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Friday July 19, 2002

Amnesty International finally fair

Finally an international human rights group sees Palestinian actions for what they are -- crimes against humanity.

And of even more significance is which human rights group came up with the finding. It was Amnesty International.

For years, American Jewish groups, as well as Israel, considered Amnesty International a pro-Palestinian organization. The feeling was Israel could never get a fair shake from the group.

In fact, its own Web page states, "Amnesty International has for many years documented and condemned violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by Israel directed against the Palestinian population of the occupied territories. They include unlawful killings, extra-judicial executions, torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary detention and collective punishments such as punitive closures of areas and destruction of homes."

But a report issued by Amnesty on July 11 now sees the issue a lot differently. The report -- available at http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/recent/MDE020032002!Open-- claims the Palestinians violated international law by killing 350 Israeli civilians in 128 attacks since the beginning of the second intifada in September 2000. Its report states, "Whatever the cause for which people are fighting, there can never be a justification for direct attacks on civilians." It further bolsters Israel by stating that "no violations by the Israeli government, no matter their scale or gravity, justify the killing of civilians."

Perhaps to show how serious it is about its latest finding, Amnesty immediately issued a press release on Tuesday harshly condemning the ambush attack that resulted in the death of eight West Bank settlers near the settlement of Emanuel.

Certainly Amnesty will continue to criticize Israel's treatment of Palestinians, but it's nice to know that the organization can finally show a little fairness.

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