Despite widespread calls to cancel, Amnesty International will allow "Complicity in Oppression: Do the Media Aid Israel?" to go ahead.
By JONNY PAULisrael boycott 311(photo credit: REUTERS)
LONDON – Amnesty International is allowing a controversial event deemed as anti-Israel to take place despite widespread calls to cancel the event.Protesters were set to mass outside Amnesty’s headquarters in London on Monday night following its decision to allow the event “Complicity in Oppression: Do the Media Aid Israel?” to go ahead.RELATED:Report: Activists 'should portray Israel as undemocractic'The event was organized by London-based magazine Middle East Monitor Online (MEMO)and the campaign group Palestine Solidarity Campaign.A spokesman for Amnesty told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that the event will take place since the event’s organizers responded to their concerns about MEMO and the participation of Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based al- Quds al-Arabi newspaper.In 2007, Atwan declared that he would “dance with delight” in Trafalgar Square if Iran attacked Israel, and in 2008, he said the terrorist attack on the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva, in which eight students were killed, “was justified” as it was responsible for “hatching Israeli extremists and fundamentalists.”“While we did have concerns about the way the event had originally been organized, these have been resolved,” Amnesty said.
