In his first official response to a recent Amnesty International report, the Israeli foreign minister claimed that the report was “biased, outright false and anti-Semitic.”
According to Pak Sahafat News agency, quoting the Arabic site 21, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid claimed: “Amnesty International does not consider Syria an apartheid country after the killing of half a million of its own citizens, and Amnesty International does not use this title for other parts of the world and other repressive and deadly organizations in Africa and Latin America.”
He also claimed: Amnesty International is not a human rights organization, but an “extremist” organization that, without serious scrutiny, repeats “propaganda” and promotes “lies of terrorist organizations” instead of investigating.
He continued his claims: Israel is not fully described.
On the other hand, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the two movements of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance (Hamas) and Islamic Jihad welcomed the report of Amnesty International, which described the Zionist regime as “apartheid”.
In this regard, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the Amnesty International report once again proved that Israel is an apartheid state and should be held accountable.
The ministry also announced: The disgusting fact of the crimes of the Zionist regime and its escape from punishment cannot be ignored and hidden from the international community. The Palestinian Authority welcomes the important report of Amnesty International, which monitored and exposed the racist policies and actions of the Zionist regime against the Palestinian people.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry called on the UN General Assembly and the Security Council to hold Israel accountable for its actions.
Read more: Amnesty International has called for the immediate release of prominent Saudi dissidents: https://www.paksahafat.com/en/?p=12657
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry also called on the International Criminal Court to launch the necessary measures and formal investigations into the Zionist regime’s racist acts as a crime against humanity, without delay.
On the other hand, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement issued a statement welcoming the Amnesty International report and calling for an international stance to end its support for the Zionist regime.
In its statement, the Islamic Jihad Movement called on the Palestinian legal authorities, groups and the media to follow up on this international report and consider it an international document against the Zionist occupation.
Earlier, Hisham Qassem, the head of Hamas’s media bureau, issued a statement saying that the movement appreciates and pardons Amnesty International’s efforts to publish a professional report that clarifies the facts.
Hisham Qasim added that the report described the occupier regime as an apartheid regime, described the sad and catastrophic reality of the Palestinian people under the occupation of the Zionist regime as it is, and the apartheid policy that is being implemented in all occupied Palestinian territories.
The Hamas member also said that the Israeli attack on Amnesty International after the publication of this report was another attempt to add to the inhuman racism of the occupiers, through which they try to destroy the facts and hide it from the world public opinion.
Amnesty International said in a report released on Tuesday that despite Israeli opposition: Israeli authorities should be punished for the crime of racial discrimination against the Palestinians. We call on the Israeli authorities to bring to justice those who have committed violations.
The report states: We know that Israel has a poor history and record of punishing officials, so we call on international institutions, including the International Criminal Court, to act.
With this report, Amnesty International joins Israel’s Bethlehem and Human Rights Watch organizations in accusing the Zionist regime of pursuing a policy of apartheid and racial discrimination against Palestinians and Arab citizens living in the occupied territories.