Amnesty International UK is defying calls to sack a senior official who shared a post comparing Israel to Nazi Germany and likened the Jewish state’s treatment of Palestinians to the Holocaust.

Garry Ettle, who represents the human rights charity as “country coordinator for Israel and Occupied Palestinian territories”, retweeted a message asking how video footage showing Israeli youths shouting at a Palestinian woman was “any different from Nazi Germany”.

The activist called Israel’s policies towards Gaza a “slow holocaust” in a Facebook message posted on 27 January 2020.

He also condemned US band Black Eyed Peas for playing a gig in “apartheid Israel” in another social media post last year.

Capture

One of Mr Ettle's posts

Mr Ettle’s hardline views, which were revealed by online investigations group GnasherJew, have led to calls for Amnesty International UK to sack him.
Tory peer Lord Leigh of Hurley, an executive board member of the Conservative Friends of Israel, told the JC he thought Mr Ettle should be dismissed, adding: “Amnesty International UK has a very worrying record and this is the moment for decisive action to be taken by them.”

And a spokesperson for advocacy group Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Only at Amnesty and like-minded organisations could someone who allegedly compares Israel to Nazis describe himself as a ‘human-rights activist’.

“Such comparisons are a breach of the universally accepted International Definition of Antisemitism. We would call on Amnesty to investigate and dissociate itself from this individual, but the organisation’s record on antisemitism gives little reason to think that it holds the views of the Jewish community in anything but contempt.”

3

Garry Ettle's incendiary tweet

Amnesty rejected the calls for Mr Ettle to be dismissed, describing the concerns about him as “just the latest attempt to intimidate and silence us for our important work”.
Dave Rich, Director of Policy at the Community Security Trust, said: “Garry Ettle’s social media posts suggest an unhealthy appetite for conspiracy theories, denial of antisemitism and abuse of the memory of the Holocaust.

“It is highly unlikely that he is able to put these troubling views to one side in his work for Amnesty International, and raises further questions about their objectivity and credibility.”

In August, Mr Ettle tweeted a “thank you” to musicians who withdrew from Berlin’s Pop-Kultur festival over its Israeli Embassy partnership.

He wrote: “Thank you Lafawndah & Trustfall, Alewya, Franky Gogo and Gigsta for withdrawing from @popkulturberlin!

“All artists should boycott #PopKulturBerlin until it drops its partnership with apartheid Israel. No progressive festival artwashes massacres. #PK22”

The previous month, Mr Ettle shared an Africa4Palestine tweet that accompanied a video allegedly showing Israeli youths “harassing” a Palestinian woman at a railway station in Jerusalem, alongside the words: “How is this any different from Nazi Germany?”

Last year, he took to Twitter to condemn the US hip-hop band Black Eyed Peas for performing at Jerusalem’s Pais Arena, ranting: “@bep You wouldn’t have performed in apartheid South Africa, so why apartheid Israel?”

Amnesty International UK defended Mr Ettle, saying: “Garry Ettle is a committed and highly principled human rights activist who has opposed the Israeli authorities’ system of apartheid for years.

“This is just the latest attempt to intimidate and silence us for our important work in documenting serious and systematic human rights violations under successive Israeli governments.”