Legal figures and MPs have called for a Charity Commission probe into Amnesty International after its report accused Israel of being an “apartheid state”.
In the report, Amnesty international said that Israeli laws, policies and practices against Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories amounted to apartheid.
The report alleges that the state of Israel maintains “an institutionalised regime of oppression and domination of the Palestinian population for the benefit of Jewish Israelis”. The report repeatedly says that the Jewish state is guilty of human rights breaches.
Apartheid is considered a crime against humanity under international law. Israel says that it “absolutely rejects all the false allegations”.
Critics say that the claims in the report are a clear breach of the widely recognised International Holocaust Remembrance Association definition of antisemitism.
Tony Leon, a veteran anti-apartheid South African lawyer and MP, told the Jewish Chronicle: “I’m highly critical of aspects of Israeli policy, but making Israel out to be a moral criminal on a par with the South African apartheid state is politically specious and historically absolutely wrong. Amnesty International is not doing its cause or its reputation any good by what is at best an undergraduate-level analysis.”
Critics claim that the report shows bias by barely mentioning violence against Israeli civilians and manipulating facts and quotes. They point to an example of a quotation from Binyamin Netanyahu, the former prime minister, which is used on the report’s first page: “Israel is not a state of all its citizens . . . [but rather] the nation-state of the Jewish people and them alone.” However, the report does not add what he said next: “There’s no problem with the Arab citizens of Israel — they have the same rights as us all and the Likud government has invested in the Arab sector more than any other government.”
Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and Keith Black, chairman of the Jewish Leadership Council, wrote in an article for The Times Red Box: “At a time of rising attacks on Jews around the world, Amnesty’s report is not just an attack on the state of Israel. It is an attack on the very concept and existence of Jewish sovereignty and on the Jewish people.
“Its misrepresentation and twisting of reality will reliably stir up and inflame hatred where Jews are most vulnerable.”
Amnesty raises money in Britain as a charitable trust, which means that it receives tax benefits such as gift aid from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.
However, it publishes reportt via a limited company, Amnesty International Ltd, which it funds. Charity Commission rules say that when charities do this, they must ensure that the company uses its funding for charitable purposes and the “public benefit”.
Jonathan Turner, chief executive of the UK campaign group Lawyers for Israel, said: “The Charity Commission and HMRC should consider whether the sponsorship of this report by Amnesty International’s UK Charities is compatible with their charitable status and tax benefits.”
Lord Carlile, QC, the former government reviewer of anti-terrorism legislation, called the report “overtly political”, adding:“This is on the very edge of their permissible role as a charity,” he added. Michael Fabricant, a Tory MP and member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Israel, also called for a Charity Commission inquiry.
