Amnesty Rips Israel Over Detention Of Anti-Disengagement Activists
JTA reports,
Amnesty International criticized Israel for detaining suspected activists against the Gaza withdrawal without charge.
After a Jewish terrorist killed four Israeli Arabs earlier this month, the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security service, placed three of his suspected associates under administrative detention. One, who has U.S. as well as Israeli citizenship, was freed on condition that he leave the country for at least 40 days.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Amnesty International urged Israel to abandon the practice of administrative detention, which is usually exercised against suspected Palestinian terrorists. “Those detained administratively must either be charged with a recognizable criminal offense and given a fair trial within a reasonable time or else be released,” it said. “The organization believes that the practice of administrative detention in Israel and the Occupied Territories violates fundamental human rights, notably the right to a fair trial, which should be guaranteed at all times, even in an emergency.”
That’s right: Amnesty, defending the rights of Kachniks to a fair trial. So much for their alleged bias.
yay Amnesty!
Administrative Detention is Soviet style
No one says Amnesty is biased when it comes to condemning Israel, left and and right. But it took more than a year to issue the weakest possible condemnation of Palestinian suicide bombers against Israelis.
It also has a very spotty record condemning various Palestinian practices against Palestinians, such as the execution (without trial) of “alleged” collaborators – otherwise known as political opponents.
There are certainly a number of NGO’s biased toward the Palestinians, but Amnesty isn’t one of them. If one takes the trouble to peruse Amnesty’s annual reports, documenting human rights violations country by countryone finds that Israel comes out as no more “the villain” than the Palestinian Authority or Arab nations. It would seem some Jews think the organization is anti-Israel because whenever it releases its annual report to the news media, it is they (the media) who selectively report on Israel’s actual or alleged violations.
It’s also worth noting that Amnesty has a strict policy wherein alleged human rights violations in a given country may *not* be investigated by AI employees or volunteers permanently residing in that country.
AI is biased – in favor of anarchist criminals and against the state – whatever it is. Since Palestinians are generally more likely to be anarchist criminals, and Israel is a state, that means it is generally biased against Israel. Even here, it is biased against Israel. Its position is always anti-state. Unfortunately, that means it protects vicious criminal thugs against relatively benign government thugs. Whenever government is on one side of the scale, that side is always disfavored, even here where the opponents of Israel happen to be Jewish.
anarchist criminals? oh fucking please.
A day will come when you cry out to the LORD because of the king whom you yourselves have chosen.
And the LORD will not answer you on that day.
How did amnesty vote at Durban?
Get that answer and you’ll get an answer as to bias.
So um, Yisrael, have you ever actually read, cover to cover, anything from Amnesty International? If so, you would know that the organization has also singled out non-state entities, such as the PLO and IRA, for human rights abuses.
Also, I’m taken with your certitude that anyone who opposes the actions of any government in any fashion is an “anarchist criminal.” I guess that would make the prophets Nathan, Isaiah, Amos and Jeremiah “anarchist criminals” by your definition. Quick! Report them to the professional hunters for antisemites under the bed!
Moby,
I read the amnesty statement linked to.
“…but Israeli settlers have also stepped up their campaign of attacks, threats and intimidation against international and Israeli human rights defenders and peace activists. ”
and next paragraph:
“Such widespread impunity has undoubtedly encouraged further attacks by Israeli settlers. ”
…
“In the overwhelming majority of cases, administrative detention has been used by the Israeli authorities against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. ”
–I believe that amnesty feels that it is their own interest so that they won’t bear the attacks from ‘settlers’ mentioned in the quote above.
(I support all such attacks because these ‘peace activists’ support aid and abet the murderous enemy and are therefore joined with them.)
They also are trying to attack the idea of detention for the arabs and they feel that this is an opening to attack it with.
In other words it is only for their self-interest not because they care about the Jewish kids being harassed.
joe, easy for you to talk your shit from nyc about “‘peace activists’ support[ing] aid[ing] and abet[ing] the murderous enemy.” come to budrous, bei’lin, or silwan and see with your own eyes what’s going on there. experience it first hand for yourself and not vicariously through right-wing anti-arab media. or, do us all a favor and shut your trap.
it’s so nice and simple for you to be staunchly pro-israel from brooklyn or wherever the hell you’re sitting. make aliyah, then talk your shit.
AI’s problem isn’t so much bias – though it does seem that they tend to focus a disproportionate amount of attention on Israel and the US* – so much as it is severe tunnel vision. They don’t seem to realize that sometimes “in the field”, especially in war, rights which a society at peace can fulfill cannot be fully respected. Case in point – after the Yassin assassination, the condemned Israel, and said he should have been brought to trial – a course of action which would likely have resulted in dozens of Palestinian deaths.
*Compare, for instance, the number of reports criticising Israel to those criticising Iran or North Korea
AI has the moral authority of Joseph Stalin, remember a few weeks ago when it made the ludicrous contention that the enemy-combatant prison we have in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is “the gulag of our times.” If the organization can’t tell the difference between a prison camp that went out of control, and was then brought under control under the glaring light of the democratic process, and secret camps whose purpose was to kill MILLIONS of innocents, who gives a shit whatever they say about anything?
Amnesty,
leave us alone. We certainly won’t run to you to complain about the corrupt Israel political, judicial and media entities. The only thing that will change it is a miracle very soon, or a generation or two after which most people in Israel will be religious.
I’m a proud member of the ACLU, but this doesn’t prove anything.
“Even a broken clock is right twice a day,” as they say.
And the bias, or lack thereof, is to be found in the larger picture, not one instance of them sticking up for Kach-suckers.
leaving Gaza and acting like a banana republic aren’t doing too much to improve our image as a ‘normal’ country.
We’ve already had articles in mainstream foreign media questioning the legitimacy of Israel. The workings of Sharon on the left-wing will eventually be shown to have destroyed Israel as we know it.
Was the retreat from Gaza worth the price?