“A genocide is currently taking place. Demand that Israel stop the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.” That message is currently being read by one million passengers a day on Stockholm’s local transport. The sender behind the message is Amnesty International, an organisation that presents itself as follows on its Swedish website:
“Amnesty International is a global organisation that fights for the equal value of all people. We work to ensure that human rights apply to everyone, now and in the future. [—] Together we influence to create a world where human rights apply to everyone, now and in the future.”
“Israel’s military attacks since October 7”
However, the organisation’s definition of “all” seems to have been slightly modified, as the concept does not appear to include Jews or Israelis. Amnesty presents it as an accepted truth that Israel is carrying out a genocide against Palestinians, and in a post on Facebook it explains the campaign by claiming that “at least 44,000 Palestinians have been killed and tens of thousands have been injured” in what it calls “Israeli military attacks since October 7, 2023”.
So “Israeli military attacks”, that is? Not a word about the fact that it was Hamas’s terrorist attacks that forced Israel to defend its nation and its citizens. Not a word about how Hamas used (and still uses) Palestinian civilians as human shields and violates the laws of war by fighting from hospitals and schools, or by locating its weapons depots and combat command centers in underground facilities beneath them.
Amnesty supplies copy paste from Hamas
The number of victims presented is also copy paste directly from Gaza’s so-called Gaza Health Ministry (GHM), that is, Hamas.
Amnesty claims that “Israel’s brutal military offensive” has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, including over 13,300 children, and injured more than 97,000 others. This despite the fact that for almost a year it has been well known that the GHM has provided incorrect figures for the number of civilian casualties. In an analysis carried out by the Washington-based independent research institute Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), the GHM admitted that it had “incomplete data” and according to the analysis a third or more of the ministry’s data could be incomplete or simply fabricated.
Amnesty chooses to completely ignore what has been established, and instead delivers unfounded accusations piled on top of each other. In addition to accusing Israel of violations of international law, it also places responsibility for “an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe” solely on the state of Israel. This is despite Hamas looting Israeli shipments of food and supplies, and executing Palestinian civilians caught stealing food from Hamas warehouses. In the press release that Amnesty released in connection with the launch of the campaign, it claims that Israel “has unleashed hell and destruction on the Palestinians in Gaza – shamelessly, continuously and with total impunity”.
Genocide – according to Amnesty…
However, the press release reveals something that the subway passenger is not told: The claim that Israel is committing genocide is based solely on Amnesty’s own investigation, which resulted in the report You Feel like You Are Subhuman: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza.
– Amnesty’s report shows that Israel has committed acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intention of annihilating Palestinians in Gaza. These acts consist of killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately subjecting Palestinians in Gaza to living conditions calculated to bring about their physical destruction. Month after month, Israel (…) has demonstrated its intention to physically destroy them. Our conclusions must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: This is genocide and it must stop now, said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary-General.
Callamard does not explain how Israel could have consistently warned civilians in Gaza before launching military operations if it had the “specific intention” to “bring about their physical destruction”. Nor does she explain why Amnesty refrained from criticising Hamas when it murdered 1,200 Israelis, or why Amnesty has not launched a campaign to free the hostages? According to Israeli security services, an estimated 51 of the original 250 taken hostage on 7 October are still alive. The bodies of another 50 are said to remain in Gaza. Almost two-year-old Kfir Bibas has spent most of his life as a Hamas prisoner.
The reaction from the organization that “fights for the equal value of all people”? Silence.
Calls for an arms boycott
But Amnesty goes further than demanding that Israel stop the “genocide”. It also demands that all countries that “have influence over Israel”, especially important arms suppliers, boycott Israel. Or in plain language: Amnesty demands that the outside world make it possible for the Islamic terrorist states and their proxy organizations to realize their stated goals of crushing the state of Israel and exterminating all Jews.
In that case, Amnesty is campaigning for genocide – as long as it is directed against Jews.
Amnesty also shows, with all the clarity it can muster, that it embraces the classically anti-Semitic image of Israel, which is not only described as a state that commits genocide (of a group that it cares for in its hospitals and warns before military attacks), but is also accused of apartheid (in the only democracy in the Middle East, with equal rights for all citizens) and illegal occupation (of its own territory).
– Given the pre-existing context of displacement, apartheid and illegal military occupation in which these acts have been committed, we could only come to one reasonable conclusion: Israel’s intention is the physical annihilation of Palestinians in Gaza, says Callamard.
“Atrocity crimes”
As usual, Amnesty also believes that Israel is the only nation that is not allowed to defend itself or its citizens, not even against what the organization calls “deliberate mass murder”. Or as Amnesty’s Secretary General puts it in Orwellian newspeak: “Atrocity crimes.” That certainly sounds better than “bestial acts of terror, sadistic rape and infanticide”.
– The atrocity crimes committed on 7 October 2023 by Hamas and other armed groups against Israelis and victims of other nationalities, including deliberate mass murder and hostage-taking, can never justify Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, says Agnès Callamard.
Here it may be time for a brief summary: Amnesty International has conducted its own investigation, largely based on Hamas’s information, which repeats the lie that Israel has engaged in displacement, apartheid and illegal occupation with the aim of exterminating Palestinians, and is now therefore committing genocide because Israel is not allowed to defend itself against atrocities. Not even when the atrocities are aimed at exterminating the nation’s population – that is, enforcing a genocide.
This is what the Stockholm subway looks like right now. The advertisement reads: “A genocide is currently taking place. Demand that Israel stop the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Sign now!” Photo: Private, screenshot Facebook.
“Boycott Amnesty”
Unsurprisingly, many are now raging on social media, not only against Amnesty but also against the Stockholm Region, which is responsible for local transport and has approved the campaign’s content.
“The Stockholm Region S-board happily bans advertising for flights and legal gambling, but thinks it’s okay to point out countries as genocidal. Hypocrisy. The Amnesty advertisement has no place in the subway. Take it down immediately,” regional councilor Kristoffer Tamsons (M) demands in a post on X.
“Meeted by Amnesty Sweden’s advertisement in the subway. At the same time, Jews are beginning the important holiday of Hanukkah, which for 8 days will bring hope for a brighter future, in an otherwise dark time. Amnesty’s actions are not only terrible. It makes it increasingly difficult for Jews to live a Jewish life in Sweden!”, writes member of parliament Gulan Avci (L) in another tweet.
“I urge you all to boycott Amnesty and spread the message among your loved ones: Amnesty does not shy away from spreading messages that seriously risk inciting the persecution of Jews and increasing anti-Semitism in Sweden. This at a time when terrorist tributes to Hamas and Hezbollah are increasingly seen from immigrants in Sweden and where Jews experience an increasing threat. It is astonishingly tasteless and shameful,” states Daniel Sonesson, party leader for Medborgerlig samling (MED), in a post on Facebook.
A modern “Kauf nicht bei Juden”
Amnesty knows, of course, that they are delivering a lie, and the red and green politicians in the Stockholm Region know that they are spreading a lie. Israel is not committing genocide against Palestinians. But they launched the campaign anyway, because they 1) are carriers of an anti-Semitic worldview and 2) know how the human psyche works: If you repeat a message often enough and with enough frenzy, the recipients will eventually consider the message to be the truth.
There is only one reason why the trains were able to roll towards the camps less than a hundred years ago: The message that Jews were not real people had been hammered into the population. Jews had no right to defend themselves, they were Untermenschen who were initially to be boycotted and ultimately exterminated. “Kauf nicht bei Juden!”
A “good German citizen” therefore turned a blind eye to abuse, deportations and murder in the open street. Is this the kind of development that Amnesty wants to contribute to, at a time when Swedish Jews are advised not to wear Jewish symbols or speak Hebrew – for their own safety? The question is sharp, but should have been asked by Amnesty’s leadership before the genocide posters were put up.
The demands for a boycott of Jews are recognizable from history. Photo: Screenshot Facebook.
The final nail in the coffin of human rights
The massive criticism that the campaign faces, however, shows that many have seen through the game. Therefore, the genocide campaign against Israel may very well be the final nail in the coffin of Amnesty International’s role as a recognized and respected organization. A human rights organization that denies a specific nation and religious group the right to defend itself against terrorist attacks is no longer worth taking seriously.
Anti-Semitism is anti-Semitism is anti-Semitism – regardless of the sender. It is therefore time to thank Amnesty for the clarity of its message, state the fact and start calling things by their right name: The human rights organization Amnesty International is dead.
And may the anti-Semitic activist organization Amnesty International die a slow, lingering death as soon as possible.