Israel Matzav

Amnesty and Finnish newspaper try to flush blog post down the memory hole

On Wednesday, I ran the story of Frank Johannson, the director of the Finnish branch of Amnesty International, who called Israel a 'scum state.' Later on Wednesday, I reported that Johannson had been given the opportunity to retract his comments, and had declined to do so. Now, Johannson has decided to try to flush his comments down the memory hole. Will he get away with it?

Speaking from Helsinki, Asmo Halinnen, head of Iltalehti’s Web section, told the Post Wednesday that “he [Johansson] removed the blog post,” adding that “All of the blog writings on our site are the opinion of the writer.”

When asked if there is a policy barring anti-Semitic and racist blogs, Halinnen referred the query to Iltalehti’s editor-in-chief, Kari Kivelä . The top editor did not immediately reply to an e-mail query and telephone call.
The Post reported Wednesday about the blog, which prompted a flurry of activity at AI’s headquarters in London.

In an e-mail to the Post on Wednesday, Johansson wrote, “I decided to take down my blog because I appreciate that my comments were ill-judged and appear all the more so when taken out of context, and have obviously caused offence to many people although it was not my intention, at all, to cause such offence.”

He added “I am especially conscious, and regret that my ill-judged action may be detrimental to Amnesty International’s work on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the valiant human rights work being undertaken by my colleagues working for Amnesty International in Israel.”

You mean exposing the kind of anti-Semitic scum that Amnesty has working for it might awaken someone to the fact that Amnesty has this little problem with bias against Israel? Well, don't tell Amnesty that.

Amnesty spokeswoman Susanna Flood said, “Johansson remains as the director of Amnesty International in Finland.

“Obviously, we regret it if such a term was used by an individual whose personal views could be misunderstood as reflecting those of Amnesty International, and we disassociate Amnesty International fully and clearly from such comments and we are making this clear to Mr Johansson,” Flood told the Post. “Amnesty International has never described Israel as a ‘scum state’ or used any such terms to describe Israel,” she added.

IF such a term was used? IF? I never knew anyone doubted that it had been used.

Here's Tundra Tabloids' Kenneth Sikorski, who exposed the story in the first place.

He's a disingenuous liar and anti-Israel bigot who issues anti-Semitic blurbs when he thinks the coast is clear and no one is looking (meaning anyone outside of Finland). He was caught red handed, and now is trying to back peddle without issuing an apology. How can such an organization expect to be recognized as credible, while they have such people at the helm? This is going to get even more interesting.

By all rights, Amnesty should not be recognized as credible. But unfortunately it is. The key is using this incident to damage their credibility. So let's do it: The only thing more appalling than Johannson's statement is Amnesty's willingness to sweep it under the rug. Amnesty's forgiving attitude toward Johannson indicates that they believe that calling Israel a 'scum state' really isn't such a bad thing.

It's unforgivable.

Read the whole thing. This one too.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:23 PM