January 27 is designated in many countries and the UN as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp.
This year, which is the 80th anniversary, there will be a number of ceremonies in memory of the 6 million Jewish victims – one-third of the entire Jewish population in the world at the time. Many righteous speeches will be made, with pledges of “never again” and warnings about the dangers of antisemitism.
In stark contrast to these pious words stands the incomprehensible hypocrisy of genocide inversion – the vile accusation that in defending its citizens against a repetition of the October 7 mass atrocities, Israelis have become the new Nazis.
This heinous demonization is the 21st-century version of Jew-hatred, led by the very institutions created after the Shoah, ostensibly to promote human rights and prevent injustice.
Amnesty International, founded in 1961 by Peter Benenson, a Jew and Zionist, is a leader in spreading this evil. Whether in a 300-page pseudo-report that was prominently headlined in influential media platforms or crudely antisemitic social media posts, Amnesty combines centuries of theological Jew-hatred with genocide inversion.
The consensus working definition of antisemitism adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance specifically includes: “Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.” This is exactly what the leaders of Amnesty and their followers have done.
They are far from alone in a powerful industry that systematically weaponized the UN’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and accompanying Genocide Convention, intended to prevent the repetition of hate campaigns that preceded the death camps and the mass annihilation under Nazi Germany.
Dozens of other “highly respected” non-governmental organizations, including Human Rights Watch (HRW) – the US counterpart of Amnesty – as well as the network of NGOs linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror organization and funded by European governments, have prominent roles in promoting Jew-hatred through false accusations of genocide, starvation, apartheid, and similar slogans.
These NGO-led attacks are continuations of the Soviet and Arab League antisemitism campaigns, which culminated 50 years ago in the infamous UN resolution labeling Zionism as racism. Although the resolution was rescinded in 1991, the UN mechanisms, including funding for promoting this libel, have continued.
In 2001, the UN convened a conference in Durban, South Africa, to discuss “the elimination of racism.” Under the leadership of former president of Ireland Mary Robinson, this event, and specifically the NGO Forum, was transformed into a hate-fest that adopted a final declaration accusing Israel of genocide, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing.
In the years since then, the NGO network has exploited these slogans to demonize Israeli self-defense measures after the deadliest atrocity against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
AN ADDITIONAL major source of hate 80 years after the Holocaust is the United Nations Human Rights Council. Far from promoting the principles of the 1948 UDHR, the UNHRC – like Amnesty and HRW – churns out a constant stream of false accusations targeting Israel, which are then exploited to justify intimidation and violent attacks against Jews worldwide.
Francesca Albanese, the UNHRC’s special rapporteur for “the occupied Palestinian territories,” is widely known for her repetition of antisemitic tropes and support for terrorism.
Outgoing US special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, Deborah Lipstadt, told journalists that even UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres – not a friend of Israel by any measure – referred to Albanese as “a horrible person.”
In December 2023, the same forces sought to weaponize the International Court of Justice (a political body under a thin legal facade). South Africa, reportedly funded by Iran and Qatar, initiated a case later joined by Ireland and Cuba, charging Israel with genocide in Gaza.
Here, as well, officials of the NGO network linked to the PFLP terror organization and funded by European governments were centrally involved.
In a preliminary statement, the judges repeated UN propaganda and allowed the case to go forward, giving further ammunition to HRW, Amnesty, Albanese, and their allies.
Virulent 21st-century antisemitism and Holocaust inversion take many other forms, including the accusation that Israel is responsible for starvation in Gaza, which is the basis for arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, issued by the prosecutor in the International Criminal Court – another theater of the absurd.
The ICC concept was based on the precedent of the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals, but like the UDHR and Genocide Convention, it was exploited in order to demonize Jewish sovereignty (Zionism).
The fact that many ostensibly liberal democratic governments, including Norway, Canada, the Netherlands, and the UK, declared their readiness to implement the arrest warrants highlights the blatant immorality.
For all of these reasons, International Holocaust Remembrance Day might well be renamed Holocaust hypocrisy day, when many powerful NGO leaders, UN officials, and allied politicians devote one day to giving lip service to the victims of the Nazi genocide. The other 364 days are devoted to the slogans and policies of genocide inversion and other forms of Jew-hatred.
The writer is emeritus professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University and president of NGO Monitor.