M I D - E A S T R E A L I T I E S

AIUSA IS "PRETTY HOPELESS" REGARDING ISRAEL

[MER - International Law Professor Francis Boyle was on the AMNESTY USA Board of Directors until 1992. His comments below further illustrate how AMNESTY USA has a dismal past when it comes to matters relating to Israel, which of course helps explain why they are now attempting to cover up the past while minimizing as much as they can the unprecedented international report published in London six months ago about the Qana massacre. For further MER information: http://MiddleEast.Org]

There is a long history of AIUSA deliberately and purposefully ignoring Israeli violations of human rights in Lebanon.

When the Israelis invaded in 1982 with the full cooperation and support of the Reagan administration, they killed 20,000 Arabs. AIUSA refused to say or do anything at all about it. There was substantial pressure from the grassroots, spearheaded in part by me. But the Board, the Staff and the Funders prevented anything from being done. Imagine that: 20,000 Arabs blown away by American weapons in Israeli hands and AIUSA said nothing at all that I am aware of.

AI London said little either. In desperation, I called the Irish Nobel Peace Prize Winner Sean MacBride at his home in Dublin, appraised him of the situation and sought his intervention. He called the SG of AI in London, who put a researcher and a half on the problem, if my memory serves my correctly. Eventually, they came out with a tepid report.

Of course, none of the other human rights organizations in the United States did anything about Lebanon either, except for the American Friends Service Committee. They were the only ones with the guts and the principles to put out a stinging report on the invasion. I was privileged to have served on their Committee with courageous Jewish Americans... Their Report was buried by the American news media.

AIUSA has learned nothing in the past fifteen years when it comes to violations of the basic human rights of Arabs and Muslims by Israel with the full backing, cooperation and approval of the United States government. As I said before, they are pretty hopeless.

Francis A. Boyle

Professor of International Law - University of Illinois

Board of Directors, AIUSA (1988-1992) (1/29/97)

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