Israeli human rights organizations, including B’Tselem and Yesh Din, have expressed concern over EU diplomat Josep Borrell’s remarks suggesting Amnesty International’s report accusing Israel of apartheid against Palestinians is antisemitic
By: Jonathan Shamir
Twelve leading Israeli human rights organizations published a joint statement on Tuesday expressing “grave concern” regarding the European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell Fontelles’ remarks insinuating that Amnesty International’s report accusing Israel of practicing apartheid against Palestinians is motivated by antisemitism.
“It is not appropriate to use the term apartheid in connection with the State of Israel,” the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy told the European Parliament.
On behalf of the European Commission, Borrell responded to a question by 14 pro-Israel lawmakers about whether Amnesty International’s report constituted antisemitism. “Claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor is amongst the illustrative examples included under the IHRA definition,” he told them.
While it remains the most widely-endorsed definition of antisemitism, the International Holocaust Remembrance (IHRA) has faced growing criticism – including from several Jewish groups – over stifling freedom of speech about Palestinian rights.
The human rights organizations – which included B’Tselem and Yesh Din, which have themselves have levelled the charge against Israel – “wholeheartedly reject[ed] the idea that Amnesty International’s report displays antisemitic animus.”
The letter also condemned “the escalating instrumentalization of allegations of antisemitism to prevent an open debate about Israel’s oppressive policies towards Palestinians.”
“Through our work, we document, verify and confront the ongoing injustice, inequality and violations of human rights and international law that Israel perpetrates against the Palestinians. Many of us have used the term and/or gave made the legal designation of ‘apartheid’ in relations to various aspects of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians,” the letter continued.
Amnesty International published ‘Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime Against Humanity’ in 2022, joining other Palestinian and international human rights groups in making the accusation.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman decried that the report as “an orchestrated effort by anti-Israel organizations to defame and delegitimize Israel,” adding that it does not “criticize the occupation, but contests the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish state.”
The signatories of the letter were Adalah, B’Tselem, Breaking the Silence, Combatants for Peace, Gisha – The Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, Hamoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual, Haqel: In Defense of Human Rights, Human Rights Defenders Fund, Ofek, Parents Against Child Detention, Physicians for Human Rights and Yesh Din.
Source: Haaretz Newspaper
