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Amnesty International under fire over report accusing Israel of Gaza genocide

Israeli Foreign Ministry castigates ‘fanatical’ Amnesty International report accusing IDF of ‘genocide’ in the Gaza Strip, while human rights lawyer blasts report as ‘baseless’ and distorted.

By World Israel News Staff

The London-based NGO Amnesty International published a report Thursday accusing Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, drawing sharp criticism from the Israeli government and Jewish activists.

On Thursday, Amnesty International released its report on the war between Israel and the Hamas terror organization, entitled ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza, accusing Israel of unleashing “hell and destruction” on the inhabitants of the coastal enclave.

“Amnesty International’s report demonstrates that Israel has carried out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza,” said Amnesty Secretary-General Agnès Callamard.

“These acts include killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction. Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them.”

“Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now.

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Callamard called on the United States, Britain, and European Union-member states to halt arms sales to Israel, citing Thursday’s report.

“States that continue to transfer arms to Israel at this time must know they are violating their obligation to prevent genocide and are at risk of becoming complicit in genocide.”

Human rights attorney Arsen Ostrovsky, CEO of The International Legal Forum, castigated the Amnesty report, calling it a “blood libel” against Israel that “belongs in the dustbin of antisemitic history.”

“Perhaps knowing it doesn’t have a legal leg to stand on, Amnesty has resorted to manufacturing its own definition of ‘genocide’ against Israel, by claiming in their report that the universally established – and sole accepted legal definition – as outlined in the Genocide Convention of 1948, requiring the existence of intent, is an ‘overly cramped interpretation of international jurisprudence and one that would effectively preclude a finding of genocide in the context of an armed conflict,’” Ostrovsky tweeted.

“Really says all you need to know about how absurd and entirely baseless, Amnesty’s charge is against Israel.”

“This report, written under the guise of ‘international law and human rights’, is utterly baseless and replete with malicious lies, gross distortions of truth and fabrications of law,” Ostrovsky said.

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“To accuse Israel of ‘genocide’ in Gaza is a gross and egregious subversion and weaponization of the very term itself, made even more unconscionable given the October 7 attacks were the largest mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.”

The watchdog group NGO Monitor called Amnesty International’s report an “immoral attack targeting Israel.”

The NGO twists and invents legal standards, erases the monstrous Hamas war crimes of October 7, and turns unverifiable accusations into “evidence”.

“Under the facade of an ‘investigative report,’ this publication and accompanying campaign are timed to reinforce the meeting of the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties as part of the ongoing lobbying to bolster the Prosecutor’s pursuit of Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant. Amnesty’s exploitation of ‘genocide’ is also linked to the NGO’s role in lawsuits in the Netherlands and the UK that seek to impose a full arms embargo on Israel,” said NGO Monitor Legal Advisor, Anne Herzberg.

“For over two decades, Amnesty, whose founder Peter Benenson, was a strong supporter of Israel, has repeated false accusations of war crimes, apartheid, and similar labels that are designed to demonize and delegitimize Israel’s existence.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry decried Amnesty as “deplorable and fanatical,” calling Thursday’s report a “fabrication.”

“The deplorable and fanatical organization Amnesty International has once again produced a fabricated report that is entirely false and based on lies. The genocidal massacre on October 7, 2023, was carried out by the Hamas terrorist organization against Israeli citizens. Since then, Israeli citizens have been subjected to daily attacks from seven different fronts.”

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“No Amnesty International, Israel fight against Hamas is not a Genocide, it is the right and duty of a democratic nation when its citizens are being brutally attacked by Jihadist monsters,” tweeted Avi Nir-Feldklein, Israel’s Ambassador to Budapest.

“Your blood libel against Israel is serving those that really committed Genocide.”