The Trump administration is to declare major international Human Rights NGOs Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam as antisemitic in a soon-to-be released State Department declaration, voicing that governments should not support them any longer.
If the declaration happens, it is likely to cause an uproar among civil society groups and might incite litigation. Critics of the possible move also worry it could lead other governments to further crack down on such groups, according to Politico.
T’ruah, a rabbinic human rights organization that represents over 2,000 rabbis, responded to the allegation on Wednesday, saying that “any US government declaration that these groups are antisemitic for criticizing the Israeli government is ridiculous, and contributes to the silencing of Israel’s human rights defenders.”
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, executive director of T’ruah, said that “the Trump administration’s smear of these three human rights organizations is yet one more example of this administration’s disregard for democracy and human rights at home and abroad.”
“In casting aspersion on longtime respected human rights organizations, the Trump administration joins an ignoble list of autocratic governments that have discredited, smeared and even banned their own internal human rights organizations,” she said.
“Israel is a state bound by international human rights law, like all other members of the United Nations, and like other countries can be criticized when it fails to live up to these commitments,” she said.
“By falsely smearing human rights organizations as antisemitic, the Trump administration only makes it harder to counter actual acts of antisemitism when they happen, while simultaneously harming these organizations’ effectiveness in reporting on all countries’ human rights abuses – including those of the United States.”
ACCORDING TO Politico, the declaration is expected to take the form of a report from the office of Elan Carr, the US special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism. It would declare that it is US policy not to support such groups, including financially, and urge other governments to cease their support.
The report would cite such groups’ alleged or perceived support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which has targeted Israel over its construction of settlements on land Palestinians claim for a future state.
The declaration is also expected to point to reports and press statements such groups have released about the impact of Israeli settlements, as well as their involvement or perceived support for a United Nations database of businesses that operate in disputed territories, Politico said.
Contacted by the political news group, the organizations named in the report denied any allegations that they are antisemitic.
“Amnesty International USA is deeply committed to fighting antisemitism and all forms of hate worldwide, and will continue to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied,” Bob Goodfellow, AIUSA’s interim executive director told Politico. “We vigorously contest any allegation of antisemitism, and look forward to addressing the State Department’s attacks in full.”
Noah Gottschalk, Oxfam America’s global policy leader, also denied as “false” and “offensive” allegations of antisemitism, adding that “Oxfam does not support BDS or call for the boycott of Israel or any other country.”
Gottschalk continued, saying that “Oxfam and our Israeli and Palestinian partners have worked on the ground for decades to promote human rights and provide lifesaving support for Israeli and Palestinian communities. We stand by our long history of work protecting the lives, human rights and futures of all Israelis and Palestinians.”
“We fight discrimination in all forms, including antisemitism,” declared Human Rights Watch official Eric Goldstein. “Criticizing government policy is not the same as attacking a specific group of people. For example, our critiques of US government policy do not make us anti-American.“
However, the bias tendency of these organizations against Israel is not to be proven anymore, especially considering that “the closest that Amnesty ever comes to acknowledging any brutality whatsoever on the part of Palestinian terrorists – whom it refuses to refer to as such – is by comparing them to Israelis,” as said Ruthie Blum.
In 2019, David Collier released a report into the work of Amnesty International after monitoring dozens of social media accounts maintained by the NGO and people who work for it, and concluded that the amount of hatred Israel receives is beyond any proportionality, and has reached a level that is, he said, antisemitic.“Targets are not chosen for their actions, but rather for their identity,” wrote Collier. “Persecuted Christians are blatantly ignored.”
Hagay Hacohen contributed to this report. Source
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