Amnesty: Watchdog needed for Israel

[bemildred]

JERUSALEM - Amnesty International marked 40 years since the outbreak of the 1967 Middle East war with a call for Israel to dismantle West Bank settlements and roadblocks, for the Palestinians to end attacks on Israeli civilians and for the international community to monitor both sides.

"For 40 years, the international community has failed adequately to address the Israeli-Palestinian problem; it cannot, must not, wait another 40 years to do so," Amnesty regional director Malcolm Smart said in a statement accompanying a special Amnesty report released Monday, entitled "Enduring Occupation."

Since the outbreak of the current wave of Palestinian-Israeli violence in 2000, about 4,330 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 1,111 on the Israeli side. Amnesty said human rights violations by both sides highlighted the need for an international watchdog.

"Amnesty International is calling for the urgent deployment of an effective international human rights monitoring mechanism to monitor compliance by both parties ... with their obligations under international law," it said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070604/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_occupation_amnesty

[Jim Sagle]

1. AI has jumped the shark once and for all.

They are chartered to denounce human rights abuse on all fronts, yet they spend inordinate time and energy on I/P.

[Ken Burch]

3. Define "inordinate".....

Coming from you, that could be taken to mean "any".

Y'know, if you're really so tired of people criticizing the Israeli government, you could try working to get that government to stop doing the things that people find objectionable.

Especially since most of things are actually ENDANGERING the Jewish people, rather than protecting them.

[Tom Joad]

2. It seems that from a certain group here, human rights organizations are regularly attacked

Not only Amnesty, but also Human Rights Watch, B'Tselem, and others.
Sad commentary.

we expect these wild denunciations from Cheney, but not from a site that calls itself "progressive".

[Jim Sagle]

4. In terms of Middle East progressiveness, Israel RRRRAWWWWXXXX!!!!!!!