Amnesty International Employee Gets Gaza Peace Activist Arrested by Hamas for Virtual Meeting with Israelis

by Hugh Fitzgerald


Ex-Amnesty International employee and journalist Hind Khoudary

In late April a few dozen Palestinian and Israeli peace activists held a video conference. It was an attempt to discuss their relations without rancor, a human-to-human event. That praiseworthy undertaking led in the end to the arrest of Rami Aman, the organizer of the video conference on the Palestinian side, by Hamas. He has not been heard from since.

The disturbing tale was posted at Algemeiner:

An employee of Amnesty International has been denounced for getting a Gaza peace activist arrested by Hamas authorities for holding a virtual meeting with Israeli counterparts.

Journalist Rami Aman of the Gaza Youth Committee held the conference with the Israelis via the Zoom app, which has become popular as a means of maintaining social ties during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Facebook page for the meeting called it “an opportunity to speak with Gazans who not only do not hate us but are working tirelessly to open channels of communication between Gazans and Israelis.”

Hind Khoudary, who at the time of the incident identified herself on social media as an international research consultant for Amnesty, denounced Aman in a Facebook post – now inaccessible – and tagged three Hamas officials [alerting them to her post]… Aman was arrested on Thursday and has not been heard from since.

In response, former Human Rights Watch official Peter Bouckaert told Khoudary, “You should be ashamed of yourself.

“It is disgusting that a so-called ‘journalist’ got an activist for dialogue arrested by Hamas,” he later said. “Conflicts are resolved through dialogue and understanding, not hatred.”

Khoudary replied to Bouckaert in a tweet, asking, “Being ashamed of myself for fighting normalization with Israel?”

Yes. Hind Khoudary should be ashamed of herself for pretending to be a journalist instead of a propagandist; for choosing to be a propagandist for two of the worst terrorist groups in the world, Hamas and Hezbollah; for being an informer, a snitch, by alerting three Hamas officials about Rami Aman’s taking part in organizing the Palestinian side of the video conference; for taking pleasure that as a result of her alert Rami Aman was picked up by Hamas enforcers and hasn’t been heard from since. Those are the things that Hind Khoudary should be ashamed of, if she had a sense of decency. And since she is not ashamed, but proud of her role in getting Rami Aman seized by Hamas, for a fate as yet unknown, she has no business continuing to work for Amnesty International, a group that proclaims its mission to be one of protecting human rights.

Hillel Neuer of the watchdog group UN Watch, which fights anti-Israel bias in the international forum and NGO community, commented on the affair, “A human rights group cannot employ an accomplice to Hamas terror, someone who causes peace activists to be jailed and probably tortured, all because they engaged in dialogue. Amnesty should explain why they hired her in the first place, and why before that they had cited her as a supposed journalist.”

“It’s clear from her social media posts that Khoudary has been a long-time and open supporter of both Hamas and Hezbollah acts of terrorism against Israelis,” he added. “Amnesty must conduct an independent inquiry into who at the organization knew of Khoudary’s support for terrorist violence.”

Khoudary’s support for terrorism was never hidden: long before she was hired by Amnesty International – whether full-time, as everyone thought, or for freelance work, as AI now claims, remains unclear — she had proclaimed her support for Hamas and Hezbollah on social media posts. It beggars belief that those who hired her did so without knowledge of those posts. One must conclude that these higher-ups did not care, or still worse, actually approved of her support. Amnesty International, like Human Rights Watch, and so many other similar groups, is full of “activists” who are quick to condemn the Jewish state.

In a tweet, Neuer said to Julie Verhaar, Amnesty’s Acting Secretary General,” I am calling on your organization to fire [Khoudary] immediately & to launch an independent inquiry into why she was hired in the first place.”

Here is one more of the messages Hillel Neuer sent to Julie Verhaar:

Dear @JulieVerhaar, Acting SG @Amnesty:

Hind Khoudary used her Facebook account listing Amnesty International as her employer to incite 3 Hamas officials to arrest peace activist Rami Aman for holding a Zoom call with Israeli activists. He’s now disappeared. Why are you silent?

This is what we know about Hind Khoudary:

1) She has never hidden her support for the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, which can be found in her many posts on social media

2) When she was hired as a “journalist” by Amnesty International, those hiring her must surely have seen her social media posts, but were not alarmed and may even have been pleased at her support for Hamas and Hezbollah. Or was she hired only briefly, and for freelance work, as is not being claimed, so that perhaps there was no investigation into her background, including her posts on social media?

3) On her Facebook page Hind Khoudary listed Amnesty International as her employer

She identified herself on social media as an “international research consultant” for Amnesty.

4) Hind Khoudary acted as an informant when she reported on the video conference, citing Rami Aman as the chief organizer on the Palestinian side, and tagging three Hamas Hamas officials so that they would be sure to see her report on Aman, and would then arrest him. And that is exactly what they did. No one knows his fate. She is not merely unconcerned, but appears downright pleased with his arrest and whatever may follow.

5) Hind Khoudary is unrepentant about her acts. Not a word of sympathy for Rami Aman, whom she detests for his having established contact with Israelis. She considers that the two-hour video conference he helped arrange amounts, unacceptably, to a “normalization of relations” and that, as far as she is concerned, will never do.

Amnesty International’s Israel office has denounced her remarks and claimed that Khoudary has worked for them on a free-lance basis solely during the month of March 2019:

“Hind Khoudary has not worked for Amnesty International for more than a year and was only ever employed on a short-term freelance basis. Her personal views do not represent those of the organization. It is a matter of grave concern if the welfare of any individual has been put at risk,” Amnesty said.

But Amnesty does not deny that Hind Khoudary held herself out as an employee for AI as an “international researcher.” Most people certainly regarded her as a full-time employee of AI.

“Her sole contribution to Amnesty was to collect video materials during the Great March of Return protests along the fence that separates Gaza and Israel, including information [about] Hamas violations against Gaza civilians who were protesting poor economic conditions in the Strip.

Did she perhaps send in other reports, and videos, to AI, outside of March 2019, that the organization chose not to use?

If it is true that Khoudary only worked for Amnesty International during March 2019, what led everyone to believe she was a full-time employee of that organization? Not just Hillel Neuer of UN Watch, but the ordinarily anti-Israel Peter Bockaert, a former Human Rights Watch employee, seems to think she was on the full-time staff of Amnesty International. How were they all so misinformed? Ms. Khoudary presented herself on social media as a full-time journalist with AI. Did AI itself not notice how she described herself and seek to have her change that description, which would specify “as a freelance, I worked for Amnesty International in March 2019” rather than “I am currently an international researcher with Amnesty International.” These matters, too, need to be investigated; obviously, that investigation needs to be conducted by those who are not part of Amnesty International.

Julie Verhaar, the Secretary-General of Amnesty International, has posted online a comical description of herself:

Julie Verhaar

@julieverhaar

Passionate about justice, human dignity and fundraising – trying to ensure a fairer world for all.

We’ll soon see just how “passionate” Julie Verhaar is about “justice” and “human dignity.” I can well imagine she is “passionate about fund-raising.” Will she sever all Amnesty International ties, no matter how limited, with Hind Khoudary? Will she denounce Khoudary for holding herself out, falsely, as an employee of AI? Will she deplore Khoudary’s having been a snitch, informing Hamas about Rami Aman’s role in the video conference with Israelis? Will she tell us exactly who hired Hind Khoudary in 2019, even if only for a month (a claim which needs to be looked into with skepticism), and whether anyone at AI was aware of Khoudary’s support on social media for the terrorists of Hamas and Hezbollah? And finally, will Julie Verhaar, “passionate about justice and human dignity,” demand that Hamas free Rami Aman forthwith?

First published in Jihad Watch