Berliner Boersenzeitung - Amnesty joins other rights group in condemning Israeli 'apartheid'

EUR -
AED 3.846458
AFN 71.211176
ALL 97.412843
AMD 406.811894
ANG 1.887241
AOA 956.640935
ARS 1051.428592
AUD 1.608171
AWG 1.887622
AZN 1.787721
BAM 1.94682
BBD 2.114156
BDT 125.138011
BGN 1.955509
BHD 0.394704
BIF 3034.333258
BMD 1.047225
BND 1.407209
BOB 7.235625
BRL 6.090347
BSD 1.047075
BTN 88.4754
BWP 14.296058
BYN 3.427092
BYR 20525.602023
BZD 2.110863
CAD 1.463847
CDF 3005.534618
CHF 0.928583
CLF 0.03695
CLP 1019.567969
CNY 7.576459
CNH 7.597437
COP 4597.630131
CRC 532.296452
CUC 1.047225
CUP 27.751452
CVE 110.613091
CZK 25.354142
DJF 186.112546
DKK 7.458821
DOP 63.25565
DZD 139.901282
EGP 52.012714
ERN 15.708369
ETB 129.23088
FJD 2.379611
FKP 0.826592
GBP 0.831973
GEL 2.853676
GGP 0.826592
GHS 16.598349
GIP 0.826592
GMD 74.352935
GNF 9037.548191
GTQ 8.083713
GYD 219.089433
HKD 8.150638
HNL 26.363899
HRK 7.470124
HTG 137.485836
HUF 411.088281
IDR 16675.428446
ILS 3.890063
IMP 0.826592
INR 88.480582
IQD 1372.387829
IRR 44093.391567
ISK 146.108348
JEP 0.826592
JMD 166.302915
JOD 0.742584
JPY 161.458939
KES 135.614106
KGS 90.595555
KHR 4241.259434
KMF 491.829597
KPW 942.501737
KRW 1466.554465
KWD 0.322158
KYD 0.872675
KZT 519.294876
LAK 22997.052059
LBP 93778.962407
LKR 304.684618
LRD 188.762185
LSL 18.965252
LTL 3.092182
LVL 0.633456
LYD 5.115689
MAD 10.486854
MDL 19.069043
MGA 4891.586326
MKD 61.525564
MMK 3401.344628
MNT 3558.469111
MOP 8.394618
MRU 41.799981
MUR 48.593488
MVR 16.179757
MWK 1817.981712
MXN 21.385321
MYR 4.675828
MZN 66.925952
NAD 18.964918
NGN 1774.186923
NIO 38.527419
NOK 11.597222
NPR 141.561038
NZD 1.78822
OMR 0.403194
PAB 1.04717
PEN 3.974207
PGK 4.216653
PHP 61.815578
PKR 291.021899
PLN 4.344987
PYG 8218.776313
QAR 3.812683
RON 4.977038
RSD 116.989628
RUB 106.083365
RWF 1435.744917
SAR 3.931627
SBD 8.750118
SCR 14.091129
SDG 629.903184
SEK 11.589368
SGD 1.409667
SHP 0.826592
SLE 23.651533
SLL 21959.781063
SOS 598.485238
SRD 37.077012
STD 21675.434737
SVC 9.162736
SYP 2631.183058
SZL 18.975788
THB 36.383713
TJS 11.152657
TMT 3.675758
TND 3.301902
TOP 2.452702
TRY 36.169354
TTD 7.108213
TWD 34.046633
TZS 2777.615603
UAH 43.232448
UGX 3869.006119
USD 1.047225
UYU 44.622895
UZS 13488.252609
VES 48.454165
VND 26623.067216
VUV 124.328608
WST 2.923423
XAF 652.945238
XAG 0.034027
XAU 0.000392
XCD 2.830177
XDR 0.798815
XOF 651.373441
XPF 119.331742
YER 261.711912
ZAR 18.966175
ZMK 9426.275251
ZMW 28.876803
ZWL 337.205892
  • RBGPF

    -0.5000

    59.69

    -0.84%

  • BCC

    2.9500

    140.36

    +2.1%

  • SCS

    -0.0300

    13.04

    -0.23%

  • NGG

    -0.1700

    63.1

    -0.27%

  • GSK

    0.3500

    33.7

    +1.04%

  • CMSC

    0.1200

    24.64

    +0.49%

  • CMSD

    0.1850

    24.445

    +0.76%

  • RYCEF

    0.1800

    6.79

    +2.65%

  • RELX

    0.6500

    45.76

    +1.42%

  • VOD

    -0.1000

    8.84

    -1.13%

  • RIO

    0.1800

    62.57

    +0.29%

  • JRI

    0.0000

    13.23

    0%

  • BCE

    -0.3200

    26.68

    -1.2%

  • BTI

    -0.1000

    36.98

    -0.27%

  • BP

    0.4400

    29.52

    +1.49%

  • AZN

    1.0600

    64.26

    +1.65%

Amnesty joins other rights group in condemning Israeli 'apartheid'
Amnesty joins other rights group in condemning Israeli 'apartheid'

Amnesty joins other rights group in condemning Israeli 'apartheid'

Amnesty International on Tuesday labelled Israel an "apartheid" state that treats Palestinians as "an inferior racial group," joining the assessment of other rights groups which the Jewish state vehemently rejects.

Text size:

"Israel's cruel policies of segregation, dispossession and exclusion across all territories under its control clearly amount to apartheid," said Amnesty's secretary general Agnes Callamard.

"Whether they live in Gaza, east Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, or Israel itself, Palestinians are treated as an inferior racial group and systematically deprived of their rights."

Israel's Foreign Minister Yair Lapid strongly rejected the report as "divorced from reality" and charged that "Amnesty quotes lies spread by terrorist organisations".

A year ago, the Israeli-based human rights group B'Tselem drew fire when it asserted that Israeli policies had been designed to enforce "Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea" and met the definition of "apartheid".

New York-based Human Rights Watch in April last year became the first major international rights group to publicly level the controversial allegation.

The report by London-based Amnesty builds on those previous calls in asserting that Israeli-enforced apartheid exists in occupied Palestinians territories and within Israel itself, where Arab citizens make up more than 20 percent of the population.

Amnesty stressed it was not comparing Israel's treatment of Palestinians to conditions in apartheid-era South Africa but said Israeli conduct and policies met the criteria for the crime of apartheid as defined under international law.

Callamard told AFP that Israel's Arab citizens "will not experience the apartheid in the same way" as a Palestinian in Gaza but that "the regime of apartheid" exists in both places.

Israel's foreign ministry, in a statement released Monday, called on Amnesty to "withdraw" the report.

"Amnesty was once an esteemed organisation that we all respected," said Lapid. "Today, it is the exact opposite."

- 'Open to scrutiny' -

"Israel is not perfect, but it is a democracy committed to international law and open to scrutiny," said Lapid, who is also Israel's alternate prime minister.

He also charged that Amnesty had an anti-Semitic agenda.

"I hate to use the argument that if Israel were not a Jewish state, nobody in Amnesty would dare argue against it, but in this case, there is no other possibility," he said.

The president of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald Lauder, said Amnesty's report "does absolutely nothing to offer a constructive way forward and has no real interest in promoting the human rights of Palestinians or advancing peace and a lasting two-state solution.

"It will only serve, like previous similar prejudiced reports, to fuel the fires of anti-Semites under the guise of political correctness."

Callamard countered that "a critique of the practice of the State of Israel is absolutely not a form of anti-Semitism.

"Amnesty International stands very strongly against anti-Semitism, against any form of racism," she said.

"We have repeatedly denounced anti-Semitic acts and anti-Semitism by various leaders around the world."

- 'Avenues to justice' -

Israel has controlled the West Bank and east Jerusalem since 1967. Some 700,000 Jews now live alongside Palestinians in both areas, in settlements regarded as illegal under international law.

Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but has enforced a blockade of the Hamas Islamist-controlled territory since 2007.

The International Criminal Court has opened an investigation into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict expected to focus in part on possible war crimes committed during the 2014 conflict in Gaza.

Amnesty called on the ICC "to consider the crime of apartheid in its current investigation".

It also urged the United Nations Security Council to "impose targeted sanctions, such as asset freezes, against Israeli officials most implicated in the crime of apartheid".

It said the international community needed to "face up to the reality of Israeli apartheid and pursue the many avenues to justice which remain shamefully unexplored".

Callamard told AFP that international "fatigue" to address the plight of Palestinians was "not an option".

(S.G.Stein--BBZ)