group, a locally registered non-profit which is legally independent from the parent organization, distancing itself from the findings. It did concede the IDF's actions in Gaza "establish suspicions of widespread violations of international law and may amount to crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing," but it quite explicitly stopped short of described the conduct of the war as tantamount to genocide.
It echoed what many commenters on the X platform noted, namely that Amnesty International needed to alter the accepted definition of the term genocide to be able to make the claims of genocide. "Our careful analysis does not accept the findings meet the definition of genocide, as carefully formulated in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide," it added. Furthermore, it doesn't appear Amnesty International even consulted with Amnesty Israel over any of its so-called findings.
Israel's Foreign Ministry excoriated the report labeling the group "deplorable and fanatical." It accused the organization of producing a "fabricated report that is entirely false and based on lies."
NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based institute that works to hold organizations such as Amnesty International to account, called the report "a sham," and labeled it an "immoral attack" and "blatant genocide inversion." It alleged even some of Amnesty's own employees admitted the research was highly questionable and that it was effectively attempting to shoehorn an "investigation" into a conclusion it had already drawn.
