The US State Department on Tuesday rejected a recent report by rights group Amnesty International that accused Israel of "apartheid."
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In the 211-page report, the human-rights group alleged that Israel has maintained "a system of oppression and domination" over the Palestinians dating back to the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948.
"The department's own reports have never used such terminology," spokesperson Ned Price said in a press conference, noting that it "rejects the view that Israel's actions constitute apartheid."
Price said the United States has its "own rigorous standards and processes for making determinations on potential human rights abuses."
The US "promotes respect for human rights throughout the world, including in Israel and the Palestinian territories," he noted.
"We support the efforts of the Israeli government, the Palestinian Authority, alongside human rights activists, to ensure accountability for human rights violations and abuses."
Come on, this is absurd. That is not language that we have used and will not use. https://t.co/DUnplInqCH
— Ambassador Tom Nides (@USAmbIsrael) February 1, 2022
Regarding Israeli leaders condemning the report as "antisemitic," Price said that US officials spoke to their Israeli counterparts about their objections to the findings, and rejected the label of "apartheid."
Price added that "it is important as the world's only Jewish state that the Jewish people must not be denied their right to self-determination, and we must ensure there isn't a double standard being applied."
US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides called the report "absurd."
"Come on, this is absurd. That is not language that we have used and will not use," he said in a tweet.
The report, which accused Israel of treating Palestinians as an inferior race, brought condemnation from Israel's leaders as well.
"Amnesty was once an esteemed organization that we all respected," said Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.
Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog outright rejected the claims by Amnesty.
"Israel is a democracy which is committed to international law and sensitive to human rights and therefore appreciates the valiant work of organizations who genuinely strive to promote human rights. Amnesty UK's report on Israel which was released today is a totally different story," he said.
"This report, which frames Israel as an apartheid state, doesn't belong in the category of criticism designed to promote human rights, but rather in the category of ideological delegitimization of the very right of Israel to exist as the nation-state of the Jewish people," he said.
The report released today by @AmnestyUK is part of a concerted campaign to delegitimize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. It totally mischaracterizes Israel, distorts the meaning of apartheid, contradicts the notion of promoting human rights & should be utterly rejected. pic.twitter.com/SjryAiZtqX
— Ambassador Michael Herzog (@AmbHerzog) February 1, 2022
Herzog went on to say that "claiming that Israel has built and operated an apartheid system since its inception in 1948 essentially means that it was established on an immoral foundation and therefore has no right to exist. The report itself is blatantly ideologically motivated, biased and full of lies and inaccuracies.
"It totally distorts the true meaning of the phrase apartheid to suit its political purposes, and it also totally distorts the true nature of Israel."
Meanwhile, a number of centrist Democratic Congress members spoke out against the recent approval by the UN General Assembly for an open-ended investigation targeting Israel.
In a joint statement led by Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill), and joined by Reps. Ted Deutch (D-Fla), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla), Kathy Manning (D-NC), Elaine Luria (D-Va), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Dean Phillips (D-Minn) and Lois Frankel (D-Fla), the lawmakers stated that they are "deeply disappointed and frustrated by the recent UN General Assembly vote to approve resources for an unprecedented, open-ended Commission of Inquiry (COI) to investigate Israel."
They noted that the COI "ignores Hamas' terror activities preceding and during the May [2021] conflict, and instead attempts to discredit Israel by focusing on "root causes" of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
"This is unquestionably just another attempt by the United Nations Human Rights Council to unjustifiably target Israel," they wrote.
The lawmakers went on to praise the Biden administration for its opposition to the COI; however, they said more work needs to be done.
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"We look forward to working with the administration to end this one-sided COI and reform the Human Rights Council, including through the institution of membership standards and the removal of the standing agenda item on Israel, the only country-specific agenda item. It is long past time for the United Nations to end its long-standing bias against Israel."
The letter from the Democrats follows a bipartisan letter from 42 US lawmakers sent to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling on him to defund the COI.
JNS.org contributed to this report.
