The organization Amnesty International criticized in its the report The “double yardstick” used to measure the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, reports “Deutsche Welle” (DW).
Amnesty’s current report has 417 pages and examines the state of human rights in 150 countries.
According to the organization’s annual report, the international community’s attitude towards the escalation in the Middle East and the lack of commitment to protect Palestinian civilians are responsible for this.
“Collective Punishment” for the Palestinians
It states that the events in the Gaza Strip represent “a relegation of the institutions that were supposed to safeguard universal principles and common humanity after the Second World War and to ensure that the promise of ‘never again’ is respected.”
The report specifically criticizes Israel, the US, the EU and “some European” heads of state and government.
Amnesty describes the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas as “horrific crimes.” It is an attack by militant Islamists, which the USA, the European Union and some other countries categorize as terrorists, in which more than 1,200 Israelis were killed and 240 were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip.
As Julia Duhrov, head of the German branch of Amnesty, said at the press conference, they do not use the term “terrorist group” for Hamas or other groups, because it is not defined by international law.
It is estimated that Israel responded to the attacks with “retaliatory measures” amounting to “collective punishment”. Civilians and civilian infrastructure are being targeted “intentionally,” according to AI. It is added that Israel violates the essence of humanitarian law with its actions.
The organization estimates that the situation of the Palestinians in Gaza is “even worse” than the one after the “Nakba”, as the 1948 persecution is called in Arabic.
In the last two years, Amnesty International has been the target of fierce criticism from the Israeli side and Jewish organizations, because in its reports it blames Israel for introducing “apartheid”. According to the view of official Israel, Amnesty thereby encourages anti-Semitism and views the conflict one-sidedly.
Amnesty has long advocated an end to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem. The organization also demands the release of hostages held by Hamas and other Islamists, and blames war crimes on Hamas.
“Journey” to a time without human rights
The General Secretary of Amnesty, Agnes Calamar, writes in the report that the world went through “time travel” in the era before 1948, when general human rights were not yet defined.
Last year, the “ethical and legal foundations” were shaken, said the French woman. In many countries, as she stated, the rights to free opinion, gender equality or sexual and reproductive rights are threatened.
Russian aggression against Ukraine and China’s violation of international law are also discussed.
Russia’s attack has been assessed as “constantly marked by war crimes”, such as the torture of prisoners of war, attacks on residential areas, energy infrastructure and grain exports, as well as the deliberate destruction of the Kahovka Dam last June, which caused “enormous environmental damage”.
Mention is made of the legally difficult right to terminate a pregnancy in the USA and Poland. In fifteen American states, abortion is completely or almost completely impossible. It points to more than sixty countries in the world where the LGBTQ community is threatened or criminalized.
AI notes additional suppression of women’s rights in Afghanistan and Iran. The latter country is implementing facial recognition software to punish women who don’t cover their hair.
Espionage in Serbia as well
Amnesty also criticizes the dangers of new technologies and artificial intelligence. The report states that we are moving faster and faster towards a world “ruled” by corporations and unregulated artificial intelligence.
Lena Rohrbach, an expert on human rights in the digital age, said at the launch of the report in Berlin that there is a danger that facial recognition software will also be used at the European Championships in Germany and the Olympic Games in Paris, and that this practice will continue.
It is already being used by the police in Russia, but also in New York to film demonstrators.
The use of espionage software such as Pegasus or Predator is particularly highlighted. “They enable a whole new level of transnational repression,” Rohrbach criticized.
As she pointed out, last year Serbia, Armenia, India and others used software to spy on the media and civil society.
The development on the classic Internet is not optimistic either. Amnesty specifically criticizes the promotion of hatred against Jews and Muslims online. In Europe and the US, it is said to have led to a “clear increase in Islamophobic and anti-Semitic hate crimes”.
Amnesty’s current report has 417 pages and examines the state of human rights in 150 countries.
