Israel Hayom..
03 November '15..
Amnesty International's conclusions on the situation here in Israel are always bizarrely perverse. The latest is no different: "Israeli forces have carried out a series of unlawful killings of Palestinians using intentional lethal force without justification ... based on the findings of an ongoing research trip to the West Bank, including east Jerusalem. ... The organization has documented in depth at least four incidents in which Palestinians were deliberately shot dead by Israeli forces when they posed no imminent threat to life, in what appear to have been extrajudicial executions. ... Since Oct. 1, Israeli forces have killed more than 30 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Israel either after stabbings were carried out or the Israeli authorities allege stabbing attacks were intended.
"There is mounting evidence that, as tensions have risen dramatically, in some cases Israeli forces appear to have ripped up the rule book and resorted to extreme and unlawful measures. They seem increasingly prone to using lethal force against anyone they perceive as posing a threat, without ensuring that the threat is real," Amnesty International wrote in a press release on Oct. 27.
As blogger Elder of Ziyon has already exposed, Amnesty's "in-depth documentation" is based on lies. This is the most egregious element of Amnesty's attempt to insert itself into the situation.
Another, no less infuriating element is the phrasing. The so-called researchers on behalf of Amnesty take great care not to mention explicitly, even once, against whom or why Israel is defending itself. Stabbings were "carried out" and "the Israeli authorities allege stabbing attacks were intended." So according to this kind of jargon, also popular with mainstream media outlets like the BBC ("Jerusalem attack kills two"), the stabbings more or less carry themselves out with no one really at fault.
Indeed, the phrase "Israeli authorities allege" is used precisely to plant doubt in the reader's mind as to whether the stabbings and all the other recent terrorist attacks are in fact a figment of the Israelis' paranoid imagination. Indeed, Amnesty describes Arab terror sweeping across Israel with a typical misnomer -- "mounting tensions."
Astoundingly, Amnesty does not mention a single Jewish terror victim in its report; it's not even trying to conceal its heavy bias. Instead, Philip Luther, director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at Amnesty International, says, "Israeli forces and civilians have faced genuine attacks and threats to their lives over the past weeks."
That is probably the understatement of the year. Here are the cold and heartbreaking facts according to the IDF and Magen David Adom emergency medical service: As of Nov. 2, there have been 58 stabbings, five shootings and six car rammings, in which 11 people have been killed and 153 wounded, 18 of them seriously. Magen David Adom also treated 72 people for shock. Let us not forget -- many of the terror victims who suffered shock or physical injuries will live with the effects for years to come. Many will suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, of which nightmares, constant anxiety and fear of leaving the house are just a few of the symptoms. The families and friends of the dead will live with the sorrow forever. These are real people, but Amnesty International does not even consider it worth mentioning them as a statistic.
This kind of manipulation of facts through false accusations, omission and insinuation provides implicit justification for the Arab terror spree, while at the same time it displays a warped disregard for the obligation of any state to defend its citizens. Amnesty is in no position to dictate to Israel, especially in light of the fact that Israel takes every measure imaginable to avoid senseless death and indeed gives terrorists hospital care courtesy of the same taxpaying Jews that the terrorists so desperately want to kill.
Already, the untruths that Amnesty publishes (if it were not known that the report had been published by Amnesty, it could arguably have been penned by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas himself) are emboldening those who suffer from anti-Israel delusions. On the very same day that Amnesty published its "findings," British MP Sir Gerald Kaufman claimed that Israel "fabricates stabbings" as a "ruse to execute Palestinians" and that "Jewish money" has influenced the Conservative Party. Clearly, one hardly needs to scratch the surface in order for all the old blood libels to come out, happy to greet the new ones.
Amnesty International crossed every red line long ago, but this latest report manages to up the slander of Israel one more notch. That is saying quite a lot for an organization that has been in libeling business for a long time.
Amnesty is on a mission and it is not a fact-finding one. The organization relies on donations. It would be interesting to uncover, in detail, the amount of funding Amnesty receives for the express purpose of blackening Israel's name. There are a few obvious suspects as to the identity of the donors. Whoever they are, there can be no doubt that Amnesty makes a travesty of what it purports to support: human rights.
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=14223
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