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| Coalition for a Free Palestine and Amnesty International, South Africa members hold a candlelight vigil in Johannesburg, Tuesday Jan 18, 2011 to commemorate Israeli attacks on Gaza in 2009. |
Indeed, Amnesty co-sponsored this event with the Coalition for a Free Palestine.
And who exactly is that?
The Coalition for a Free Palestine (CFP) is a COSATU led coalition representing a wide range of civil society organizations and trade unions. Some member organizations include the South African Council of Churches, South African Young Communist League, South African Communist Party, Muslim Judicial Council, Muslim Students Association, Palestine Solidarity Alliance, Palestine Solidarity Committee, Palestine Solidarity Group and the student society, the Wits University Palestine Solidarity Committee.
Their webpage, which seems to have been created solely to condemn Israel for the flotilla incident, includes such lovely items as this:
It also calls for an absolute boycott of Israel.
One of the members of this coalition, the Palestine Solidarity Committee, says that "Zionism is a theory of ethnic cleansing and racism."
Another, the Palestine Solidarity Group, says that its aim is to destroy Israel and create a single state on "historic Palestine."
This demonstration also called for the arrest of Tzipi Livni, who is visiting South Africa.
Does Amnesty International support these groups' goals of eradicating Israel and using lawfare to single out only the Jewish state for harassment and boycotts?
Amnesty is certainly not distancing themselves from these haters.
And by participating with a coalition of groups who have every desire to destroy the Jewish state, and whose fake "solidarity" with Palestinian Arabs ends at the borders of Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Egypt, Amnesty is showing yet again that it is far from an impartial observer in its analyses of the Middle East.
UPDATE: Challah Hu Akbar notes that an Amnesty chapter is also sponsoring a talk by Israel hater Norman Finkelstein. In that case, however, there seems to be a little bit of effort to distance Finkelstein from official Amnesty positions.
But can you imagine an Amnesty-sponsored talk of any member of Israel's government?