Amnesty USA director: Israel ‘shouldn’t exist as a Jewish state’
An Amnesty International official said that the organization is opposed to Israel continuing to exist as a Jewish state.
An Amnesty International official said that the organization is opposed to Israel continuing to exist as a Jewish state.
“We are opposed to the idea — and this, I think, is an existential part of the debate — that Israel should be preserved as a state for the Jewish people,” Paul O’Brien, the human rights monitor’s U.S. director, said in a luncheon this week with the Women’s National Democratic Club in Washington D.C.
O’Brien said late Friday on Twitter that his remarks had been removed from context, although he did not contest the quotes themselves.
“Jewish Insider’s headline claims that I and Amnesty questioned the right of Israel to exist,” he said. “I did not and Amnesty takes no position on the legitimacy of any state.”
O’Brien also said on Twitter that, “I said that while we recognize the right of self-determination for Jewish and Palestinian people as a basic human right, we take no position on the legal or political solutions that any people may take to exercise that right.”
Taking a position on whether and how an established state should continue to exist is unusual for organizations with responsibilities limited to monitoring compliance with international laws governing freedoms and human rights. O’Brien’s comments immediately drew a torrent of condemnation from Jewish groups.
Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, called on O’Brien to apologize to Jews.
O’Brien also said at the event covered by Jewish Insider that he did not believe polls that showed the vast majority of American Jews back Israel.
“I believe my gut tells me that what Jewish people in this country want is to know that there’s a sanctuary that is a safe and sustainable place that the Jews, the Jewish people can call home,” he said, apparently referring to a theory advanced by a small cadre of intellectuals that imagines a binational Jewish-Palestinian state that would act as a safe haven for Jews.
In his Twitter comments, O’Brien cited a poll that last year that showed a substantial minority of American Jews believe Israel “is an Apartheid state.” That poll also showed overwhelming majority support for Israel’s existence.