Israel Pushes Back Against Accusation of ‘Apartheid’ by Amnesty International

A report that will be released tomorrow by the United Kingdom division of Amnesty International will accuse Israel of practicing apartheid both within the its pre-1967 borders and in the West Bank, a marked escalation of its longstanding criticism of the Jewish state.The report’s release, which was announced by Amnesty this morning and has been confirmed by Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, is sure to mark another watershed in Israel’s contentious relationship to a frequently hostile international community. Amnesty won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977 and has long been critical of Israel.The report comes at a moment when the International Criminal Court is investigating alleged war crimes by Israel and the Palestinians. The United Nations Human Rights Council has also set up a permanent commission of inquiry to investigate human rights abuses in the West Bank and Gaza. That body is expected to release its findings in June.The Amnesty International evaluation follows and extends a Human Rights Watch report released over the summer that similarly accused Israel of practicing apartheid in the West Bank. Amnesty describes this publication as containing “new research and analysis detailing violations by Israel against the Palestinian people.”Israel has already pushed back. In materials provided to the Sun, the Israeli Foreign Ministry notes “The State of Israel absolutely rejects all the false allegations that appear in the report that Amnesty is expected to publish tomorrow.” It urges Amnesty to “withdraw the report,” which is slated to be unveiled by the organization’s Secretary General in a press conference at the St. George’s Hotel in Jerusalem tomorrow.In his remarks today, Mr. Lapid noted “Amnesty was once an esteemed organization that we all respected. Today, it is the exact opposite.” He went on to claim that “Five minutes of serious fact checking were enough to know that the facts that appeared in the report published this week were a delusion divorced from reality.”

Israel Pushes Back Against Accusation of ‘Apartheid’ by Amnesty International

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