Guardian columnists’ continued dehumanisation of Israelis

Israelinurse
CiF Watch
01 February '11

What a newspaper does not report can be just as revealing as what it does.

Back in May 2010 CiF rushed to report the arrest of two Arab Israelis suspected of espionage, allowing Ben White to make wild claims that “Israel seeks to silence dissent” and “repressive practices long used in the West Bank and Gaza are now being used to limit civil liberties within Israel”.

White claimed that:

“Several examples now point to an uncomfortable reality for the self-proclaimed “only democracy in the Middle East”: practices that have long been routine in the military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza are being used in Israel to suppress dissent and limit civil liberties.” (my emphasis)

He attempted to paint a terrifying picture of Soviet-style assaults on the civil liberties of Israel’s Arab citizens:

“So why is this happening now? First, it is the latest manifestation of a deteriorating atmosphere in Israel, with political dissent and human rights groups under attack…..

….Second, there is also a specific focus on Israel’s Palestinian minority…..

…..Hussein Abu Hussein, the lawyer for both Makhoul and Said, stressed the role of someone like Makhoul in being a prominent advocate internationally for “the need for accountability” – in other words, “the state has enough reasons to stop this voice”. Mohammad Zeidan, of the Arab Association for Human Rights (HRA), says that the arrests are “clearly political”. He believes that for some in Israel, the work being done by NGOs and Arab parties on the international level is “crossing a red line” – “they want to remind us that this is not a democracy”. “

Ten days after White’s article, CiF published a piece by Yousef Munayyer in which he too took up the theme of Israel’s supposed ‘intimidation’ of Ameer Makhoul.

(Read full "Guardian columnists’ continued dehumanisation of Israelis")

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Amnesty International: Israel is Criminal by Definition

Yaacov Lozowick
Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations
31 January '11

http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/2011/01/amnesty-iternational-israel-is-criminal.html

I've been wondering for months if Amnesty International would ever repent for the way it blasted Israel when our police arrested Ameer Makhuol last year. (Here, here, here and here). I even e-mailed them a couple of times, and tweeted. There was of course never any response, nor was one ever expected.

Yesterday, following Makhoul's conviction, Amnesty International finally revisited the story:

"Ameer Makhoul's jailing is a very disturbing development and we will be studying the details of the sentencing as soon as we can," said Philip Luther, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa deputy director.

"Ameer Makhoul is well known for his human rights activism on behalf of Palestinians in Israel and those living under Israeli occupation. We fear that this may be the underlying reason for his imprisonment."

Translated into English: we haven't read the court's decision, but we know it's wrong, and we know it was handed down because Makhoul is a human rights activist who stands up for Palestinians.

Since the court's decision is in Hebrew, there's no reason to expect anyone at AI will ever read it.

Many years ago, when I was a wee lad at university, I was profoundly and lastingly impressed by the writings of Carl Popper. One of the things I learned from him was about how rational inquiry always needs to ask itself not only what might constitute proof, but what would constitute disproof. In other words, what set of facts might force the inquirer to admit that his thesis is wrong, or at least needs to be modified. If the AI folks and I were still sophomoric students bandying around ideas for the intellectual stimulation, I'd ask them what set of hypothetical facts could possible dampen their conviction that Israel is evil, and is the kind of place that sends innocent men to long jail terms out of mere spite.

Since we're not, I'll postulate that they're driven, among other motivations, by simple old hatred of the Jews, and invite them to submit facts that would disprove this. In any case, they're clearly not in the business of carefully reporting reality. And they are in the business of discrediting the noble idea of human rights.

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Prominent 'Israeli-Arab' sentenced for spying for Hezbullah

Carl
Israel Matzav
30 January '11

A prominent 'Israeli Arab,' who admitted to spying for Hezbullah, has been sentenced to nine years in jail.

He admitted to the charges against him, and speaking outside the court continued to accuse the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) of singling out Arab-Israeli public figures. Makhoul vowed to continue his public activism after he completes his sentence.

(Read full "Prominent 'Israeli-Arab' sentenced for spying for Hezbullah")

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Head of Israeli-Arab NGO admits to spying against Israel

NGO Monitor
16 November '10

On October 27, 2010 Haaretz reported that Ameer Makhoul the director of Israeli-Arab NGO Ittijah, “confess[ed] to charges of spying, contact with a foreign agent and giving information to the enemy.” Makhoul, as head of Ittijah, has a background of anti-Israel activities characterized by demonization and hate rhetoric. For example, an Ittijah email during the Gaza war claimed, “the IDF is turning Gaza into kind of an extermination camp, in the full sense of the word and with the full historical relativity.”

Despite the serious charges against Makhoul, NGOs defended him and attempted to portray the Israeli justice system as illegitimate. Amnesty International accused Israel of “harassment of [a] human rights defender” and that his detention was “designed to hinder his human rights work.” Without providing evidence for these claims, Deputy Director of Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa Programme Phillip Luther asserted that it was “unlikely...that there are genuine grounds to prosecute Makhoul.”

Similarly, Adalah labeled Makhoul “a political activist and human rights defender,” and implied that his arrest was linked to “attacks against human rights organizations in Israel working to defend Palestinian rights.”

Following Makhoul’s plea bargain, the NGOs have not issued retractions or corrections of their misstatements.

(Click here for full Digest (VOL. 9, NO. 1)

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Some news about Amnesty

Elder of Ziyon
31 October '10

A couple of recent items about Amnesty International:

In May, Amnesty released a strongly worded communique condemning Israel for arresting a "human rights activist":

Amnesty International has called on the Israeli authorities to end their harassment of a human rights activist whose week-long detention by the Israeli authorities was extended today.

Ameer Makhoul, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, was arrested in a dawn raid at his home in Haifa, northern Israel, by the Israeli security services and police on 6 May. He has been charged with "contact with a foreign agent" on the basis of “secret evidence”.

"Ameer Makhoul is a key human rights defender, well-known for his civil society activism on behalf of the Palestinian citizens of Israel," said Philip Luther, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Programme.

"His arrest and continued detention smacks of pure harassment, designed to hinder his human rights work. If this is the case, we would regard him as a prisoner of conscience call for his immediate and unconditional release.”

Last week, this "key human rights defender" admitted to being a spy for Hezbollah.

(Read full post)

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Hizbullah on the homefront

Caroline Glick
carolineglick.com
18 May '10

Last week Lebanese commentator Tony Badran published an article on the Now Lebanon Web site discussing the Iranian way of war. In "The shape of things to come," he discussed the significance of the breakup of a Hizbullah cell in Kuwait and the deportation of Hizbullah agents from Bahrain. Badran explained that like the Hizbullah ring arrested last year in Egypt, the Hizbullah cells in Persian Gulf states demonstrate how Iran uses Hizbullah to extend its regional power.

Badran noted that Iran's cultivation of fifth columnists in target countries through Hizbullah puts paid to the notion that it will be possible to contain a nuclear Iran. Armed with both nuclear weapons and armed agents in states throughout the region, Iran will be well positioned to bend all regional states to its will.

US security guarantees will be worthless. Living under the threat of the Iranian bomb, neighboring states will be unable to take steps to curb Iranian agents subverting their governments from within their sovereign territory.

For Israel, the threat is obviously more acute. Whereas states like Kuwait and Bahrain will be able to suffer through an Iranian Middle Eastern hegemony, Israel will have no such luxury. Iran has made clear that in an Iranian-ruled Middle East, there will be no room for Israel. And so Israel must act soon to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

But then there is the homefront.

With each passing day, it becomes more and more apparent that as is the case in Kuwait, Bahrain and Egypt, through Hizbullah, Iran has established cells of sympathizers among Israeli Arabs. This means that as Israel prepares to strike Iran, it must minimize Iran's ability to retaliate from fifth column bases inside the country.

(Read full article)

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Amnesty International, Purveyor of Fine Slander

Yaacov Lozowick
Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations
13 May '10

Amnesty International, alongside Human Rights Watch the top so-called human rights organization in the world, yesterday published a piece of blatant slander of the State of Israel. The document is online here, but I'll cite it in its entirety, from the title down.

Israel must stop harassment of human rights defender

Black and white, cut and dried, no nuance or ambiguity. Israel must desist from the harassment it's engaging in.

Amnesty International has called on the Israeli authorities to end their harassment of a human rights activist whose week-long detention by the Israeli authorities was extended today.

Ditto. Israel is doing it, and must desist.

Ameer Makhoul, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, was arrested in a dawn raid at his home in Haifa, northern Israel, by the Israeli security services and police on 6 May. He has been charged with "contact with a foreign agent" on the basis of “secret evidence”.

The form the harassment is taking is in the parenthesis. Their content doesn't express truth, or even potential truth, merely a form of mockery of a judicial process.

"Ameer Makhoul is a key human rights defender, well-known for his civil society activism on behalf of the Palestinian citizens of Israel," said Philip Luther, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Programme. "His arrest and continued detention smacks of pure harassment, designed to hinder his human rights work. If this is the case, we would regard him as a prisoner of conscience call for his immediate and unconditional release.”

We know him. He's of our club, a human rights defender. People like us are expected to be harassed, and secret evidence about espionage is standard harassment. Do note, however, that Mr Luther (what a delicious name for a potential antisemite) is less certain of himself than the anonymous writer of the communique. True, the detention smacks of pure harassment, a form which is worse than impure harassment, and we'll regard him as a prisoner of conscience - but only if we're certain the allegations are true. Mr Luther isn't totally sure, he's hedging his bets, obfuscating. He's convinced enough to broadcast censure of Israel, but not enough to stand behind the allegation.

(Read full post)

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