Israel shouldn’t exist as Jewish state, human rights watchdog claims
Israel should not be preserved as a Jewish state, the Amnesty International US Director Paul O’Brien said, according to outlet The Jewish Insider.
Speaking on Wednesday to a Women’s National Democratic Club audience, O’Brien said that while his organization “takes no political views on any question, including the right of the State of Israel to survive,” Israel “shouldn’t exist as a Jewish state.”
Amnesty International (AI) believes that “the right of the people to self-determination” should be protected, O’Brien stressed, but it opposes the idea “that Israel should be preserved as a state for the Jewish people.”
The American executive director’s remarks follow a recent AI report that accused Israel of “apartheid” towards Palestinians. The authors of the report, heavily criticized by both Israeli and US officials, said that “Israel must dismantle this cruel system and the international community must pressure it to do so.”
Commenting on the document, O’Brien said that its main purpose was to “collectively change the conversation” on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In his opinion, what is needed is a “safe Jewish space” rather than a “Jewish state.”
The Israeli authorities as well as pro-Israel groups have consistently called for a so-called ‘two-state solution’ which would allow both Israelis and Palestinians have their own independent states. Therefore, O’Brien’s stance has been met with outrage.
“Amnesty USA’s director reveals the true face of the organization, calling for the elimination of the nation state of the Jewish people. The truth’s out in the open along with Amnesty’s obsession & hate for the only country with a Jewish majority. There’s a name for this hate..,” spokesperson for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Lior Haiat tweeted.
Amnesty USA's director reveals the true face of the organization, calling for the elimination of the nation state of the Jewish people.The truth's out in the open along with Amnesty's obsession & hate for the only country with a Jewish majority.There's a name for this hate... pic.twitter.com/KWzHxMR2Gp
— Lior Haiat 🇮🇱 (@LiorHaiat) March 11, 2022
The CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations William Daroff, in turn said that “if there was any doubt about Amnesty’s credibility as a legitimate voice of authority, it is now abundantly clear that they are firmly entrenched in the cadre of extremist anti-Israel provocateurs.”
The diplomatic efforts to reach a two-state solution, undertaken over the last thirty years, have so far brought no results, with the sides of the conflict as well as different ideological and political groups failing to agree on the terms of the arrangement.
