12 rights groups deplore remarks of EU’s Borrell regarding Amnesty’s Israel’s apartheid report

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- Twelve human rights organizations based in ‘Israel’ have deplored statements by the European Commission, which associate Amnesty International’s report on Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians with “antisemitism”.

Describing themselves as human rights groups striving to protect and defend the rights of all people in ‘Israel’ and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the twelve groups expressed in a Tuesday statement their “grave concern” about statements by the European Commission, which associate Amnesty International’s report Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime against Humanity with “antisemitism.”

Last month, EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Josep Borrell, rejected calls from the European Union to declare that ‘Israel’ is implementing an apartheid regime in the occupied territories.

According to Borrell, “The Commission considers that it is not appropriate to use the term apartheid in connection with the State of Israel.”

In recent months, several members of the European Parliament have approached Borrell and urged him to intensify the Union’s position towards ‘Israel’.

Member of the European Parliament Manu Pineda from Spain noted a series of reports by human rights organizations that stated that ‘Israel’ imposes an apartheid policy on Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The groups said that Borrell referenced the IHRA definition of antisemitism in a manner suggesting it applies to Amnesty’s report, saying they “deplore such framing and disagree with this statement.”

“Through our work, we document, verify and confront the ongoing injustice, inequality, and violations of human rights and international law that Israel perpetrates against the Palestinians.”

“Many of us have used the term and/or have made the legal designation of *apartheid’ in relation to various aspects of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.”

“The debate around the crime of apartheid of which Israel is accused and its geographical scope, is not only legitimate, but absolutely necessary,” the groups added.

In this context, the human rights organizations said the European Commission “should not turn its back on the facts and developments on the ground by resorting to a dogmatic position of “not appropriate”.”

“We wholeheartedly reject the idea that Amnesty International’s report displays antisemitic animus,” the groups stressed.

“More broadly, we are deeply concerned about the escalating instrumentalization of allegations of antisemitism. Many of the most pre-eminent scholars of Jewish life, history and persecution have warned that the struggle against antisemitism in the world is being weakened by the unbearable, inaccurate and instrumentalized use to which the antisemitism accusation is lodged for political ends, in order to avoid an open and critical debate about Israel’s oppressive policies towards the Palestinians.”

The European Commission, the groups said, “should refrain from validating and fueling such instrumentalization in any way – also for the sake of the fight against antisemitism.”

The groups also urged the European Commission to “unequivocally withdraw its insinuation that Amnesty International’s report Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians has anything to do with antisemitism.”

They urged the Commission to “carefully engage with the facts and arguments on which legal designations of apartheid in relation to various aspects of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians are based – and to reconsider its position in this regard.”

The ‏signatories of the statements are Adalah, B’Tselem, Breaking the Silence, Combatants for Peace, Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, Hamoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual, Hagel: In Defense of Human Rights, Human Rights Defenders Fund, Ofek: The Israeli Center for Public Affairs, Parents Against Child Detention, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, and Yesh Din.