A “Sane” Visit by Amnesty International in Jerusalem?

The secretary general of Amnesty International, Mr. Pierre Sane (pronounced Sa-Ney), gave a press conference this week during his visit.

Sane reported about his visit to Arab homes that had been shelled in Gaza, to Arab homes that had been shelled in Beit Jalla, about his meeting with Arab victims of violence from the past few months, about his meeting with PLO leader Yassir Arafat and his meeting with the director of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Mr. Avie Gil.

Sane presented a human rights agenda for the peace process in which Amnesty International endorsed the PLO position for the Right of Return to homes lost in 1948, which Sane defined as a “fundamental human right that politicians have no right to negotiate”.

I asked Mr. Sane if he would be visiting Jewish victims. He had no reply.

I asked Sane if he would visit Gilo in addition to visiting Beit Jalla. He again had no reply.

I showed Mr. Sane the PLO map of the Right of Return that the PLO sells at the PLO Orient House headquarters in Jerusalem, where the 531 Arab villages are “returned” to replace Israeli cities, collective farms and woodlands.

In light of this map, which essentially obliterates Israel, I asked Sane if he still supported the Right of Return.

Sane said that he did, because Amnesty supports the right of return of ALL populations who were dislocated by war.

I asked if that applied to the three million Germans who were forced out of their homes and villages after 1945, only three years before 650,000 (the highest UN estimate) of Palestinian Arabs fled their homes in 1948. Sane would not answer.

Sane described his meeting with Arafat concerning legal reforms and human rights in glowing terms, however.

In that light, I asked Sane if Amnesty would ask Arafat to reverse his policies of granting asylum to wanted killers who committed crimes in Israel and escaped to the safe haven of the PA. I also asked Sane if Amnesty would ask Arafat to stop releasing convicted killers from PA jails. Sane had no response to either question.

Sane did express his disappointment that he was not being warmly received by the Israeli government.

I wonder why.