(JNS) — The blowback over a biased report by Amnesty International on Israel continues nearly a week after its release as 469 organizations and more than 4,000 individuals signed a strongly-worded letter on Monday urging U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres to make sure the report is not used to attack Israel within the United Nations.
Besides the 4,000 individual signees, the letter was signed by 172 Jewish Federations and Jewish Community Relations Councils.
“The Amnesty report traffics in false claims against the sole Jewish state, distorts international law, questions the very existence of Israel, and ignores the violence and terrorist assaults on Israeli civilians — Jewish, Muslim and Christian,” the letter stated.
Released on Feb. 1, the report calls Israel an “apartheid state” and even questions the founding of Israel. It also urged the U.N. Security Council to impose a military embargo on Israel.
An overarching concern of the organizations was that the report would be used by the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry into Israel, which the organizations vehemently oppose. That could lead to yet another review of Israel — a “democratic country in which multiple faith communities live under the rule of law, participate in civic life, contribute to the economy and serve in the highest levels of government” — by the International Criminal Court.
The groups further urged Guterres and U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, who was also...
Pakistani actress and model Ayesha Omar has strongly denied a controversial statement falsely attributed to her on social media. In recent days, a statement circulated online claiming that the act...