(NGO Monitor) Amnesty International's 2012 World Report continues to level unsupported allegations of violations of international law against Israel. Despite the murder of more than 8,000 Syrians by Bashar al-Assad, Israel is mentioned 137 times in the report compared to 74 mentions for the Syrian regime. In the 2012 report, Amnesty accuses Israel of "collective punishment" of the Palestinian population, in the form of a blockade against Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas. Amnesty ignores that Israel's blockade was implemented to stop the smuggling of weapons and rockets used to target Israeli citizens. In September 2011, the UN Secretary General's Palmer Committee found that the naval blockade of Gaza is legal under international law, explicitly rejecting Amnesty's claims. In addition, Amnesty fails to label the thousands of indiscriminate Palestinian rocket attacks targeting Israeli population centers - every one of which is a war crime - as "crimes" under international law.
2012-05-24 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive