Amnesty International is losing its way

[shira]

As the organization celebrates 50 years, it is clear that something has gone terribly wrong with this once-respected moral watchdog.

Outside its London headquarters last week, Amnesty International (AI) hosted “Complicity in Oppressions: Do the Media Aid Israel” – organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the pro-Hamas group, Middle East Monitor Online (MEMO). In promoting the event, MEMO explained that “realities do not deter Zionists and the well-oiled pro-Israel lobby from purveying distortions of the truth as ‘facts’ in their hasbara (propaganda).”

MEMO also called Zionism a “pernicious ideology which is both racist and unjust – an ideology backed by governments across the Western world.”

As Amnesty International celebrates 50 years, it is clear that something has gone terribly wrong with this once-respected moral watchdog. Hosting such events, like allying with these groups, highlights the moral decline of the organization, which now embraces racial and religious prejudice. According to the EU, “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor” is a form of anti-Semitism. Providing a platform for this ideology, therefore, contradicts the principles of a supposed human rights organization.

To make matters worse, these activities divert Amnesty’s resources away from real human rights abuses. As a result, the millions of people in the Middle East – from Algeria to Syria and Iran – whose human rights truly are being abused will continue to receive marginal attention from this self-proclaimed human-rights watchdog.

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http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=224870