Amnesty International accuses its Israel branch of 'racism,' suspends it for 2 years

Amnesty International in London has decided to suspend its Israel branch for two years. The controversial human rights organization justified its decision by accusing the branch of harboring “racism” against the Palestinian Arab population. Furthermore, Amnesty International blasted its Israel branch for rejecting its biased reports on Israel. 

“We take this action in response to evidence of endemic anti-Palestinian racism within AI Israel, which violates core human rights principles and Amnesty values, and evidence of AI Israel’s misalignment with and hostility to Amnesty positions,” Amnesty International Board Interim Chair Tiumalu Lauvale Peter Fa’afiu wrote in an email on Monday. 

Amnesty Israel has frequently criticized various Israeli government policies over the years. However, following the Hamas Oct. 7 massacre of 1,200 Israelis and the kidnapping of 251 people, Amnesty Israel has been increasingly dissatisfied with Amnesty International’s lack of reporting on Israeli victims of Hamas’ terrorism and atrocities.

In December, Amnesty International released a report titled, “‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza.”

Amnesty Israel rejected the accusations of “genocide” against the Jewish state as a “predetermined conclusion.” Amnesty Israel argued that “the scale of the killing and destruction carried out by Israel in Gaza has reached horrific proportions and must be stopped immediately.”

However, the local Israel branch emphasized that it “does not accept the claim that genocide has been proven to be taking place in the Gaza Strip and does not accept the operative findings of the report.”

Fa’afiu also noted that in 2022, Amnesty Israel disagreed with Amnesty’s International highly politicized report titled “Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime Against Humanity.

“AI Israel has sought to publicly discredit Amnesty’s human rights research and positions,” Fa’afiu claimed. 

“AI Israel has failed to respond effectively to findings of endemic anti-Palestinian racism – a situation which led to complaints from Palestinian board members to the international board in 2022, and successive resignations in 2022, 2023, and 2024,” he continued. 

“This action is taken under the authority of Article 34 of the Statute of Amnesty International (POL 20/8464/2024) and is necessary to protect the reputation, integrity, and operational coherence of the Amnesty movement at large,” Fa’afiu stated. 

“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,” Amnesty International claimed in its conclusion against its Israel branch. 

Members of the Amnesty Israel branch have responded by accusing Amnesty International of ignoring antisemitism within the international movement. 

Amnesty Israel’s former director, Yonatan Gher, argued that the Israeli branch serves as “the guardian of the Israeli government against the human rights movement.”

Israel, the United States, Germany and many other democracies reject the accusation that the Israeli military has committed genocide in the Gaza Strip. 

On Monday, Amnesty International General Agnes Callamard revealed in a leaked email that the organization would discuss the suspension on Jan. 21.

Fa’afiu reportedly said that a committee would “determine whether Amnesty International Israel has a future within the Amnesty movement.”