Daphne Anson: Amnesty International’s Rose-Tinted View of Gaddafi’s Libya

Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East. (From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Friday, 11 March 2011

Amnesty International’s Rose-Tinted View of Gaddafi’s Libya

Now one of Israel’s predictably inveterate critics, Amnesty International was founded in 1961 by barrister Peter Benenson (né Solomon; 1921-2005), the Catholic convert son of two Anglo-Jewish communal figures, Flora and Harold Solomon; Benenson was the name of his maternal grandfather.

On its website Amnesty UK declares:

“We're a movement that produces extraordinary results. Prisoners of conscience are released. Death sentences are commuted. Torturers are brought to justice. Governments are persuaded to change unfair laws and practices.”

Er – not quite, it seems.

Under the heading “Saif Unsound” the current issue of the British magazine Private Eye exposes Amnesty International’s cosying up to the son of Colonel Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam (pictured). He, of course, is the ubiquitous spokesperson for the Libyan regime whose largesse to the London School of Economics has claimed the scalp of that institution’s director Sir Howard Davies.

Reports Private Eye:

“In recent years Amnesty has enjoyed friendly relations with Gaddafi Jnr, apparently overlooking the possibility that the chairman of the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation (GICDF) might be an accomplice to his dad’s demented regime.”

It transpires that in June 2010 Amnesty monitors paid a visit to Libya facilitated by Saif, and subsequently reported: “there is no doubt that the climate of fear and repression that prevailed in Libya for more than three decades is subsiding gradually”. The monitors, goes on Private Eye,

‘“credited [GICDF] for “pursuing several cases with the authorities”, bizarrely suggesting that [Saif] and his charity were somehow pure and separate from the authorities.

This is a shaky assertion, since GICDF acts as Libya’s agency for Lockerbie compensation payments. But the levers of power are obvious in Amnesty’s report, whose title – Libya of Tomorrow was inspired by a speech of Saif Gaddafi: Libya today is not Libya of tomorrow. God willing, will be even better.”’

Adds the magazine: ‘Now that Saif is accused of ordering air assaults on fellow citizens and has promised the regime will “keep fighting until the last man standing”, how much longer will Amnesty keep up the pretence?’

1 comment:

Daphne Anson22 March 2011 at 19:56
David, many thanks for taking the time to comment.
What you write is very interesting.
The BBC is downplaying the Muslim Brotherhood, and I fear we will soon discover the true nature of the beast in Egypt.
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https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9685/britain-little-lies

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Islamophobia is a false allegation of prejudice which is deployed to silence rational criticism based on actual facts about attitudes and practices within the Islamic world.
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The division of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) into three separate areas “A”, “B” and “C” was agreed on by Israel and the PLO pursuant to the Oslo Accords.
95% of the West Bank Arabs live in Areas A and B and their daily lives are under the total administration and control of the PLO since the Palestinian Authority was disbanded by Abbas in January 2013. The PLO has total security control in A and shares security control in B with Israel. Israel has total administrative and security control in C.
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Jews were given the legal right to settle in the West Bank under article 6 of the Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the UN Charter. They did so for decades until they were driven out in 1947 and not able to return there until 1967.
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[I]t’s impossible to believe that an active antisemite wouldn’t – if only opportunistically – seek out somewhere to nestle in the manifold pleats of Israel-bashing, whether in generally diffuse anti-Zionism, or in more specific Boycott and Divestment Campaigns, Israeli Apartheid Weeks, End the Occupation movements and the like....[T]ell me that not a single Jew-hater finds the activity congenial, that criticising Israel can “never” be an expression of Jew-hating, not even when it takes the form of accusing Israeli soldiers of harvesting organs... Howard Jacobson (The Independent, 27 May 2013)

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I am duty-bound to defend freedom, culture, peaceful coexistence, the civic education of children, and all the principles that the Tablets of the Law have rendered universal. Principles which Islamic fundamentalism systematically destroys. This means that, since I am a Gentile, a journalist and a leftist, I have a triple moral commitment to Israel. Because, if Israel were to be vanquished, modernity, culture and freedom would also be crushed. Even though the world has failed to wake up to this fact, Israel's struggle is the world's struggle. Pilar Rahola

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