I’ll start off by saying that I’ve been a proud
financial supporter of Amnesty International,
for the past 33 years.
Their nifty calendar adorns my wall,
right beside Elvis.
And I do plan to continue donating to this fine organization, in spite of the issues (laid out in this diary) that I have with their 280 page report on Israel (released on February 1st), because of the critical value of what they do get right.
As an example of what they get right- consider (and please also sign) this petition to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, featured on the report’s overview page. Here’s the recommended text of the letter to Bennett, from the petition page:
Prime Minister Bennett,
I am writing to you as a human rights defender and supporter of Amnesty International to express my deep concern about the millions of Palestinians who live under the Israeli government’s system of apartheid and especially those at risk of losing their homes.
I’m alarmed by the findings in Amnesty International’s new report that confirms the government of Israel has created and maintains laws, policies, and practices that deliberately oppress Palestinians and amount to apartheid.
I urge you to show respect for human rights and international laws and standards by taking these concrete actions to protect the human rights of the Palestinian people:
- Immediately cancel all orders for forced evictions and home demolitions against Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Territories;
- End the forced displacement of Palestinians;
- End all laws, policies and practices that deliberately oppress the Palestinian people across Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and which deny them basic human rights.
The government of Israel has forcibly displaced entire Palestinian communities and demolished hundreds of thousands of Palestinians’ homes, causing terrible trauma and suffering. Over 6 million Palestinians remain as refugees and today at least another 150,000 are at risk of losing their homes within the OPT.
Israel’s system of deliberate oppression of Palestinians constitutes a legal definition of apartheid under international law, and that must end. This system includes racist seizures of property, and planning laws and policies that make it impossible for many Palestinians to build homes. Your government’s policies allow for mass demolitions of homes built without a permit, which is routinely denied for Palestinians.
This is unacceptable.
I am directing these human rights concerns at the policies, laws, and actions of the government of Israel, not the Jewish people. I stand against antisemitism in the strongest possible terms, as well as any and all discrimination, racism, and hate crimes targeted at anyone.
I hope you’ll take my message – along with that of tens of thousands of others – seriously. I implore you to cancel all orders for forced evictions and home demolitions immediately.
The world is watching.
In particular, note that the first two bullet items being requested-
- Immediately cancel all orders for forced evictions and home demolitions against Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Territories;
- End the forced displacement of Palestinians;
satisfy all three of the criteria essential for any grassroots campaign to be successful, namely-
- The request is solidly justifiable on moral/ethical grounds.
- The requested actions are very clearly defined.
- The request is well within the capability of the targeted entity.
Although this is less true of the third bullet item- “End all laws, policies and practices that deliberately oppress the Palestinian people across Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and which deny them basic human rights”- as it would be better to clarify which “laws, policies and practices”, exactly, need to be ended.
But I understand that this would have made an already long-ish petition, even longer... Which brings me to the actual 280 page report itself, where things do get somewhat problematic- specifically on page 276 (under chapter 7- “Conclusions and Recommendations”, subsection 7.2- “Recommendations”, subsection 7.2.1- “Israeli Authorities”), where it states:
Recognize the right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to homes where they or their families once lived in Israel or the OPT, and to receive restitution and compensation and other effective remedies for the loss of their land and property.
This is the same fatal folly committed by BDS:
As a result of this systematic forced displacement, there are now more than 7.25 million Palestinian refugees. They are denied their right to return to their homes simply because they are not Jewish.
These statements, regrettably, satisfy none of the 3 requirements…
1. The request is solidly justifiable on moral/ethical grounds.
Refugees from conflicts should be allowed to return to their homes once the danger they were fleeing from subsides, however it is questionable whether this right, under international law, should extend to infinite generations of descendants.*
2. The requested actions are very clearly defined.
The wording in both cases is ambiguous enough, that they could be interpreted as demanding that Israel open its (internationally recognized, ’67) borders to the entire planet’s population of 7 million diaspora Palestinians.
3. The request is well within the capability of the targeted entity.
And insisting that 7M diaspora Palestinians should be resettled to within Israel’s borders, is effectively equivalent to calling for an end to the state of Israel. This has never been explained better, than in this 2012 interview of Norm Finkelstein (in the first 5 minutes of the video below, or you could just read my transcription in the graphic underneath the video):
A mere 6 days following the release of this AI report, I learned that a proposal for a two state confederation will be presented before the US and the UN by a team of Israeli and Palestinian peace negotiators- a proposal so remarkably similar to the one I’ve been aggressively promoting for years**, that I took this nothing less than a sign from God to write this diary. Oh dear Lord, shehecheyanu, v'kiy'manu, v'higiyanu laz'man hazeh!! 🙏
The plan calls for an independent state of Palestine in most of the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, territories Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel and Palestine would have separate governments but coordinate at a very high level on security, infrastructure and other issues that affect both populations.
The plan would allow the nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank to remain there,with large settlements near the border annexed to Israel in a one-to-one land swap.
Settlers living deep inside the West Bank would be given the option of relocating or becoming permanent residents in the state of Palestine. The same number of Palestinians— likely refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation — would be allowed to relocate to Israel as citizens of Palestine with permanent residency in Israel.
The presentation of this proposal to the UN then took place on February 11th, and was received very warmly:
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres spoke positively of a new grassroots plan to create an Israeli-Palestinian confederation when he met with its authors in New York on Friday.
“The secretary-general received [former Israeli justice minister] Yossi Beilin and [former Palestinian negotiator] Hiba Husseini, who presented him with their report on the ‘Holy Land Confederation’ process,” Guterres’ spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said after the meeting.
“He thanked them for their useful contribution to try and achieve a lasting solution to the conflict,” he said.
…
“The secretary-general reaffirms the UN commitment to supporting the parties to achieve a just and peaceful solution to the conflict, including through the Middle East Quartet and the establishment of two states, based on 1967 lines, with Jerusalem as the capital of both states,” Dujarric said.
This would be “in line with UN resolutions, international law and previous agreements,” he said.
Indeed- this proposal could potentially deliver an actual, “on the ground”, “in real life” remedy for ALL of the issues raised in AI’s 280 page report.
Yes, EVERY. SINGLE. ONE!!
A definitive END to the West Bank occupation, the Gaza blockade, house demolitions, population transfers, etc., etc., etc.
Ah, but there’s just one catch…
(I.e., Israel would remain in existence under this proposal, to the chagrin of those who would prefer otherwise…)
Now, in spite of the troublesome “Recognize the right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants …” statement from AI’s report, which could be taken to mean that AI seeks an end to the state of Israel (as explained above), AI actually doesn’t seek an end to the state of Israel. But to find proof of this, one must dig pretty deep within their site (to page 4 of an “Action Toolkit” PDF file):
- There is nothing under international law to prevent a state from labeling itself as Jewish or Christian or Islamic, as many do, as long as the government does not discriminate on the grounds of religion or race.
- Amnesty International does not challenge Israel’s desire to be a home for Jews. Similarly, it does not consider that Israel labeling itself a “Jewish state” in itself indicates an intention to oppress and dominate.
- As a matter of policy, Amnesty International does not comment on political questions such as the legitimacy of any particular state or political ideology. We take no position on Israel as a Jewish state or on the rights of Palestinians to an independent state since we don’t take position on the measures taken by peoples to exercise their right to self-determination.
Here’s what they chose to emphasize on their website, instead (devoting an entire page to it…)
(And you may have also noticed that they devoted a whole paragraph to denials of being antisemitic, in the petition at the beginning of this diary- “I am directing these human rights concerns at the policies, laws, and actions of the government of Israel, not the Jewish people…”)
And I do believe they are being honest, in claiming to not be motivated by hatred (as they are a human rights organization, after all). Whereas this sort of declaration is somewhat less convincing when coming from, say, random morons on Twitter…
Which stands in sharp contrast with this recent affectionate tweet, from AI… 💗😊🏳️🌈🇮🇱💗😊🏳️🌈🇮🇱💗
But those statements (buried in a PDF file) explicitly denying any desires to eliminate Israel, should be just as prominently accessible on their website as their denials of being antisemitic.
Because the fundamental problem here, isn’t really so much (perceived) antisemitism, as (perceived) anti-Zionism (where I define “anti-Zionism” as “being against the very existence of the state of Israel”).
And why this matters so tremendously, is because this supremely awesome two state confederate solution- that can decisively resolve everything- will only ever get implemented (if/)when Israel reaches the point where it extends this as a peace offer (and it’s then accepted by the present Palestinian leadership). However Israel is never going to get to that point, so long as Israelis are largely convinced that Palestinians will never be satisfied with any solution where Israel would remain in existence (for as long as this paralyzing pessimism prevails, Israelis will despair that such overtures would be utterly futile).
For a glimpse into the current Israeli mentality, have a look the following quotes (culled from comments to this public post):
Every human rights report, every diary, every comment, and every anything else that’s written or uttered pertaining to this conflict, should be analyzed through the lens of…
Does this help to reinforce this brick wall of crippling cynicism, or does this help to penetrate the wall, by dispelling the cynicism…?
I want the following to exist:
I am acutely aware that 4M+ signatures on a petition is a rather tall order, as very few petitions get that many signatures. But that is precisely why that many signatures are needed- for it to stand out as noteworthy, so as to penetrate the Wall of Cynicism, bolstering hope among Israelis that peace with Palestine is actually possible, and worth pursuing.
And a way for such a petition to accumulate that many signatures, would be if it were endorsed by a veeeeery broad coalition of organizations (that then exhorted all their members to sign & share the petition):
Amnesty International, Daily Kos (yes- our very own favorite political blog has actually endorsed petitions in this realm, in spite of the entrenched view among this site’s participants that we’re hopelessly incapable of ever reaching any sort of consensus on this contentious topic- here’s your proof), Peace Now, J Street, Jewish Voice for Peace, etc. etc…
Let’s forge this kind of a movement- to bring genuine, lasting peace & prosperity to Israel and Palestine (and so that we never have to have any more of these agonizing, fruitless debates over what constitutes “apartheid”, or “genocide”, etc., etc., etc., ever again.) ☮
*The explanation for this is somewhat pedantic, thus I thought it best to not have it interrupt the flow of the diary.
So- UN General Assembly Resolution 194, paragraph 11, adopted in 1948, states:
…refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.
Which for one thing, is technically only a recommendation (“should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date…”) as opposed to a strict requirement, because General Assembly resolutions (as opposed to Security Council resolutions), are nonbinding (“…resolutions adopted by the GA on agenda items are considered to be recommendations and are not legally binding on the Member States. The only resolutions that have the potential to be legally binding are those that are adopted by the Security Council.”)
And furthermore, there is zero mention in this of return rights for descendants of refugees. Now Israel is frequently lambasted as being hypocritical in this sense, because of its Law of Return for Jews (which allows diaspora Jews- whose ancestors departed from the land many more generations ago, than diaspora Palestinians- to “return” to Israel). However Israel’s Law of Return is not an exercise of the right of return under international law, but rather- it’s the immigration policy of a sovereign nation (and thus is no more heinous than analogous immigration policies of many other nations, such as Spain and Ireland). And so when Palestine becomes a sovereign state (if people ever figure out that in order for this to finally happen, they need to be crystal clear in their support of Israel remaining a sovereign state…) it will have the same power to set its immigration policies, and thus will be able to accept however many Palestinian immigrants it may wish to, and also reject any & all further Jewish immigration into Palestine, if it wishes to…
**
Oh yes- so unique!
Like, what I had written 2 years ago...
And you know what? I really don’t care… This isn’t about personal glory- all that matters, is what can bring peace to Israel & Palestine (and the sooner, the better…) 🕊