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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/what-makes-amnestys-apartheid-report-different/34771">electronicintifada.net</a>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">What makes Amnesty's apartheid report different?</h1>
<p class="gmail-node__submitted">
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-author"><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/maureen-clare-murphy">Maureen Clare Murphy</a></span> -
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-publication-date"><span class="gmail-date-display-single">3 February 2022</span></span> </p>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div>
<span><img src="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2022-02/main_image26623_tpo2cisp0i.jpg?itok=tMijjLFx×tamp=1643913107" alt="" title="" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="261"></span><p>A Palestinian youth places a flag on Israel’s wall during a demonstration in the West Bank village of Bilin in February 2014.</p><small>
<span>ActiveStills</span></small><p>What makes Amnesty International’s <a href="https://www.amnestyusa.org/endapartheid/#resources">new report</a> determining that Israel practices the crime of apartheid against Palestinians any different from those that came before it?</p>
<p>Certainly, Israel’s “hysterical” reaction – (in the <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.HIGHLIGHT-hysterical-response-to-amnesty-s-apartheid-report-is-a-typical-hasbara-fail-1.10581770">words</a> of one <em>Haaretz</em>
headline) – to the Amnesty study is notably different from its
relatively understated response to similar reports recently issued by <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/top-israeli-rights-group-breaks-apartheid-taboo">B’Tselem</a>, a human rights group in Israel, and the New York-based <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/hrw-israel-commits-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution">Human Rights Watch</a>.</p>
<p>Palestinian human rights groups like <a href="https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/18174.html">Al-Haq</a>, <a href="https://www.adalah.org/uploads/oldfiles/newsletter/ara/apr08/hafradah.pdf">Adalah</a> and <a href="http://mezan.org/en/uploads/files/16381763051929.pdf">Al Mezan</a> have been advancing an apartheid framework for <a href="https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/6953.html">far longer</a> and the reports from the above-mentioned Israeli and international groups build on their work.</p>
<p>Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem examined Israel’s system of
control throughout historic Palestine that privileges Israeli Jews and
marginalizes Palestinians and violates their rights by varying degrees,
largely depending on where they live.</p>
<p>And in contrast to the analyses published by Palestinian groups,
those three reports, welcomed as groundbreaking and paradigm-shifting,
fall short of placing Israel’s system of apartheid in the context of
settler-colonialism. (A keyword search of Amnesty’s report yields three
results for the terms “colonialism” and “colonial” – found in the titles
of works cited in the footnotes.)</p>
<p>Amnesty repeatedly stresses Israel’s “intent to maintain this system
of oppression and domination” without making the explicit point that
apartheid is a means towards the end of settler colonization: removing
Palestinians from the land so that they may be replaced with foreign
settlers.</p>
<p>The rights group does state that “since its establishment in 1948,
Israel has pursued an explicit policy of establishing and maintaining a
Jewish demographic hegemony and maximizing its control over land to
benefit Jewish Israelis while minimizing the number of Palestinians and
restricting their rights and obstructing their ability to challenge this
dispossession.”</p>
<p>Credit where credit’s due: Amnesty blasts away Israel’s foundational
mythology, acknowledging that it was racist from the beginning – a
departure from the typical liberal attitude that Israel strayed from its
ideals somewhere along the way.</p>
<p>Amnesty even points out that “many elements of Israel’s repressive
military system in the OPT [West Bank and Gaza] originate in Israel’s
18-year-long military rule over Palestinian citizens of Israel,”
beginning in 1948, “and that the dispossession of Palestinians in Israel
continues today.”</p>
<p>Amnesty also acknowledges that “in 1948, Jewish individuals and
institutions owned around 6.5 percent of Mandate Palestine, while
Palestinians owned about 90 percent of the privately owned land there,”
referring to all of historic Palestine prior to the establishment of the
state of Israel.</p>
<p>“Within just over 70 years the situation has been reversed,” the group adds.</p>
<p>And that is Israel’s aim – the “system of oppression and domination”
stressed by Amnesty is the means by which it has usurped Palestinian
land for the benefit of foreign settlers.</p>
<p>After all, Zionist settlers didn’t come to Palestine from Europe for
the purpose of dominating and oppressing Palestinians; they came with
the intent of colonizing their land.</p>
<p>As the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center, a Palestinian group, <a href="https://twitter.com/AdvocacyJlac/status/1488598954388434956">states</a>, “any recognition of Israel as an apartheid state should be situated within the context of its settler-colonial regime.”</p>
<p>Amnesty also refrains from examining and discussing Zionism, Israel’s <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/video-why-anti-zionism-not-anti-semitism">racist state ideology</a> around which its settler-colonialism project is organized.</p>
<p>As Adalah-NY, an advocacy group based in the US, <a href="https://twitter.com/AdalahJustice/status/1488962928762048520">asked</a> Amnesty on Wednesday, “Is it possible to end apartheid without ending the Zionist settler colonial project?”
</p><div id="gmail-file-115861">
<blockquote><p dir="ltr" lang="en">While we at JLAC
welcome the fact that leading international human rights organizations
speaking out against Israel’s apartheid regime holistically, we think
that any recognition of Israel as an apartheid state should be situated
within the context of its settler-colonial regime.</p>— JLAC Advocacy (@AdvocacyJlac) <a href="https://twitter.com/AdvocacyJlac/status/1488598954388434956?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 1, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<div id="gmail-file-115866">
<blockquote><div dir="ltr" lang="en"><p>Good to see <a href="https://twitter.com/amnesty?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@amnesty</a> join <a href="https://twitter.com/hrw?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@hrw</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/btselem?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@btselem</a> declaring Israel an apartheid state.</p><p>Important,
but the apartheid frame must include recognition of Israel &
Zionism as settler colonialism & racial projects. Otherwise the
question of Palestine will be reduced to one of liberal equality</p></div>— Lana Tatour (@Lana_Tatour) <a href="https://twitter.com/Lana_Tatour/status/1488280326048985089?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2022</a></blockquote>
</div>
<h2>Groundwork for accountability</h2>
<p>Despite these critical shortcomings, Amnesty’s study lays a solid groundwork for holding Israel accountable within the <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/could-icc-try-palestinians-while-israel-gets-away-murder/33896">flawed framework of international law</a> and makes forceful recommendations towards that end.</p>
<p>Amnesty joins Palestinian groups urging the International Criminal
Court to “investigate the commission of the crime of apartheid” and for
its prosecutor to “consider the applicability of the crime against
humanity of apartheid within its current formal investigation” in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>Given that the ICC doesn’t have territorial jurisdiction in Israel,
Amnesty calls on the UN Security Council to either refer “the entire
situation to the ICC” or establish “an international tribunal to try
alleged perpetrators” of the crime against humanity of apartheid.</p>
<p>Amnesty adds that the Security Council “must also impose targeted
sanctions, such as asset freezes, against Israeli officials most
implicated … and a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel.”</p>
<p>Reiterating its “longstanding call” on states to suspend all forms of
military assistance and weapons sales to Israel, Amnesty also calls on
Palestinian authorities to “ensure that any type of dealings with
Israel, primarily through security coordination, do not contribute to
maintaining the system of apartheid against Palestinians” in the West
Bank and Gaza.</p>
<p>Amnesty also states that Israel must recognize Palestinian refugees’
right of return and provide Palestinian victims “full reparations,”
including “restitution for all properties acquired on a racial basis.”
</p><div id="gmail-file-115871">
<blockquote><p dir="ltr" lang="en">A notable strength
of Amnesty's report is its inclusion of Palestinians in the Diaspora and
recognition that Israel's system and crimes of Apartheid denies
Palestinian refugees and in the Diaspora human rights, rights to land
and property, and importantly, the Right of Return.</p>— Samer Abdelnour (@SamerAbdelnour) <a href="https://twitter.com/SamerAbdelnour/status/1488641998894649352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 1, 2022</a></blockquote>
</div>
These demands by Amnesty, which claims to be the world’s largest human
rights organization, go much further than those made by Human Rights
Watch and B’Tselem.
<p>This goes some way toward explaining why Israel and its <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-u-s-jewish-groups-slam-amnesty-s-israeli-apartheid-report-1.10579147">proxies and apologists</a>
attempted to pressure Amnesty to pull its report ahead of publication
and, having failed to achieve that, are now resorting to the usual
baseless accusations of anti-Semitism.
</p><div id="gmail-file-115876">
<blockquote><p dir="ltr" lang="en">This is how the "Israel" debate in the US works. <a href="https://twitter.com/amnesty?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@amnesty</a> writes detailed report about the lived experience of Palestinians. <a href="https://twitter.com/ADL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ADL</a>--which has no expertise or genuine interest in conditions on the ground for Palestinians--turns conversation to antisemitism <a href="https://t.co/bjjo61oy5D">https://t.co/bjjo61oy5D</a> <a href="https://t.co/80lzKPPMy6">https://t.co/80lzKPPMy6</a></p>— Peter Beinart (@PeterBeinart) <a href="https://twitter.com/PeterBeinart/status/1488223798763663361?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<div id="gmail-file-115881">
<blockquote><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Making this into a
debate about antisemitism is a deliberate distraction. But it won't make
the facts of extreme systemic discrimination as described in the report
go away. The only way to stop the world from criticizing our policies
is to change our policies.</p>— Breaking the Silence (@BtSIsrael) <a href="https://twitter.com/BtSIsrael/status/1488482879101444098?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 1, 2022</a></blockquote>
</div>
Yair Lapid, Israel’s foreign minister, attempted to discredit Amnesty’s report by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhbiQQ6Xt6c">saying</a>
it “echoes propaganda” and “the same lies shared by terrorist
organizations,” referring to prominent Palestinian groups recently <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-declares-war-palestinian-rights-groups/34166">declared illegal</a> by Israel.
<p>“If Israel wasn’t a Jewish state, no one at Amnesty would dare make such a claim against it,” Lapid added.</p>
<p>In its report, Amnesty observes that “Palestinian organizations and
human rights defenders who have been leading anti-apartheid advocacy and
campaigning efforts have faced Israeli repression for years as
punishment for their work.”</p>
<p>While Israel brands Palestinian human rights groups as “terrorist
organizations,” it subjects “Israeli organizations denouncing apartheid
to smears and delegitimization campaigns,” Amnesty adds.</p>
<p>Israel may find that such tactics when employed against the world’s
largest human rights organization may not convince anyone beyond its
choir.</p>
<p>Its attempt to “get ahead of the story,” reportedly spearheaded by
Naftali Bennett, Israel’s prime minister, along with Lapid, by
preemptively attacking the Amnesty report has only served to reinforce
the association of Israel with apartheid.</p>
<p>It also ensured “that the report got a lot more exposure than it would otherwise receive,” as one <em>Haaretz</em> columnist <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.HIGHLIGHT-hysterical-response-to-amnesty-s-apartheid-report-is-a-typical-hasbara-fail-1.10581770">observes</a>.</p>
<h2>Mainstreaming the apartheid framework</h2>
<p>There is another key difference between the Amnesty report on apartheid and those that came before it.</p>
<p>Amnesty International is a campaigning organization with millions of members and supporters who, the group <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/get-involved/join/">says</a>, “strengthen our calls for justice.”</p>
<p>Amnesty has supplemented its report with a 90-minute <a href="https://academy.amnesty.org/learn/course/external/view/elearning/239/deconstructing-israels-apartheid-against-palestinians">online course</a> titled “Deconstructing Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians.”</p>
<p>It also produced a 15-minute mini-documentary available on YouTube
that breaks down the question of whether Israel practices apartheid for a
mass audience:
</p><div id="gmail-file-115891">
<p>
</p>
</div>
So far Amnesty’s action items only include <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/petition/demolish-apartheid-not-palestinian-homes-petition/">sending a polite letter</a> to Naftali Bennett, Israel’s prime minister, opposing home demolitions and expulsions – hardly inspiring stuff.
<p>Amnesty’s US chapter meanwhile has made bizarre disclaimers <a href="https://www.amnestyusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/020121_End-Apartheid-Action-Toolkit.pdf">distancing itself</a> from the Palestinian-led <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/bds">boycott, divestment and sanctions</a>
movement and even stated that the organization doesn’t take a stance on
the occupation itself, instead focusing on Israel’s obligations, “as
the occupying power, under international law.”
</p><div id="gmail-file-115896">
<blockquote><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Does Amnesty oppose
Israel’s military occupation of Palestine? Amnesty hasn’t taken a
position on occupation. Our focus has been on the Israeli government’s
obligations, as the occupying power, under international law, but
Amnesty has taken no position on the occupation itself.</p>— Amnesty International USA (@amnestyusa) <a href="https://twitter.com/amnestyusa/status/1488519451976810499?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 1, 2022</a></blockquote>
</div>
Meanwhile, its chapter in Germany has <a href="https://www.972mag.com/amnesty-germany-apartheid-report/">distanced itself</a>
from the report and stated that “the Germany section of Amnesty will
not plan or carry out any activities in relation to this report” because
of the legacy of the Holocaust and ongoing anti-Semitism in the
country.
<p>It is not the first time that Amnesty has limited its solidarity in ways that are <a href="https://www.amnesty.org.uk/nelson-mandela-and-amnesty-international">enduringly shameful</a>.
</p><div id="gmail-file-115901">
<blockquote><p dir="ltr" lang="en">not so fun fact,
neither Human Rights Watch nor Amnesty took a position on the Iraq war
and Amnesty for years refused to label Nelson Mandela a Prisoner of
Conscience because he wouldn’t categorically denounce violence (a thing
that often works to achieve political outcomes) <a href="https://t.co/RVCEgqx5mK">https://t.co/RVCEgqx5mK</a></p>— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) <a href="https://twitter.com/adamjohnsonNYC/status/1488664829309374465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 2, 2022</a></blockquote>
</div>
Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are based in
imperialist countries and were founded in the context of the Cold War,
largely focusing on advocating for the rights of individuals in
communist Eastern Europe.
<p>Their narrow frameworks and founding ideologies have put them in
opposition to anti-colonial liberation struggles and the violence those
necessitate because, as Nelson Mandela <a href="https://www.ebb-magazine.com/essays/the-palestinians-inalienable-right-to-resist">put it</a>,
“it is the oppressor who defines the nature of the struggle, and the
oppressed is often left no recourse but to use methods that mirror those
of the oppressor.”</p>
<p>These fundamental contradictions mean that Western human rights groups will always take compromised, if not <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/could-icc-try-palestinians-while-israel-gets-away-murder/33896">harmful</a>, positions concerning Palestinian liberation, with Human Rights Watch <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/how-human-rights-watch-favors-israel/33721">recently suggesting</a>
a moral equivalence between the violence used by Israel against
besieged Palestinians in Gaza and that of Palestinian resistance against
it.</p>
<p>But Amnesty’s educational materials, including a lengthy <a href="https://www.amnestyusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Israel-Report-Public-QA-1.pdf">Q & A</a>,
will help prepare grassroots campaigners to respond to Israel’s
apologists who seek to deflect criticism of the state’s practices by
attacking the messenger.</p>
<p>After all, as one astute observer <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeJSaltarelli/status/1488895191515901956">put it on Twitter</a>, that is the only arrow in the quiver of those committed to maintaining Israel’s apartheid rule and the situation of impunity.
</p><div id="gmail-file-115906">
<blockquote><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Israel’s defenders responding predictably to <a href="https://twitter.com/amnesty?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@amnesty</a>
report characterizing Israel’s oppression of Palestinians as apartheid
crime against humanity: no refutation of assembled facts or plan to
remedy them, only (false) accusations of antisemitism. It’s the only
quiver in the bow.</p>— Joseph Saltarelli (@JoeJSaltarelli) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeJSaltarelli/status/1488895191515901956?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 2, 2022</a></blockquote>
</div>
Amnesty’s report is a strong indicator that an analysis beyond the 1967
occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is becoming mainstream.
<p>Meanwhile, Israel and its proxies and abettors in the <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/u-s-state-department-rejects-amnesty-s-apartheid-claims-against-israel-1.10583830">US Congress</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/amnesty-accuses-israel-enforcing-apartheid-palestinians-2022-02-01/">State Department</a> trot out tired talking points while ignoring the substance of Amnesty’s findings.</p>
<p>(By contrast, a few <a href="https://twitter.com/BettyMcCollum04/status/1488639936249180166">members</a> of Congress belonging to the Democratic Party are publicly <a href="https://twitter.com/RepRashida/status/1488973923320487943">supportive</a> of Amnesty’s findings, with Cori Bush <a href="https://twitter.com/RepCori/status/1488977261684477956">calling</a> for an end to “US taxpayer support for this violence.”)</p>
<p>But like UN and EU officials forever droning on about their
commitment to the nonexistent peace process towards a two-state
solution, those parroting these Israel lobby talking points so detached
from reality appear increasingly ridiculous.
</p><div id="gmail-file-115776">
<blockquote><div dir="ltr" lang="en"><p>These clowns have had YEARS to come up with a single other talking point and still have nothing. </p><p>Human
rights orgs have been in the field for decades, painstakingly
documenting every detail of the reality on the ground, and AIPAC's still
droning on about "bastion of democracy." <a href="https://t.co/YIXrNumPLs">pic.twitter.com/YIXrNumPLs</a></p></div>— Simone Zimmerman 🔥 (@simonerzim) <a href="https://twitter.com/simonerzim/status/1488289421325656070?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2022</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div id="gmail-file-115911">
<blockquote><p dir="ltr" lang="en">The visceral
reaction to international orgs coalescing around acknowledging what
Palestinians have been saying for decades is rooted in one of Israel’s
greatest fears: that the world might start finally listening to—and this
time believing—Palestinians.</p>— Abdallah Fayyad (@abdallah_fayyad) <a href="https://twitter.com/abdallah_fayyad/status/1488596958159810563?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 1, 2022</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div id="gmail-file-115916">
<blockquote><p dir="ltr" lang="en">State Department
spokesperson sounded awfully defensive here when called out on the
hypocrisy of the US frequently endorsing Amnesty reports...except for
its findings on Israel. <a href="https://t.co/m0BKKONNhN">https://t.co/m0BKKONNhN</a></p>— Josh Ruebner (@joshruebner) <a href="https://twitter.com/joshruebner/status/1488853682187874315?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 2, 2022</a></blockquote>
</div>
<h2>Israel fears UN report</h2>
<p>While rejecting the term “apartheid” and attacking Amnesty, Israel
and its proxies and supporters have their eyes on an even bigger threat
to Israeli impunity.</p>
<p>According to an Israeli foreign ministry cable seen by the publication <a href="https://www.axios.com/israel-discredit-un-human-rights-probe-gaza-palestinians-951e3799-2f2b-4c1f-ad3c-5a8a15aa7ac9.html"><em>Axios</em></a>,
Israel has planned a campaign attempting to discredit a permanent UN
commission of inquiry into Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights in
all the territory under its control.</p>
<p>The UN Human Rights Council narrowly passed a <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/un-probe-israeli-repression-against-palestinians-whole">resolution establishing that commission of inquiry last May</a> following Israel’s 11-day attack on Gaza during which Palestinians rose up throughout their homeland.</p>
<p>Palestinian groups have long called on states “to address the root
causes of Israel’s settler colonialism and apartheid imposed over the
Palestinian people as a whole,” as Al-Haq <a href="https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/18432.html">said</a> ahead of the vote.</p>
<p>The commission of inquiry undertaken by three independent human
rights experts tapped by the Human Rights Council is expected to deliver
its findings in June.</p>
<p><em>Axios</em> reported last week that Israeli officials are “highly
concerned that the commission’s report will refer to Israel as an
‘apartheid state.’”</p>
<p>The publication adds that “the Biden administration <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-will-oppose-un-human-rights-councils-disproportionate-attention-israel-state-2021-10-14/">doesn’t support the inquiry</a> and played a central role in cutting its funding by 25 percent in UN budget negotiations.”</p>
<p>A bipartisan grouping of 42 members of Congress has meanwhile <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-bipartisan-group-of-42-u-s-lawmakers-urges-blinken-to-halt-un-commission-on-israel-1.10571077">called on</a> the US secretary of state to “lead an effort to end the outrageous and unjust permanent commission of inquiry.”</p>
<p>But Israel apparently fears that this intervention may not be enough.</p>
<p><em>Haaretz</em> <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israeli-officials-fear-un-will-adopt-apartheid-narrative-this-year-1.10583624">reported</a>
this week that unnamed “senior Israeli officials” are concerned that
the UN “may soon accept the narrative that Israel is an ‘apartheid
state,’ issuing a serious blow to Israel’s status on the international
stage.”</p>
<p>A UN consensus around Israeli apartheid “could lead to Israel’s
exclusion from various international events, including sports
competitions or cultural events,” the paper adds.</p>
<p>In other words, Israeli officials are afraid that the state will be
treated as a global pariah as South Africa was before the fall of
apartheid in that country.</p>
<p>The steering committee of the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and
sanctions movement – inspired by the global campaign that helped bring
apartheid to an end in South Africa – <a href="https://bdsmovement.net/sites/default/files/UN-Question%20of%20Israeli%20apartheid_22-9-2020.pdf">argues</a>
that “investigation of Israeli apartheid by the UN and its members are
necessary steps for achieving freedom, justice and equality for the
Palestinian people.”</p>
<p>That committee urges formerly colonized states to reprise “the
leading role they assumed in the UN for the eradication of apartheid in
Southern Africa.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/05/19/how-un-can-help-end-israeli-apartheid-and-persecution">Human Rights Watch</a> has called for the appointment of a global UN envoy for the crimes of persecution and apartheid.</p>
<p>Amnesty states that the UN General Assembly “should reestablish the
Special Committee against Apartheid, which was originally established in
November 1962, to focus on all situations … where the serious human
rights violation and crime against humanity of apartheid are being
committed.”</p>
<p>These moves would have implications beyond the Palestinian cause
within the UN system, where “bullying and political pressure have
prevented the study and debate, let alone punishment, of Israeli
apartheid,” according to the BDS movement steering committee.</p>
<p>Ultimately, Amnesty’s study may not be fundamentally different from those that came before.</p>
<p>But the context in which it appears – as international consensus
coalesces around recognizing Israeli apartheid, an International
Criminal Court <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/icc-launches-palestine-war-crimes-probe">investigation</a> is underway and amid Israeli spyware <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israels-cyberwarfare-industry-had-bad-year">blowback</a> – suggests that a new chapter in the global struggle for Palestinian freedom may have begun.</p>
<p><em>Maureen Clare Murphy is senior editor of The Electronic Intifada.</em></p><br>
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