Republican Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Mike Braun (R-Ind.) on Thursday introduced a bill that aims to prevent assistance from the federal government to go to Amnesty International.
The human-rights organization has been criticized by lawmakers and pro-Israel groups for publishing an anti-Semitic report in early February accusing Israel of apartheid. Added to that, the director of Amnesty International USA Tom O’Brien said at a Woman’s National Democratic Club lunch last month that Israel “shouldn’t exist as a Jewish state.”
According to a release from Scott’s office, Amnesty International has received more than $2.5 million in federal funding in the past two decades.
“[It] has proven itself to be a sham of a ‘human rights’ organization that perpetuates anti-Semitic propaganda and refuses to hold the world’s dangerous and genocidal regimes accountable, like Communist China, Iran, Russia and Venezuela,” Scott wrote in the release. “Just last month, the Amnesty International USA director said, ‘We are opposed to the idea that Israel should be preserved as a state for the Jewish people.’ Under no circumstances should American taxpayer dollars subsidize this or any organization that continually acts against U.S. interests and demonizes our great ally, Israel.”
Scott said the bill is intended to send a clear message that the United States will not support the “radical left’s dangerous anti-Israel agenda.”
“Israel is such an important ally to the United States, and an organization that uses its platform to undermine their sovereignty should not be receiving U.S. taxpayer funds,” said Braun in the release.
S. 3999 was referred to the Homeland Security and Government Affairs committees after being introduced on the Senate floor.
