Watchdog: Amnesty International plans ‘intense’ effort to target Israel

Amnesty International in planning an ‘intense’ effort to target Israel in early 2019, warns Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor.

By The Algemeiner

Amnesty International is planning to target Israel with several “intense” campaigns early this year, a Jerusalem-based watchdog group said on Thursday, citing what it described as “leaked” documents.

“In this process, Amnesty will delegitimize Jewish historical connections to Jerusalem and elsewhere, as well as promote discriminatory boycotts (BDS) against Israel,” Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor said.

As part of its effort — according to the documents viewed by NGO Monitor — Amnesty will go after businesses that it believes are “profiting from human rights abuses by operating in the illegal Israeli settlements.”

“This language mirrors that used by U.N. bureaucrats preparing the UNHRC [U.N. Human Rights Council] blacklist,” NGO Monitor said. “The list is aimed at economically damaging companies that are owned by Jews or do business with Israel, and is ultimately meant to harm the Jewish state. Amnesty’s campaign is timed to bolster this U.N. blacklist, for which Amnesty has been lobbying intensively, and to serve as an alternative should the UN not publish its list.”

Furthermore, the documents showed Amnesty intended to lobby governments “to ban Israeli settlement goods from entering your markets, and to stop companies based in your country operating in settlements or trading in their goods,” NGO Monitor revealed.

NGO Monitor accused Amnesty of ignoring rising in anti-Semitism in Europe and the U.S., while singling out Israel.

“Instead of recognizing the fight against anti-Semitism as a human rights issue worthy of attention, Amnesty has decided to ratchet up its targeting of the Jewish state,” NGO Monitor said.

Israel and Amnesty have long been at odds over the human rights group’s criticisms of Jerusalem’s actions and policies.

At the start of last year, it was reported that Israel was acting to enforce its anti-BDS law against Amnesty.

Around the same time, Amnesty drew the ire of U.K. Jews when it withdrew from an event in London it had organized with the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC). In explaining its decision, Amnesty highlighted its backing of a settlements boycott.