Amnesty International blames the victim in a time of genocide

The late Dr. Israel Shahak once related that during WWII when a collaborator at the Warsaw ghetto was eliminated, the jubilant inmates (himself included) danced with joy.[0]  Maybe the extreme situation didn’t permit the semblance of a legal process, but natural law ran its course. Now imagine if at that time a sanctimonious body were to pop up and chastise the inmates for this “crime”.  Under the circumstances, it would appear hypocritical for anyone to criticise the inmates, let alone refer to their action as “unlawful” and demand “accountability”.

Well, Amnesty International just published an article that fits that description in a contemporary setting.  It just published a news release, “Hamas must stamp out extrajudicial executions…” [1], which is an indictment of the execution or beatings of collaborators in Gaza.  Amnesty’s rumination amounts to blaming the victim.

About Collaborators

For many decades Israel sought to recruit Palestinian collaborators. These were used as an enforcement arm of the oppressor; to inform on the Palestinian society and the resistance; to undermine the cohesion of the society, to sow distrust;  act as propaganda agents; and to create dependence on the oppressor.  The Israeli desire to destroy the Palestinian society has been ever present.

From the early days prior to the formation of Israel, zionists sought informers and traitors.  Bedouins and the “peace bands” acted as trackers to find and eliminate Palestinian fighters.  Wealthy Palestinians sold land or acted as agents for the zionists to acquire land.  There are gradations of collaboration — from the ones who were involved in violence against their own people, to those engaged in acts that undermined Palestinian society [2].

Today the so-called Palestinian Authority (PA) are collaborators in the Israeli project; they suppress Palestinian resistance, maintain dependence and subjugation, and protect the network of Palestinian collaborators created by Israel.  Prominent Palestinians opposed to Israeli oppression have been murdered by the PA; the PA goons have been tasked with suppressing resistance in key areas such as Jenin and Nablus; and PA forces coordinate their actions with Israeli forces.

Israeli prisons use collaborators (aka Asafir) placed in cells together with Palestinian prisoners to get them to divulge information.  Asafir collaborators are also used to break the solidarity between prisoners; any activity that might create a spirit of resistance is broken up.

Notorious armed collaborators roam in the West Bank where they harass and intimidate victims at the behest of their handlers.  But to create a culture subservient to the Israeli occupation, Palestinians are told to petition the collaborators to obtain permits, access to land or work.  The collaborators simply do Israel’s dirty work.

Drug dealing and collaboration go hand in hand.  There is a history of Israel supplying drugs and fostering the criminal gangs in Gaza and the West Bank.[3] Yet another true and tested way to undermine a society.  Drug dealers also act as armed enforcers.

It is fairly easy for Israelis to recruit collaborators.  Any Palestinian who has to cross a checkpoint is easy prey for Israeli agents to coerce or bribe victims to become collaborators.  No cooperation results in blocked access, and thus no work and the like.  If a child requires to go to an Israeli hospital or a health facility in Jerusalem, the parents are often confronted with the choice of obtaining a permit by collaborating, or being turned back.

Students seeking to go to study abroad are also put in the same quandary, collaborate or have passage denied.  There is an upside to collaborating (obtaining access or favours), and the downside is minimal because collaborators aren’t persecuted. So, now there are collaborators everywhere in the West Bank.

Collaborators in Gaza

When Hamas took over Gaza after it won the elections in 2006, it displaced the collaborationist Palestinian Authority.  But most of the ejected members of the PA forces, predominantly Fatah members, remained in Gaza and many were willing to collaborate with Israel.  The Palestinian resistance has to contend with collaborators who would pinpoint tunnels, weapons or key personnel.  Several resistance commanders were likely killed when exposed by collaborators.  Hooded collaborators enable the Israeli military to identify and separate Palestinian prisoners who are either in or assist the resistance.

Some collaborators were tasked with spreading false rumours in crowded places.  A favourite tactic was for a collaborator to take a shared taxi ride, and then loudly claim that a given official was corrupt or criminal.  Others were instructed to paint defeatist or hateful graffiti.

And at present Israel is arming and organising Palestinian criminal gangs to terrorise neighbourhoods to drive people out of their homes. The Middle East Eye reports: [4]

Based on testimony from Israeli soldiers, UN reports and satellite imagery, the investigation found that increasingly well-armed collaborator militias have expelled Palestinians from their homes and carried out operations across Gaza.  Israel has trained at least five militia groups, and potentially a sixth, operating from heavily fortified bases inside Israeli-occupied areas of the enclave.

One Israeli soldier described how the state, army and Shin Bet intelligence service send armed and “trained militias to commit war crimes, …”.

One can well understand Palestinian anger against the collaborators’ treasonous and criminal behaviour, and their attempts to poison Palestinian society.

Amnesty on rough justice

Although Israel is responsible for recruiting and exploiting a collaborator network, Amnesty portrays Hamas’ rough justice as “unlawful” and it calls for Hamas to be held accountable.  It doesn’t portray the collaborators as an Israeli instrument.

Amnesty portrays the issue of collaborators as one between the Palestinian population at large and Hamas; not as one where Israel is the oppressor, and the Palestinians are the oppressed.  And under the circumstances (Amnesty plainly admits there is “a collapse of law and order in Gaza”), how are Palestinians supposed to dispense justice?

On the one hand Amnesty wants Hamas to operate under a legal framework, yet it plainly downplays the Israeli violations of most laws that should confer all Palestinians some protection.  It is a clear double standard.

Israeli forces have targeted the police and courts.  On day one of the 2014 attack, dozens of police were bombed and killed.  In the recent past, police have been similarly targeted.  So, it seems that Amnesty expects Hamas to operate within a legal framework meant to mediate societal tension in a state of peace.  When Hamas establishes that organised crime in Gaza operates in tandem with Israeli forces, then it has the right to defend itself.  Amnesty may not like the rough justice this entails, but it has no standing to criticise the way Palestinians defend themselves.

Erika Guevara Rosas, the author of the “Hamas must stamp out extrajudicial executions” article, seems to dismiss the accusations made by Hamas against collaborators.  When referring to the collaborators, the article is sprinkled with the usual Amnesty weasel words: “suspected”, “alleged”.  The word informant is put in quotation marks.  Amnesty confers no credibility to statements made by Hamas.  One wonders why Palestinians should be required to justify their actions when Israel carries on with impunity.

A legal argument

Anyone hiring a hitman for an assassination or any serious crime would face severe legal consequences.  In the same manner, when Israel hires or coerces collaborators to perpetrate serious crimes, e.g., murder, then the contracting party should also bear severe legal consequences.  Alas, this is not an argument that Amnesty understands.

There is a pattern

Most articles/news releases published by Amnesty seem to follow a pattern.  One article will criticise Palestinians, and it is shortly thereafter followed by an article which criticises Israel.  In the current context, we have the article about execution of collaborators, and it was followed a few days later by an article restating that Israel has done nothing to end the genocide and to abide by the ICJ’s ruling.[5]  Amnesty seeks to portray itself as a neutral organisation which sits on the fence criticising “both sides”.  Amnesty’s actions are neither proportional to the violence or injustice of the current situation.

The reason it takes this dubious stance is because it doesn’t want to be in solidarity with the Palestinians, but it similarly doesn’t want to be antagonistic towards Israelis.  The actions of the oppressed and oppressor are held to the same ahistorical standard.

Amnesty and genocide

It took a long time for Amnesty to unequivocally refer to Israeli crimes as genocide.  On 28 October 2023, Craig Mokhiber, the former UN official in the High Commission for Human Rights, resigned because his agency was not reacting given the unfolding situation in Gaza, and stated in his resignation letter: “this is a textbook case of genocide”. It was only 13 months later that Amnesty acknowledged the nature of Israeli crimes, thus Amnesty was rather late to announce that Palestinians were subject to a genocidal campaign.[6]  But then one would expect more action from “the leading human rights organisation”.  Currently, several weeks transpire before it cursorily mentions genocide.  It seems that Amnesty’s actions aren’t proportional to the severity of the crime — and to boot, Amnesty will regularly chastise Palestinians for the way they deal with collaborators or protestors.

A matter of timing

There are many egregious cases of Israeli violence or threats to perpetrate heinous acts. On 15 August 2026, Itamar Ben Gvir, the Israeli security minister,  stated that he sought to kill 30 to 40 Palestinians every day.  The man interviewing him helpfully volunteered to kill with his own bare hands.  This is only Ben Gvir’s latest statement about an intent to kill many Palestinians, and he certainly belongs in the same dock as Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant to answer for all their mass crimes.  Amnesty’s article chastising Palestinians for the assassination of collaborators coincided with Ben Gvir’s statements about criminal intent.  What is worse, the elimination of collaborators or the threat to kill 30 to 40 Palestinians every day? What is surprising is that Amnesty didn’t utter a peep about Ben Gvir’s threats — hardly empty threats.

Human rights are for the birds

Human rights organisations think that they can opine on everything, and they believe that they can offer recommendations to everybody.  Alas, the human rights framework is problematic and deficient, and human rights organisations are mostly compromised and propaganda tools for those who pay for them.

When confronted with mass crimes what is needed is justice, and not one of its bastardised, neutered, malleable and ineffective substitutes.  If one wants justice then it behooves one to speak in terms of justice, and to avoid the human rights mumbo jumbo.  When faced with mass crimes one should demand justice, and not merely seek some bandages. This is specially the case when human rights have been cynically exploited and weaponised by the US and UK.  A framework that can be used to justify wars, the so-called humanitarian interventions (even humanitarian bombing!!), cannot be a framework that advances justice or motivates people to act against mass crimes.

Most human rights NGOs don’t even condemn the forever wars, the US/Israeli wars of aggression.  Amnesty International is “not an anti-war organisation”.[7]  How one can favour human rights and not oppose wars is a mystery.  But then Amnesty is against capital punishment, but not opposed to some killing by the military.  However, all killings by the Palestinian resistance are condemned or criticised in Amnesty’s weasel-like inimitable style.  The same demands don’t apply when Israel bombs refugee camps, or hires, arms and organises collaborators to terrorise and expel the residents of the refugee camps.  Here another standard applies.

Amnesty International is not part of the solution; it is part of the problem.

Notes

[0]        Frank Collins, “Why Palestinians Kill Palestinians in Israeli-Occupied Territories”, WRMEA, Nov. 1989.https://www.wrmea.org/1989-november/why-palestinians-kill-palestinians-in-israeli-occupied-territories.html

[1]        “Palestine: Hamas must stamp out extrajudicial executions and ensure justice for victims”, 21 August 2026.

Palestine: Hamas must stamp out extrajudicial executions and ensure justice for victims

[2]        A good overview of early Palestinian collaboration see: Joseph Massad , “Palestinian elites have been collaborating against the resistance for a century”, 12 June 2026.

[3]        Here is a recent example: Joe Glenton, Israel is smuggling narcotics into Gaza, Palestinian tribal council warns, The Canary, 17 December 2025.

https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2025/12/17/israel-narcotics/

[4]        Israel arms drug dealers to commit new ‘Sabra and Shatila’ in Gaza, MEE Staff, MEE, 27 August 2026.

See also: Palestine Information Center, “Agent militias in Gaza: Temporary occupation tool or project to reshape society”, 3 September 2026.

https://english.palinfo.com/reports/2026/09/03/369484/

[5]        “Israel/OPT: South Africa ICJ submission must spur states to press Israel to end its genocide in Gaza”, Amnesty International, 1 September 2026.

[6]        Amnesty International investigation concludes Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, Amnesty International, 5 December 2024.

[7]        Personal communication with Donatella Rovera, an Amnesty researcher, January 2003.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.