‘Deplorable Blood Libel’: Amnesty International Under Fire for Accusing Israel of Genocide in Gaza
Debbie Weiss
Israeli soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in this handout picture released on March 5, 2024. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
Amnesty International has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza during its war against the Hamas terrorist group, a claim Jerusalem dismissed as an “antisemitic blood libel” and a legal expert slammed as “propaganda.”
In a report released on Thursday which was almost 300 pages, the human rights organization claimed Israel aimed to systematically destroy Palestinian communities in Gaza by launching lethal strikes, dismantling infrastructure, and obstructing humanitarian aid, including food and medicine. The allegations framed Israel’s military campaign as unjustifiable, even in light of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, in which 1,200 Israelis were murdered and more than 250 others were taken hostage into Gaza last year.
“Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now,” Amnesty International chief Agnès Callamard said in the report.
Israel responded by saying the report was “entirely false.”
“The deplorable and fanatical organization Amnesty International has once again produced a fabricated report that is entirely false and based on lies,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Watchdog group NGO Monitor accused Amnesty International of publishing the report as part of a bid to strengthen the lawfare efforts led by South Africa and its allies before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), as well as the “pathological propaganda of UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese and other political actors.”
“Amnesty’s report and recommendations … are not a credible, unbiased, carefully considered analysis of the complex circumstances inherent in the Gaza conflict,” the group said.
NGO Monitor’s legal adviser Anne Herzberg told The Algemeiner that the organization had in the past expressed opposition to Israel’s existence as a Jewish state, and as such “everything they do in this report has to be seen within that context.”
The report’s selective omissions, which include downplaying or ignoring clear evidence of Hamas’s operations in areas targeted by Israeli strikes, were designed “to paint a picture of Israeli malevolence.”
Herzberg further accused Amnesty of fabricating a definition of genocide tailored exclusively to Israel.
“It’s not surprising that Amnesty invented a definition for genocide because they did the exact same thing when it came to apartheid,” Herzberg said, referencing a 2022 report by the organization accusing Israel of “maintaining a system of apartheid.”
The report’s dishonesty was particularly egregious, Herzberg said, because it failed to disclose this redefinition until page 101 — a point most readers are unlikely to reach.
“They know almost no one is going to get that far into the report to notice that they say that,” Herzberg said, adding that the main purpose of the report isn’t accuracy but “propaganda.”
Amnesty Israel, the organization’s local chapter, distanced itself from the report, stating that while the devastation in Gaza had reached “catastrophic proportions,” it did not meet the legal definition of genocide. Members of the branch criticized the global office for reaching what they described as a “predetermined conclusion.”
According to Herzberg, the parent organization “decided months ago they wanted to write a genocide report and then cobbled together some made up allegations in order to fit that definition because the point is to demonize Israel.”
Amnesty International’s report outlined numerous recommendations urging the international community to exert intense pressure on Israel — including the immediate halt of all military aid to the country — but failed to make any mention of pressuring Hamas to release the hostages.
The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry has said that 44,000 Palestinians have been killed. These figures do not distinguish between combatants and civilians. The Israel Defense Forces estimates that approximately 19,000 Hamas operatives have been killed, suggesting a combatant-to-civilian casualty ratio that is far lower than in other recent conflicts, such as those in Afghanistan and against Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria.
Other critics of the report also argued Amnesty’s bar for declaring genocide was misguided, noting widely recognized historical examples of genocide such as the Holocaust for comparison.
Herzberg highlighted that Amnesty’s website described Oct. 7 as “Israel’s offensive,” a framing she said underscores the organization’s bias. “That just gives you a flavor of what this organization is about,” she concluded.
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