Amnesty International reportedly refuses to sack official who allegedly compared Israel to Nazis in apparent breach of International Definition of Antisemitism

Amnesty International has reportedly refused to sack an official who allegedly compared Israel to the Nazis.

Garry Ettle, who represents the controversial activist group as “country coordinator for Israel and Occupied Palestinian territories”, allegedly retweeted a message asking about video footage appearing to show Israeli youth “harassing” a woman: “How is this any different from Nazi Germany?”

In a Facebook post in 2020, he also allegedly described Israel’s policies toward Gaza as a “slow holocaust”, among other inflammatory social media posts.

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is an example of antisemitism.

Amnesty International and its network of activist groups have come under fire recently over a string of scandals over its activities, personnel and protocols, including claims of systemic racism.

Amnesty International defended Mr Ettle, saying in a statement: “Garry Ettle is a committed and highly principled human rights activist who has opposed the Israeli authorities’ system of apartheid for years. This is just the latest attempt to intimidate and silence us for our important work in documenting serious and systematic human rights violations under successive Israeli governments.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Only at Amnesty and like-minded organisations could someone who allegedly compares Israel to Nazis describe himself as a ‘human-rights activist’. Such comparisons are a breach of the universally-accepted International Definition of Antisemitism. We would call on Amnesty to investigate and dissociate itself from this individual, but the organisation’s record on antisemitism gives little reason to think that it holds the views of the Jewish community in anything but contempt.”