Amnesty Israel: for human rights or Israel’s political agenda?

Israel’s genocide in Gaza has been up for debate for over a year and diluted to the point that even humanitarian pauses have evaporated into nothingness. The only sliver of concern that remains is securing the release of the remaining Israeli hostages. And the only reason the hostages still feature prominently in Israel’s security narrative is that if the hostages are exploited, Israel can continue committing genocide under the auspices of saving them. The Palestinians, meanwhile? Butchered, permanently maimed, killed, dismembered, disappeared, burnt to death? Their plight will be catalogued in reports which diplomats, and even rights organisations, can either refute, undermine, or discard.

Amnesty International’s 296-page report, You Feel Like You are Subhuman: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza, is one such example.

“According to Amnesty International,” the report’s conclusion states, “the evidence it has gathered provides a sufficient basis to conclude that Israel, through its policies, actions and omissions against Palestinians in Gaza following 7 October 2023, committed and is committing genocide. Although this report focused on a nine-month period, Amnesty International is unaware of evidence suggesting that Israel’s policies, actions and omissions have changed in any significant way.”

However, this unequivocal statement was rejected by the Israeli branch of Amnesty International. Distancing itself from the international human rights organisation, Amnesty Israel said that it “does not accept the claim that genocide has been proven to be taking place in the Gaza Strip and does not accept the operative findings of the report.” Four out of its nine board members have since resigned: one claiming that Israel is not adequately represented by the organisation and three on the grounds of insufficient representation of Palestinian voices.

Several purported criticisms were put forth by Amnesty Israel. The report was described as containing “artificial analysis” and working to establish a predetermined conclusion. “Predetermined conclusions of this kind are not typical of other Amnesty International investigations,” Amnesty Israel statements obtained by Ha’aretz partially read.

Amnesty Israel also accused the international organisation of “minimising the seriousness of the October 7 massacre” and “seeking to support a popular narrative among Amnesty International’s target audience.”

Amnesty Israel has conveniently forgotten that when human rights organisations were calling out Israel’s apartheid and military occupation, Amnesty International USA qualified its report by saying that it “hasn’t taken a position on occupation” and instead focused on “the Israeli government’s obligations, as the occupying power under international law.”

Could it be that Amnesty Israel expected a similar stance in the context of Gaza’s genocide? After all, Amnesty Israel could not escape stating that “the scale of the killing and destruction carried out by Israel in Gaza has reached horrific proportions and must be stopped immediately”. But it stopped short of recognising genocide.

Amnesty Israel’s branch endorsed Israel’s genocide under rhetoric that mellows the scale of the settler-colonial entity’s crimes against humanity. It isn’t alone in doing so – world leaders have, in varying degrees, also provided support for Israel’s genocide by focusing on what the world has already normalised and not what Israel is in the process of normalising. Therefore, forced displacement, “inhumane conditions”, Israel’s refusal to make humanitarian aid accessible, the official kill toll, together with the rhetoric of conflict, war and both sides, are all acceptable and safe diplomatic spaces to criticise Israel’s actions from, without taking a stance against genocide.

Amnesty Israel is in complicit company in denying the genocide in Gaza. The US also refuted the report. “We have said previously and we continue to find the allegations of genocide to be unfounded,” US State Department Deputy Spokesman Vidant Patel stated. Amnesty International’s report is merely “an opinion”, he stated. Meanwhile, the US admitted that it has not drawn any formal conclusion but continues to engage in “deliberative processes” relating to “the situations on the ground”.

Germany’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Sebastian Fischer also said that there is no conclusive evidence of genocide in Gaza. “The question of genocide presupposes a clear intention to eradicate an ethnic group. I still do not recognise any such clear intention and therefore I cannot share the conclusions of the report,” he said.

Such a statement eliminates the continuous incitement by Israel officials to completely cleanse Gaza of Palestinians. Human animals – former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant set the scene for the Palestinian people’s current dehumanisation in Gaza, which fed into Israel’s security narrative and its purported right to defend itself –  a bogus right still upheld by Israel’s political allies. Israeli President Isaac Herzog dismissed the reality of innocent civilians in Gaza, stating there aren’t any. All Palestinians in Gaza are legitimate targets, according to Herzog. And it is not just Herzog that espouses this violence.

So where exactly does Amnesty Israel stand? Its position is eerily similar to that popularised by the international community, yet this stance is coming from within Israel itself. Which shows that a segment of Israel’s settler society is attempting to find a non-existent middle ground that provides further impunity. As a human rights organisation, Amnesty Israel should be standing for human rights. And there is no endorsement of human rights in denying a genocide so documented, broadcast for the world to see, live streamed at times, and always hailed as defence.

Amnesty Israel is part of Israel’s settler-colonial fabric. How much of its statements with regard to Amnesty International’s report are related to state denial of genocide? Amnesty Israel has been boosted in Israel media for its stance. Unlike B’Tselem in 2021, which faced immense backlash after its designation of Israel as an apartheid state. One must ask why – when faced with the most serious of all crimes against humanity – a human rights organisation takes a step back to defend the politics of a settler-colonial enterprise that was founded upon premeditated ethnic cleansing?

Amnesty Israel’s stance is political, not rights based. It mirrors the diplomatic rhetoric that allows Israel to proceed with genocide. Now, from within Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a human rights organisation that is promoting a similar framework – the killing of Palestinians “must stop”. But the question is no longer about killing but wiping out an indigenous population rendered refugees since the 1948 Nakba and continuously since then. Has Amnesty Israel found a middle ground to condemn one part of premeditated murder but not the genocidal framework and its implementation? Is this the part where unrecognised genocide becomes part of Israel and the international community’s concept of so-called human rights?

Amnesty Israel: for human rights or Israel’s political agenda?