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WASHINGTON (JTA) — The director of Amnesty Worldwide’s U.S. department apologized to Jewish lawmakers for claiming to talk on behalf of American Jews.
“I remorse representing the views of the Jewish individuals,” Paul O’Brien stated in a March 25 letter, first reported by Jewish Insider, to all 25 Jewish Democrats within the U.S. Home of Representatives, who had joined to sentence his remarks at a Washington D.C. luncheon during which he rejected polling that confirmed the overwhelming majority of U.S. Jews are pro-Israel.
“What I ought to have stated,” he added, “is that my understanding from having visited Israel usually and listened to many Jewish American and Israeli human rights activists is that I share a dedication to human rights and social justice for all with Jewish People and Israelis.”
The Jewish Democrats, in a uncommon present of unity on Israel, final month rebuked O’Brien for his feedback about Israel during which he stated, “My intestine tells me that what Jewish individuals on this nation need is to know that there’s a sanctuary that may be a protected and sustainable place that the Jews, the Jewish individuals can name house.”
O’Brien informed a reporter on the luncheon that Amnesty didn’t consider Israel ought to exist as a Jewish state. Within the letter, he clarified that Amnesty was not taking a place on Israel’s Jewish standing, however was referring to its 2018 Nation-State regulation, which he stated “explicitly denies the fitting of self-determination to part of Israel’s citizenry.”
The human rights group’s worldwide secretary-general, Agnès Callamard, wrote individually to a different 11 Jewish Democrats who had raised considerations about O’Brien’s remarks, saying that Amnesty had no objections to Israel’s self-definition as a Jewish state.
“There’s nothing beneath worldwide regulation to stop the state of Israel from figuring out itself as Jewish, so long as the federal government doesn’t discriminate between its residents on the grounds of faith or race,” she stated in her March 25 letter.
O’Brien’s remarks got here after Amnesty in a report stated it decided that Israel’s remedy of Palestinians within the West Financial institution amounted to apartheid.
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