in this op-ed, NYJA’s President, Matt Nosanchuk, shares his perspective on the Amnesty International Report and the Conflict in Israel
“Last week, Amnesty International released a 280-page report calling Israel an apartheid state and charging it with crimes against humanity, including atrocities against Palestinian citizens of Israel. Such claims have been made before, usually over vociferous objections from supporters of Israel.
Predictably, the report unleashed harsh criticism from the Israeli government and from voices throughout the American Jewish community. Much of the criticism, including the statement issued from my organization, the New York Jewish Agenda, focused on the report’s language, terminology, omissions and conclusions, which called into question Israel’s very legitimacy as a homeland for the Jewish people.
For example, as we noted in our statement, Amnesty International’s report concludes that Israel has employed a system of apartheid within its borders since the nation was established in 1948.
As an American Jewish organization uniting liberal Zionists who are passionate about Israel and hold a deep commitment to promoting their Jewish values here at home and in Israel, we share the anger of many in the Jewish community regarding the excesses of the report, especially during this time of growing concerns about the rise of antisemitism and authoritarianism in the United States and around the world. At the same time, we believe in the necessity of a more nuanced response beyond that anger…”