Amnesty suspends Israeli chapter for rejecting NGO's ‘genocide’ report

The Chair of Amnesty International’s Board, Tiumalu Lauvale Peter Fa’afiu, wrote in an email: "AI Israel has sought to publicly discredit Amnesty’s human rights research and positions.

"Its efforts to publicly undermine the findings and recommendations of Amnesty’s 2022 report on Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians and, more recently, Amnesty’s 2024 report on Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, have been deeply prejudicial to Amnesty’s human rights mission, threatening our credibility, integrity and operational coherence."

When Amnesty International accused Israel on genocide in its December 2024 report “Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territory: ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza”, the local Israel branch voiced criticism, arguing that the genocide claim had not been “sufficiently substantiated”.

The Israeli branch, a legally independent organisation based in Tel Aviv, argued against the claims that Jerusalem is perpetrating genocide in the Strip. “Our careful analysis does not find that the findings meet the definition of genocide, as carefully formulated in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” it stated.

About the December report, leading human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky called it the “latest assault” by Amnesty against Israel, which it accused in 2022 of operating an “apartheid regime” against Palestinians, an allegation that was rejected by its own officials on the ground.

“This report, written under the guise of ‘international law and human rights’, is utterly baseless and replete with malicious lies, gross distortions of truth and fabrications of law,” said Ostrovsky, CEO of The International Legal Forum.

In an article in Mekomit in December 2024, two former Amnesty Israel members, Amal Ourabi and Muhammad Abdel Kader, voiced criticism of the local branch and said it was in “crisis”.

They left the regional branch in 2023 after accusing it of ignoring Israeli human rights violations. 

“Amnesty Israel has published quite a few investigations and statements about the events of October 7, but when it comes to Israel's crimes, the branch chose to ignore them. It preferred to open a front against the global movement and accuse it of anti-Israel bias. We realised that we could not contain such perceptions and chose to resign,” they wrote.

In a statement given the JC, Amnesty’s Board said: “Anti-Palestinian racism within Amnesty Israel has been denounced by a number of board members of Amnesty Israel since 2021, resulting in their resignations.

“They have also taken to the media and social media to reject and condemn anti-Palestinian racism within AI Israel and beyond.”

In December, after the Israeli branch dismissed the conclusions of Amnesty’s genocide report, three members of the branch’s executive committee resigned: committee chairman Daniel Brodsky, and two Palestinian members, Warda Saada and Rula Hardel.

Explaining his decision in an article published in the Forward in December, Brodsky wrote:

“I insisted on Palestinian representation in managerial roles, but nothing changed. Members of management and the board were reluctant to make the necessary structural adjustments.

“Staff told me that there was a rule that says a Palestinian staff member must be consulted on issues pertaining to Palestinians, something Amnesty Israel pointed out in their defence recently.

“However, staff also informed me that frequent arguments resulted from this rule not being applied, and it was certainly not applied to Amnesty Israel’s analysis for its position on the genocide report.”

He also described Amnesty Israel as “just another place for Israeli Jews to express themselves,” he said.

Staff members at Amnesty Israel denied the accusation of anti-Palestinian racism in the branch, according to the Jewish News Syndicate. 

The source, who preferred to stay anonymous, noted that Amnesty Israel consults with Arab and Jewish staffers about its statements and reports.

One insider from Amnesty International told the Jerusalem Post that the Board had failed to notify and consult the Israel branch ahead of the suspension decision, preventing meaningful appeal.

Last year, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told the Israeli Tax Authority to begin a formal probe into tax benefits that the regional Amnesty branch enjoys under Israeli law.

Smotrich’s office said it also had concerns with the fact that 80 per cent of the organisation’s budget came from Amnesty’s global headquarters, raising questions about its legal independence.

The JC contacted Amnesty Israel for comment.