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Amnesty et al.’s Dictionary Applies Only to Jews
Amnesty International sign. Photo: Boso Tasche / Flickr
Words matter. But in the media and the “human rights” industry, double standards abound when it comes to words and the Jewish people.
Perhaps the most prominent offender is Amnesty International. The organization just released a new error-laden, methodologically flawed report accusing Israel of committing “genocide.” But as the legal scholar Mark Goldfeder pointed out, Amnesty brazenly redefined the word.
In Amnesty’s own words: “As outlined below, Amnesty International considers [the existing legal definition of the crime of genocide] an overly cramped interpretation of international jurisprudence and one that would effectively preclude a finding of genocide in the context of an armed conflict.”
Put more simply, the “human rights” organization redefined the law, and then claimed that Israel was acting lawlessly. They’re not just fitting a square peg in a round hole; they’re carving out an entirely new hole.
This isn’t the first time that Amnesty has engaged in such dishonest behavior. The organization used the same tactic to accuse Israel of another grave crime, “apartheid.” In twisting both the law and the facts, Amnesty and other organizations concocted bizarre definitions of key elements of the alleged crime.
But the degradation of the English language isn’t confined to the lengthy reports and slanderous campaigns of “human rights” activists. Consider just a handful of examples from everyday reporting by news outlets.
In 2022, the magazine Foreign Policy claimed that Israel had used “lethal force” against rioters on the Temple Mount in April 2021. After being pressed for a correction, a Foreign Policy editor claimed that the “lethal force” was the use of rubber bullets.
But in other contexts, the same magazine describes rubber bullets as “non-lethal weapons.”
Earlier this year, CNN claimed that Israel had imposed a “blockade on aid” into Gaza. A “blockade” normally refers to “the isolation by a warning nation of an enemy area (such as a harbor) by troops or warships to prevent passage of persons or supplies.”
CNN admitted there “has been a recent uptick in aid being allowed to cross” (in just the month prior, Israel facilitated the entry of over 100,000 tons of aid), but still refused to correct. Allowing aid to cross is not a “blockade.” Had this been an elementary school vocabulary exam, CNN would have failed.
Just this week, Reuters claimed that Israel had “carpet bombed” the southern suburbs of Beirut. Far from a “devastating bombing attack that seeks to destroy every part of a wide area,” as defined by Britannica, Reuters’ own reporting and photographs depict pinpoint strikes leaving surrounding buildings intact.
There are also everyday distortions of certain words and phrases. Media outlets regularly describe blatant antisemitism as “criticism of Israel.” Antisemitic conspiracy theorists regularly seek to redefine “Zionism” — the movement for Jewish self-determination in the Jews’ ancestral homeland — as a sinister plot by an oppressive Jewish cabal.
The practice isn’t even limited to just the English language. The BBC infamously claimed that when Palestinians use the Arabic word “Yahud,” which means “Jew,” they actually mean “Israeli.” A Palestinian saying, “Some of us distracted the Jews with stones and Molotov cocktails” has very different connotations — and provides very different insights into Palestinian society — than the BBC’s altered version that replaced “the Jews” with “the Israelis.” It was a transparent effort to mislead the outlet’s audience about antisemitism in Palestinian society.
Note that the degradation of language always trends toward attributing negative qualities to the Jewish State and Jewish causes, or toward attributing positive qualities to those who seek their destruction. And therein lies the issue.
Journalists and activists aren’t concerned with reality. The journalists aren’t revealing truths, nor are the activists righting real injustices. Their actions, in redefining words as applied to Jews, reveal their ideological motivations, for which they are willing to alter reality itself.
David M. Litman is a Senior Research Analyst at the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA).
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
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