Letter to The Jewish Chronicle on ICAHD
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[Text of the letter]
Re: Amnesty is ‘fair and balanced’ says Israeli, October 12, 2012
Itay Ephstain is entirely disingenuous when portraying the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, and Amnesty UK as balanced on the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. Deviating far from its claimed human rights agenda, Amnesty-UK has often hosted events and given platforms to supporters of BDS (boycotts, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns, as well as ‘one-state’ advocates. ICAHD also repeatedly demonizes Israel by employing rhetoric such as ‘ethnic cleansing’, ‘apartheid’ ‘collective punishment’ and ‘genocide’.
The topic of the event was “Discrimination, Displacement and Despair: The impact of Israel’s prolonged occupation”. In its campaign of vilification, which erases the history and the context of wars and mass terror, ICAHD has lobbied for the invention of a new international crime, “prolonged occupation”. ICAHD’s latest campaign is an immoral charade. The reality is this is an attempt to single Israel out for selective condemnation and to generate lawfare cases surrounding an imaginary legal concept.
Ariella Kimmel
Communications Associate
NGO Monitor