A laser projector from a building on Rivoli Street displayed the provocative message on the balloon "Stop Génocide à Gaza" ("Stop the genocide in Gaza"). The projection took place around 10:30 p.m., witnessed by spectators and official guests who were surprised by the blatant political display. According to the organization, the projection aimed to "remind of the fate of the civilian population in Gaza."

Anne Savinel-Barras, president of Amnesty International in France, said in a media statement that "we can no longer stand by" and accused Israel of violating international law. She even claimed that "Israel uses hunger as a weapon of war."

Israel is continuing to use starvation as a method of warfare, a war crime, and as a tool to commit genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip.

The harrowing suffering of starving Palestinians in Gaza, including our own colleagues, on an hourly basis, is… pic.twitter.com/AfUlgb8jc6

— Amnesty International (@amnesty) July 22, 2025

Anti-Israeli organizations and hostile leaders such as Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continue to accuse Israel of genocide – accusations that the State of Israel completely rejects, noting that this is a coordinated campaign designed to blacken its image and break its legitimacy for self-defense.

The operation in Gaza has continued for more than 21 months, following the murderous terror attack carried out by Hamas on October 7, 2023, in which 1,219 Israelis were killed – most of them civilians, women, children, and elderly – and 251 civilians and soldiers were kidnapped to the Strip.

The post 'Stop the genocide': Amnesty International hijacks Paris Olympics anniversary appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

France is facing criticism from human rights organizations over its decision to ban its female athletes from wearing hijabs during the upcoming Paris Summer Olympics. The controversial policy, announced last September by French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera, has reignited debates about religious freedom and secularism in sports.

According to reporting by the Daily Mail, Amnesty International, along with ten other rights groups, has accused France of "discriminatory hypocrisy" for refusing to allow its athletes to wear the hijab during Olympic competitions. The organizations argue that the ban prevents athletes "from exercising their human right to play sport without discrimination of any kind."

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has declined to intervene in the matter, stating that "freedom of religion is interpreted in many different ways by different states." The IOC previously announced that athletes would be permitted to wear hijabs in the Olympic Village, but France's ban extends to competition venues.

Amelie Oudea-Castera, France's sports minister, defended the ban last year, citing the principle of secularism, calling it "a ban on any type of proselytizing. That means absolute neutrality in public services. The French team will not wear the headscarf."

Critics argue that the policy contradicts not only the IOC's own guidelines but also international treaty obligations that France is required to uphold. Anna Błuś, Amnesty International's Women's Rights Researcher in Europe, stated, "Banning French athletes from competing with sports hijabs at the Olympic and Paralympic Games makes a mockery of claims that Paris 2024 is the first Gender Equal Olympics and lays bare the racist gender discrimination that underpins access to sport in France."

The IOC should insist that France overturn its ban on French athletes wearing the hijab at #ParisOlympics or face sanctions. It's discriminatory and in part based on gross misrepresentation of the Olympic Charter.
on how France dresses its Islamophobia up as secularism pic.twitter.com/O8aA9h7dFG

— Nicholas McGeehan (@NcGeehan) April 17, 2024

 France is currently the only European country that prohibits headscarf-wearing women from participating in most domestic sports competitions. The French Council of State upheld a similar ban on female footballers wearing hijabs during games in June 2023.

Rights groups have expressed concern about the potential consequences of blocking headscarf-wearing women from participating in sports. Amnesty International claims that such bans have resulted in negative mental and physical consequences for women and caused "humiliation, trauma, and fear." The United Nations Rights Office has also indirectly weighed in on the issue. A spokeswoman in Geneva stated that "no one should impose on a woman what she needs to wear or not to wear."

As the Paris Olympics approach, scheduled to begin in just ten days, France has shown no signs of reversing its stance on the hijab ban. The Daily Mail reports that many Muslim athletes participate in sporting events while wearing specially designed hijabs. However, under the current French policy, these athletes may be forced to choose between their religious beliefs and representing their country at the Olympics.

The post France faces backlash over athlete hijab ban at Paris Olympics appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Germany rejects the use of terms such as "apartheid" in connection with Israel, Berlin's Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday in the wake of a report by Amnesty International accusing Israel of such policies in the Palestinian territories.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

"We reject expressions like apartheid or a one-sided focusing of criticism on Israel. That is not helpful to solving the conflict in the Middle East," Christopher Burger told a regular government news conference.

On Tuesday, Amnesty International accused Israel of subjecting Palestinians to a system of apartheid founded on policies of "segregation, dispossession, and exclusion" that it said amounted to crimes against humanity.

The London-based group said its findings were based on research and legal analysis in a 211-page report into supposed Israeli seizure of Palestinian land and property, unlawful killings, forcible transfer of people, and denial of citizenship.

Israel rejected the report, saying it "consolidates and recycles lies" from hate groups and was designed to "pour fuel onto the fire of antisemitism," and accused Amnesty of using "double standards and demonization in order to delegitimize Israel".

The United States also denounced the report.

"We reject the view that Israel's actions constitute apartheid," State Department spokesperson Ned Price said. We "think 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."

The Jewish Federations of North America also rejected the report, describing it as one that "irresponsibly distorts international law, and advances hateful and disparaging rhetoric associated with age-old antisemitic tropes, while ignoring or whitewashing violence, terror, and incitement committed by Palestinians."

The Central Council of Jews in Germany echoed those remarks and called on Amnesty International's German section to distance itself from the report, which it called antisemitic.

In the wake of the report, right-wing organization Btsalmo called on Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman to drop Amnesty International's tax-exempt status in Israel.

According to the advocacy group, the goal of the tax exemption is to allow Israelis to donate to worthy public causes in lieu of their owed taxes. "Does the finance minister believe that defaming and boycotting Israel is a worthy public cause that Israelis should fund," the organization wrote in a public letter to Lieberman through its lawyer Michael Litvak.

Litvak further claimed that Amnesty has repeatedly called for boycotting Israel and even for an arms embargo on the Jewish state, as well as helped the UN in formulating blacklisted entities beyond the Green Line.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Germany: Amnesty's 'apartheid' report not conducive to solving Middle East conflict appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Amnesty International accused Israel on Tuesday of subjecting Palestinians to a system of apartheid founded on policies of "segregation, dispossession and exclusion" that it said amounted to crimes against humanity, prompting outrage across the board.

The London-based rights group said its findings were based on research and legal analysis in a 211-page report into supposed Israeli seizure of Palestinian land and property, unlawful killings, forcible transfer of people and denial of citizenship.

"Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has pursued a policy of establishing and maintaining a Jewish demographic hegemony and maximizing its control over land to benefit Jewish Israelis while restricting the rights of Palestinians and preventing Palestinian refugees from returning to their homes," Amnesty said. "Israel extended this policy to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which it has occupied ever since."

.Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

Israel said the report, the second by an international rights group h in less than a year to accuse it of pursuing a policy of apartheid, "consolidates and recycles lies" from hate groups and was designed to "pour fuel onto the fire of antisemitism".

"Its extremist language and distortion of historical context were designed to demonize Israel and pour fuel onto the fire of antisemitism," the Foreign Ministry said Monday.

In the wake of the report, right-wing organization Btsalmo called on Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman to drop Amnesty International's tax-exempt status in Israel

According to the advocacy group, the goal of the tax exemption is to allow Israelis to donate to worthy public causes in lieu of their owed taxes. "Does the finance minister believe that defaming and boycotting Israel is a worthy public cause that Israelis should fund," the organization wrote in a public letter to Lieberman through its lawyer Michael Litvak.

Litvak further claimed that Amnesty has repeatedly called for boycotting Israel and even for an arms embargo on the Jewish state, as well as helped the UN in formulating blacklisted entities beyond the Green Line.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!  

The post Outrage over anti-Israel report could cost Amnesty its tax-exempt status appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Apart from China and despite a worldwide drop in death sentences, countries in the Middle East remained among the world's leading executioners last year, Amnesty International said Wednesday.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

The number of executions worldwide plummeted to its lowest level in over a decade, with at least 483 people executed in 2020, compared to 657 the previous year, as the coronavirus pandemic slowed criminal trials and disrupted scheduled executions.

Four states in the region – Iran, Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia – topped the global list and pressed on with shootings, beheadings and hangings, ignoring pleas by rights groups to halt executions during the pandemic, the report said.

Although counts in the nations fell in line with global trends, largely due to Saudi legal reforms, the countries carried out 88% of the world's total known executions in 2020, according to the London-based rights group that campaigns for the abolition of the death penalty.

The numbers show the region is "truly out of sync with the rest of the world," said Heba Morayef, Amnesty's director for the Middle East and North Africa. "The Middle East stands out as a region that clings to the use of the death penalty after deeply unfair trials."

Egypt executed more than three times as many condemned prisoners in 2020 as it did the year before, overtaking Saudi Arabia as the world's third-most prodigious executioner, the report said.

Although Iraq more than halved the number of people it put to death last year compared to 2019, primarily because of virus-induced court closures, the government faces international criticism for carrying out mass executions. Iraqi courts have grappled with thousands of detainees suspected of being Islamic State group fighters or supporters following the militant group's defeat on the battlefield in 2017. Last November, 21 prisoners held on terrorism-related charges were hanged in a single day.

The region's overall 25% decline in executions was driven by Saudi Arabia, long one of the world's most prolific executioners. In a dramatic shift, the Saudi government scaled back its executions last year by 85%. The kingdom attributed the drop to legal reforms promoted by the country's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. New directives halted executions for drug offenses and abolished the death penalty for minors.

Amnesty's annual country-to-country figures exclude China, where figures, believed to be in the thousands, are classified as a state secret. The report also omits executions from some countries marred by conflict like Syria, which Morayef called "one of the big black boxes."

Egypt carried out 107 executions last year, a significant increase from the 32 recorded in 2019. Some two dozen of the executed men had been convicted on political violence charges, particularly following the military overthrow in 2013 of Egypt's first democratically elected president, the late Islamist Mohammed Morsi.

Last fall, executions soared in Egypt after unrest on death row at Cairo's notorious Tora prison, where authorities claimed that several inmates tried to escape. Rights groups say military trials for civilians and the use of torture to extract confessions have increased as President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi entrenches his authoritarian rule. In response to criticism, the government has insisted that security and stability are its top priorities.

Iran remained the top executioner in the Middle East, meting out at least 246 deaths last year, more than half of the region's total.

The Amnesty report particularly lamented Iran's execution of juveniles, political opponents and journalists. Last December, Iran hanged dissident journalist Ruhollah Zam, who launched a popular news channel that helped spark nationwide economic protests. In another case, Navid Afkari, a wrestler imprisoned for allegedly stabbing a man amid protests against Iran's theocracy in 2018, was hastily hanged without prior notice to his family or lawyer last fall, Amnesty said.

Saudi Arabia, long notorious for its public beheadings, decreased its executions as international scrutiny of the kingdom's human rights record increased, Amnesty noted. The change came as Saudi Arabia promoted its global stature by hosting the Group of 20 summit last year and braced for cooler relations with US President Joe Biden.

Mideast countries that had not put anyone to death in years also did so in 2020. The sultanate of Oman reversed course by putting four people to death and Qatar resumed executions for the first time in over two decades with the hanging of a Nepali migrant worker convicted of murder.

By law or in practice, the death penalty is now abolished in 144 countries, though Amnesty expects no such change in the Middle East. Israel does not have the death penalty.

"It's a reflection of the crisis of human rights," Morayef said. "Until Middle East leaders start taking the justice system seriously instead of just empowering their security services, I fear we're going to continue to see these kinds of numbers."

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Report: Mideast countries top 2020 global executioners list appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

A military court on Wednesday found a prominent Palestinian activist guilty on six charges related to his participation in demonstrations in the West Bank city of Hebron against Jewish settlements and alleged human rights violations.

Issa Amro was convicted on three counts of protesting without a permit, two counts of obstructing security forces, and one count of assault. The charges date back to 2010, according to a statement put out by his supporters, which said sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 8.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

It was not clear what kind of sentence he might receive. The Israel Defense Forces and Amro's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Amro is a well-known activist who has been detained multiple times, often after confrontations with settlers in which he claims he was attacked and beaten. The Palestinian Authority detained him for a week in 2017 over a Facebook post critical of President Mahmoud Abbas.

Amro's supporters say the charges are linked to his participation in various peaceful protests over the years. They said the assault charge stems from a previously closed case in 2010 in which Amro allegedly shoved someone during a scuffle in which he said he was assaulted.

Amnesty International said in a statement ahead of Wednesday's hearing that Amro faces "politically motivated charges for his peaceful activism against Israel's military occupation and illegal settlements."

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

The post Prominent Palestinian activist found guilty of obstructing security forces, assault appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Amnesty International accused Airbnb of acting in bad faith towards investors ahead of its stock market debut on Thursday by failing to inform them of its business activities in Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria.

Airbnb did not provide comment on Amnesty's charge. A company spokesman referred Reuters to a statement it made in 2019 saying it would not take profits from its listings in the West Bank.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

Amnesty, which wants Airbnb to de-list rental properties in the settlements, said in a statement that the company should have mentioned them in the "Risk Factors" section of a Nov. 16 regulatory filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The San Francisco-based booking company is holding an initial public offering on Nasdaq on Thursday.

"Airbnb stock is expected to be purchased by investment and pension funds across the world, which could mean that a large number of people will indirectly hold investments in Airbnb without understanding the full ramifications," the human rights group said.

Airbnb has around 200 properties for rent in Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria, Amnesty said.

Saleh Higazi, Amnesty's deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a press release that Airbnb "needs to do right by future investors and stop benefiting from illegal settlements."

Heeding calls from Palestinians and human rights activists, Airbnb in 2018 said it would remove the settlement properties. But following legal challenges in the United States, it reversed the decision in 2019 while committing to donate profits from the bookings.

"Any profits generated for Airbnb by any Airbnb host activity in the entire West Bank will be donated to non-profit organizations dedicated to humanitarian aid that serve people in different parts of the world," Airbnb said in its April 2019 statement.

Airbnb was one of 112 companies the United Nations' human rights office said have business ties to settlements, a list that also included other travel firms and a steel producer.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Amnesty criticizes Airbnb for Israeli settlement listings ahead of IPO appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The London-based human rights group issued a report including allegations of "rape, enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment" of those detained for involvement in the November 2019 unrest that buffeted the Islamic republic.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

The protests began over fuel price hikes but turned broadly political when thousands of mainly working-class demonstrators across the country demanded top officials step down.

"Those arrested included peaceful protesters and bystanders, among whom were schoolchildren as young as 10 years old," said Amnesty's report, citing what it called credible reports by witnesses and victims' families, verified videos and information from human rights activists.

Iranian authorities said some 200,000 people took part in the protests, while the head of parliament's national security committee said at least 7,000 were arrested. Rights groups said the figure was in the thousands. The judiciary said in January that the majority of detainees had been released.

Amnesty's report said Iranian security services used torture against detainees including "waterboarding, beating, flogging, electric shocks, pepper-spraying genitals, sexual violence, mock executions, pulling out nails and solitary confinement, sometimes for weeks or even months."

Iranian officials were not immediately available for comment on the report. In the past, Iran has dismissed criticism of its human rights record as baseless.

Amnesty said 304 men, women and children were killed by security forces during the protests, most from gunshot wounds, but that the true death toll was "likely much higher."

Iranian authorities said the number of those killed in the unrest was 225, including members of the security forces. In December, citing Iranian officials, Reuters reported that some 1,500 people were killed.

Amnesty also said detainees put on trial "suffered grossly unfair judicial proceedings" by being denied access to lawyers and forced to make confessions under torture. Dozens of protesters have been sentenced to long terms in prison.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Amnesty International accuses Iran of widespread rights abuses against protesters appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

According to Collier's report, titled "Spotlight on Amnesty International: From bias to obsession," Palestinian activists with ties to the Palestinian Authority and who openly support terrorist entities have taken control of some branches of Amnesty.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

The study will be submitted to British law enforcement agencies for review to ascertain whether any of Amnesty's activities contravene British law.

Amnesty is headquartered in London. The organization, founded in 1961 to defend human rights around the world, claims that it currently has 7 million members, making it the largest civil society organization in the world.

Collier's report exposes a strong anti-Israel bias among many of the organization's employees, including several dozen who hold key positions. According to his study, Amnesty employs people who are avowed supporters of terrorism, and their reports are used in the information Amnesty publishes, which strongly influences public opinion.

Collier found an official advisor to Amnesty who tweeted messages of support for a terrorist group and advised terrorists to hide information about the true nature of their activities in order to "protect the resistance." The report also says that Amnesty has recruited employees whom it knew were activists on behalf of a specific political goal, which violates the principles of neutrality that are supposed to form the basis of the organization's activity.

"As Amnesty displays a symbiotic relationship with BDS, it is fair to conclude that elements within Amnesty International actively seek to promote the destruction of the Jewish state. Because there is a religious aspect to some of Amnesty's obsession, we conclude that the cumulative effect of the organization's unnatural hostility towards Israel is anti-Semitic," the report says.

Collier's report details 21 specific instances in which senior Amnesty employees' social media accounts showed hostility toward Israel, including Amnesty advisors based in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip, as well as position-holders at the organization's London headquarters.

One example is Saleh Hijazi, Deputy Regional Director for Amnesty Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Hijazi hails from Ramallah and was a well-known anti-Israeli activist prior to joining Amnesty. He is also a member of the Shabaka Palestinian Policy Network, which Collier describes as an "explicitly pro-Palestinian think tank. Shabaka consistently accuses Israel of apartheid, genocide, and ethnic cleansing.

"It is perhaps no coincidence that Hijazi's rise in Amnesty has coincided with a further slide of the organization into raw BDS territory with their Airbnb and Trip Advisor campaigns," the report says.

According to the reports, of the 152 tweets Hijazi sent out over the course of a year, only four were unrelated to the Israeli-Arab conflict, which Collier calls "an obsession rate of 97%" – despite the fact that Hijazi's job at Amnesty means he covers a region that includes Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen.

Collier's research concludes with the statement: "Given the findings it is fair to conclude that Amnesty International have declared open 'war' on Israel. It has turned its entire arsenal onto the Jewish state. The obsession is clearly driven by an unnatural bias, deep hostility and anti-Semitism."

Amnesty International responded to Israel Hayom's request for a response with the statement: "We have not seen this report and cannot provide a comment on these allegations. Amnesty International is an independent and impartial organization that adheres to the highest research standards in all its work. Any research outputs produced by Amnesty International are subjected to a rigorous review process including multiple layers of approvals by research managers and experts in policy and international law. The organization is committed to uncovering human rights abuses and violations wherever they occur and will continue to do so."

The post Study: Amnesty International's anti-Israel bias extends to overlap with BDS appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The measures require those released to report every day to the police and spend the night at the nearest police station for months, drastically limiting their freedom of movement.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

Amnesty International says Tuesday that over 400 people are currently on probation, having to stay at a police station from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. every night. Otherwise, they risk new full detention, criminal charges and possibly imprisonment.

Recently freed activists Alaa Abdel-Fattah, Ahmad Maher and Mohammed Adel – key figures in the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak – are among those under probation.

Amnesty's Magdalena Mughrabi says authorities rely on such measures "to intimidate peaceful activists into silence."

The post Report: Egypt using probation measures to silence pro-democracy activists appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.