Politico (2/1/22) framed its article around attacks on Amnesty International, quoting charges that it was “just another radical organization that echoes propaganda with no serious examination,” and “likely motivated by antisemitism.”
Does the state of Israel now endorse cancel culture? AP (1/31/22) disclosed that its government called on Amnesty International not to release a report (2/1/22) that defines that nation’s legal structure as a form of apartheid. Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said the report endorses “lies shared by terrorist organizations.”
CNN (2/1/22) covered the Amnesty report, leading with accusations of antisemitism, the sort of cheap slap that offers little substance but a lot of vitriol. Politico (2/1/22) led also with the report’s condemnation by Israeli officials and pro-Israel groups, not the findings of the report itself. (This isn’t surprising, as FAIR—11/5/21—reported how Politico’s German owner mandates its outlets maintain a pro-Israel line.)
Politico also uncritically quoted Lapid calling the human rights group biased because “Amnesty does not call Syria an ‘apartheid state’”—as if “apartheid” were a generic term for “bad government,” rather than a specific form of racialized oppression. Amnesty’s web section on Syria states that all belligerents in the Syrian conflict, including government forces, have “continued to commit with impunity serious violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes, and gross human rights abuses.”
Recycled defenses
The Wall Street Journal‘s charge (1/31/22) that Amnesty’s report threatens “the very existence of Israel” echoes its earlier defense (1/13/64) of apartheid in South Africa, where “a one-man one-vote would open up the prospect of a black majority expropriating the property and destroying the livelihood of the white minority.”
The Wall Street Journal (1/31/22) condemned Amnesty’s report, saying it ought to receive “the world’s opprobrium and sanction” for its “denunciation of the very existence of Israel as a refuge for the Jewish people.” The Journal placed the blame for Israel’s discriminatory laws on Palestinians, because Jewish settlers “in historic Palestine had to fight to survive against Arab militias and national armies that wanted to push them into the sea.”
The paper peppered its editorial with hoary reminders that “Israel is a democracy” because Arabs who live inside Israel’s Green Line can vote and run for office. Meanwhile, the disenfranchised Palestinians who live under military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza—who are the majority of Arabs in Israel/Palestine—have only themselves to blame, because they “could have their own state with comparable rights if they had accepted the concessions that Israel offered.”
Almost 60 years ago, the Journal editorial board (9/25/63) made a similar argument against calls to boycott apartheid South Africa; the conservative daily argued that targeting white-run South Africa was hypocritical, because activists were not also targeting Arab Algeria with “equal disdain.” Historian William Henry Chamberlin wrote in the Journal (1/13/64) that condemnation of South African apartheid at the United Nations was “highly selective” because of strife in other UN member states, and reminded readers that white Boers had been in the country for “more than three centuries.”
Two decades ago, the Journal (11/21/01) promoted Israeli academic Arnon Sofer’s belief that due to “high Arab birthrates,” there must be complete “separation” between Jews and Arabs, because “without separation, Israel’s Jewish majority, one of Zionism’s pillars, will be undermined.” Now the paper is shocked to see a word that means “systematic separation” being applied to the country.
The New York Post (1/31/22) employed the same type of deflection as the Journal, using the tragedy of the Holocaust to justify Israel’s founding. It complained that the report doesn’t mention “Jews getting the boot from Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Egypt,” adding that “Yasser Arafat does not appear.” (Arafat died 18 years ago, and Nasser in 1970.)
Echoing other evaluations
The New York Times has so far not covered the Amnesty report, but when it wrote (4/27/21) about Human Rights Watch’s similar conclusion, it featured the charge that finding apartheid in Israel “bordered on antisemitism.”
While a new stance for Amnesty, the report echoes the evaluation of other human rights experts. Human Rights Watch (NPR, 4/27/21) and the Israeli rights group B’Tselem (1/12/21) have both accused Israel of maintaining an apartheid system, and the late Bishop Desmond Tutu frequently compared Israel’s occupation to the apartheid system in South Africa he fought to eliminate (FAIR.org, 1/6/22).
The New York Times, as of this writing, has not covered the Amnesty report, although it did cover the Human Rights Watch report last year (4/27/21), leading with how the apartheid charge was “explosive,” and how at least one HRW representative had said in 2001 that it was wrong to equate Zionism with racism.
The Times, however, has also offered the same kind of deflections against the “apartheid” label we are seeing today; its review (1/7/07) of former President Jimmy Carter’s Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid called it “a strange little book” with “misrepresentations” of Arafat and late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad. Falling short of calling Carter an antisemite, the Times dismissed Carter for his “awfully narrow perspective,” “Rip van Winkle feel” and “tone deafness about Israel and Jews.”
Amnesty (2/1/22) states that “massive seizures of Palestinian land and property, unlawful killings, forcible transfer, drastic movement restrictions and the denial of nationality and citizenship to Palestinians” add up to what is called “apartheid under international law.” All of this comes down to a fundamental truth that while Israel enjoys more plurality and democratic institutions than some of its neighbors, a defining feature of the government is that an individual’s legal and political rights are tied to their national and religious identity, something that should be anathema in a liberal democracy.
Reflexive hostility to critics
The hostile media responses to Amnesty’s report barely bother to refute the findings. Criticism of Israel’s denial of Palestinians’ rights is deemed a threat to the country’s ability to be an explicitly Jewish state, the Journal said. This is an admission of Israel/Palestine’s existential crisis: A country can be an ethno-state or it can be a democracy, but it can’t be both.
Newsweek (8/4/21) suggests that when Rashida Tlaib talks about “the structure we’ve been living under right now,” she means Jews rather than capitalism.
The charges of antisemitism being applied to criticism of Israel have become routine. Sonya Meyerson-Knox, senior communications manager at Jewish Voice for Peace, told FAIR (11/5/21) that “defending Israel’s regime of supremacy and violence does nothing to advance Jewish safety,” and that such rhetoric “helps fuel antisemitism, by reducing people with varying beliefs into a monolithic stereotype.”
The response that the report ignores Palestinian misdeeds overlooks that the group has, in fact, condemned Hamas’ human rights abuses (e.g., 3/27/15, 3/18/19). These pieces insist that when Israel is criticized, we change the subject to how bad Palestinian leaders are and how their predicament is ultimately their own doing. This is a continuation of a trend in media that offers not just pro-Israel coverage, but outright hostility toward other points of view.
For example, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens (9/23/21) not only condemned several congressmembers for decoupling US funding for an Israeli missile defense system from a “must-pass bill to keep the US government afloat,” but insisted that they should suffer “reputational cost for this supremely foul piece of political grandstanding.” Even treating support for the Israeli military as open to debate in a democratic forum is supposed to put you beyond the political pale.
Newsweek (8/4/21) amplified the accusation that Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian American congressmember from Michigan, spoke in coded antisemitism when she linked Black suffering in Detroit to Gazans living under occupation. The accusation that she was insinuating that Jewish ringleaders were causing the world’s suffering was a stretch, but that was the price she paid for having the gall to link injustice in her district to injustice to her fellow Palestinians.
Growing rejection of apartheid
Jewish Telegraphic Agency (7/13/21): “Many American Jews agree with statements by some of Israel’s harshest critics on the left.”
With leading human rights groups using the “apartheid” label on Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, that terminology will be a bigger part of the Middle East discussion. That might be why the response has been so harsh. “The past decade has seen American public opinion in support of Palestinian human rights grow at an exponential rate across ages and religions,” said Meyerson-Knox.
Indeed, Gallup (3/19/21) reported that “the percentage wanting more pressure placed on the Palestinians has fallen to 44%, while the proportion wanting more pressure on Israel has increased from 27% to 34%.” Last summer, a poll (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 7/13/21) of US “Jewish voters taken after the Israel/Gaza conflict” found that “a sizable minority believe some of the harshest criticisms of Israel”: “34% agreed that ‘Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is similar to racism in the United States,’” and “25% agreed that ‘Israel is an apartheid state.’”
Jewish Voices for Peace’s Meyerson-Knox added that, “The significance of Amnesty’s report in continuing to shape public opinion cannot be overstated,” because “the chorus of internationally respected voices calling for an end to Israeli apartheid is simply too loud to be ignored.”
Research assistance: Luca GoldMansour
Those poor Palestinians. All they — and their fanboys like Ari — want to do is exterminate every Jew from the river to the sea. Bigot.
Dude, these are people not orcs. You’re quick to paint a population of over 4 million with a vicious stereotype.
You’re a scumbag using language and lies that Hitler would use. The Palestinians writ large simply want their own state or right of return. That you don’t appear to know this tells me you’ve never actually been to Palestine, probably not even Israel.
> The Palestinians writ large simply want their own state or right of return.
Not according to their charter, the same for decades – goal is to destroy Israel, peace, a Palestinian state, or even their own people come a distant second.
During WWII the Palestinians were in fact allied with Hitler, so your ignorance is very ironic.
Such lies. Have a look at the Haavara Agreement for starters. Then provide an exact quoted excerpt from “the Palestinian’s” charter to back up your assertion.
+1 Dan Clark
Dan:
Get a grip. And too, read about the formation of Israel, which began in earnest in 1948.The UK soldiers left, after being attacked by zionists, and NAKBA begin in that same year— 1948. Sorry, but apartheid against the Palestinians has been going on
since. then . Another irritating item is the spying upon America and Americans .
We horse and mythology lovers are also annoyed that you took the flying horse from Greek mythology and used that name for your spy system. Be more original, and please—use your own MONEY too, as it’s time for you to be a grown up nation and pay for yourself. Americans of all religion could use that money.
Ypu won’t be happy till Israel and jews are erased. Let me ask, why cant just 1 nation in the world be Jewish?
How many jews were expelled from Iraq,yemem,algeria,tunisia,Morroco, and Egypt? (All arabian peninsula. Muslims in Iran who convert will be executed.
Jews do not proselytize as against their religion, why so few of us. No converting by the sword.
Ash .. Ash .. Ash
THE TRUTH IS OUT ..
ZIONIST ISRAEL IS AN APARTHEID..
Three human rights groups reports in one year ..
MORE TO COME
Just like all over the world – the lie is what’s out, from fascist, haters, to religious fanatics, to racists and religionists … Islam rules 1/4 of the world with its iron fist … no other way minorities can get out from under that but to declare their own states.
“How many jews were expelled from Iraq,yemem,algeria,tunisia,Morroco, and Egypt?”
why don’t you tell us. how many of the Jews you’re talking about are European Ashkenazi Jews that make up the majority of Israel’s settler population?
What difference would that make? Do Muslims not get rights in the USA if they or their families came from somewhere else? The arguments on your side are so specious and full of hate – no big mystery why Israel needs to defend itself so strongly.
Nice non-response, as usual from the resident Hasbarat.
Ash:
There is a large Jewish population in Iran. They have been in Iran for many many years The Jewish people who live there seem to like living there and do not want to live in Israel.
It is not large, it is also not free. What are the Jewish people who live there going to say … expose their injustices and get murdered as so many do in Iran? Why does your side so bereft of facts and so in love with distortion and lies?
Please provide evidence. Unlike Israel Jews are guaranteed representation in the Iranian parliament despite being a minority.
A few years back Israel ran a program offering “incentives” (including cash) to Iranian Jews trying to get them to move to Israel. The program was rejected by The Society of Iranian Jews. A quote: “Iranian Jews are among the most ancient Iranians. Iran’s Jews love their Iranian identity and their culture, so threats and this immature political enticement will not achieve their aim of wiping out the identity of Iranian Jews.”
Link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jul/12/israel.iran
What do you think was going on before Israel was there? Occupation by the Palestinians.
Israel spying on the US is not a security or invasion threat to the US. The US spies on its allies too. Remember Merkel’s phone being tapped by the NSA.
So you defend spying on the US by Israel but if it Russia and China you would go berserk.
Not one mention of rocket attacks, suicide bombers, knife attacks or calls for Israel’s destruction.
How many Israeli Jews have been killed by rocket attacks in the past 5 years? How many Arab Palestinians have been killed by settlers and the IDF?
We’ll wait for you to get back to us.
The kicker is that most of the Jews hurt by rocket attacks were in illegal settlements.
Considering this is about Israeli policy then it would not make any sense to add what you are complaining about. It has no bearing on the subject.
Terrific. And for those oppressors the report is about, what a disgrace oppressors are to all humanity.
The truth is out ..
ZIONIST Israel is an APARTHEID .. SINCE BIRTH!!!
Yes. It’s a Zionist settler colonial apartheid state engaged in long-form genocide, much in the same way the United States was stolen and settled from Native Americans.
Except it is the Islamists that have taken over government and official religion and the law for almost 1000 miles in all directions from Israel, and who OCCUPY and dominate everyone, Jews, Christians, Yazidi, Kurds, etc. Why don’t you people ever open your sealed shut eyes?
Look up “Judaism in Iran” – a country Israel wants to destroy and has actively attempted – and then compare it to “Judaism in the Gulf Monarchies” – countries with whom the Israelis entered into the laughable Abraham Accords.
You’re the one who needs to open your ‘seared shut’ eyes and get out of your hasbara bubble/echo chamber for a change. Sorry to inform you, but the world has slowly awoken to the humanitarian crisis and Israeli war crimes despite the constant efforts of people like you to silence, cancel and murder your ideological opponents.
Whataboutism
Also your comment indicates a lack of understanding of the region if you think most of these governments are run by Islamic fundamentals
The Left is being undermined by fake Leftists who lead them off into places that alienate and repulse sufficient average decent Americans such that they would rather even vote Republican.
Calling Israel apartheid is like calling America apartheid for keeping criminals in prison, apart.
An imperfect analogy, I admit, but it demonstrates a true point, that no one ever reports on or questions the Palestinians, nor why history has led both sides to this point.
I think the ignorant pro-Palestinian cause, and the hatist anti-Israeli cause of the fake radical Left is one of the significant things that keeps the Left marginalized by their own repulsiveness.
What real Leftist policies like Universal Heath Care, Social Safety net … show the humanity of the Left, and banish the haters, trolls and moles in the Left.
Bruce K:
When a country makes & enforces laws that differentiate based on religion, and function to prevent a group from living freely, that is apartheid.
Yes, the US qualifies for this in the past, and to some extend the present.
And it is completely LAUGHABLE that you think “nobody reports on the Palestinians”. As noted in this very article, Amnesty International has taken them to task too.
But, I get it, its tough…..reading things.
Your version of the Left would have Leftists ignore the Evil done by Israel because it isn’t popular to point it out.
I remember the great Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr once said “It is always the right time to do the right thing. Unless its unpopular with white moderates, and then folks should just hope it goes away”. [Sarcasm, in case it wasn’t obvious]
Israel has painted herself into a corner and there is no one that can save her except the Palestinian. Only the Palestinian can protect Israel from herself. The irony is not lost on the makers of peace in the world.
Unbelievable that journalists ignore the Amnesty International report and throw a tantrum, instead of looking at the reality of Israel wanting Israelis to be separate from Palestinians, but establishing illegal settlements in Palestinian areas. I cannot believe that any of those journalists is ignorant of the way the homes, lands of the Palestinians living there is seized, violently. Please, inform yourselves and write the truth.