Thursday, January 16, 2025
Elder of Ziyon
Amnesty International has proven its hypocrisy when it comes to Jews yet again, this time in Italy.
The local Jewish community protested the title of the presentation, saying it was offensive and incited hate against Jews. It did not ask that the event be canceled.
However, the Athenaeum decided to cancel the event altogether, citing "public order."
Paolo Navarro Dina, vice president of the Jewish Community of Venice. explained, “The flyer Amnesty distributed mentioned the word ‘genocide,’ which trivializes our history. So, as the Jewish community, we asked the Venetian Athenaeum to opt for a different term, without opposing the event per se, We criticized the mention of genocide, but we had no intention of censoring or canceling the event. This was the Athenaeum’s decision, not ours, but the way it was handled suggested otherwise.”
Amnesty quickly found another venue at a university and presented the program on the original date, although the university removed the word "genocide" from its promotional materials.
Amnesty Italy's spokesperson, Riccardo Noury, says his organization is an advocate of free speech. He spoke in October about the right to protest and peaceful demonstration. But that right apparently does not extend to Jews.
“Antisemitism is a violation of human rights. It is unacceptable to accuse an organization like ours, which defends human rights, of being antisemitic,” Noury said.
Unacceptable? Whatever happened to the right of peaceful protest?
Publicly calling for a global intifada is human rights, saying one should destroy Israel "by any means necessary" is all great, but mentioning Amnesty's history of double standards towards Israel isn't? Pointing out that Amnesty's misuse of the term "genocide" in a report where the conclusion was decided before the "research" was done is unacceptable?
Noury added, “After nine months of investigation, we concluded that Israel committed three acts of genocide, as defined by the 1948 Convention. This was not a term we used lightly."
Except that Amnesty admits that it used an expansive definition of genocide just for this report, one not supported by the ICJ. That sounds like they used the term very lightly - and the expanded definition is applied only to the Jewish state.
When the Athenaeum canceled the original event, Noury said, “We deeply regret not having been able to present" their report "in the most important and ancient cultural institution in Venice." But have they ever presented any other report on any other topic in this most important institution? I cannot find a single mention of the Ateneo Veneto in the Amnesty Italy site besides this planned event. If Amnesty treats all cases of perceived human rights violations equally, why does it massively promote its anti-Israel events so much more than any other?
The Jewish community's concerns about antisemitism as a result of this incident were fully realized.
Following the controversy, the Jewish community reported receiving hate mail and threats, escalating tensions.“We are facing hate unfairly and have received several letters. These people are not even anonymous—they write their full names – so we are still checking who they are,” Navarro Dina said.Messages ranged from accusations of political manipulation to more serious threats.“Some letters accused us of controlling political and economic power to silence counter-narratives, while others contained statements like, ‘You will end up in hell and be finally condemned,’” Navarro Dina revealed.
The people threatening Jews represents Amnesty's target audience. That's why it books large venues for its anti-Israel reports. Everyone knows it, and everyone denies it.
“There’s an epidemic of anger and division today, for sure, and we condemn any form of hate towards anyone. But equating our work with antisemitism undermines our pursuit of justice,” Noury said.
Those meddlesome Jews, complaining about being threatened by thugs who Amnesty fully supports. It is really unacceptable.
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"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022) |
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