Ex-Amnesty International employee and journalist Hind Khoudary. Photo: Instagram.

A Palestinian journalist and former employee of Amnesty International defended herself on Monday against accusations that she was responsible for the arrest of a Gaza peace activist because he held a Zoom meeting with Israeli counterparts.

The meeting was held by journalist Rami Aman of the Gaza Youth Committee. The Facebook page for the meeting called it “an opportunity to speak with Gazans who not only do not hate us but are working tirelessly to open channel of communication between Gazans and Israelis.”

Journalist Hind Khoudary, who at the time of the incident identified herself on social media as an international research consultant for Amnesty, denounced Aman in a Facebook post – now inaccessible – and tagged three Hamas officials. Aman was arrested last Thursday and has not been heard from since.

After she was met with outrage for her actions, Khoudary responded in a lengthy Facebook post, saying she had been the target of “bullying, threats and hate,” and denied she had tagged Hamas officials in her posts “to get [Aman] arrested.”

“I am not Hamas, I don’t support Hamas,” she added, claiming she had herself been detailed by Hamas in the past.

“I didn’t wish arresst [sic] for Rami Aman, I want all the normalization activities he is doing with Israel from Gaza to stop immediatly [sic] because any joint activities cooperation or dialogue with Israelis is unacceptable,” Khoudary wrote.

In an apparent reference to Amnesty International, she also said, “stop blaming any other organizations I worked before on [sic] my opinions.”

“I am not the reason of Rami Aman’s arrest,” she asserted.

https://www.facebook.com/HindUsama/posts/1513292465493937

The Amnesty International branch in the Netherlands denied that Khoudary was an employee, saying she “has not worked for Amnesty for quite some time.”

“More than a year ago, she briefly worked as a freelancer for Amnesty,” it added. “Her personal views and actions are not on Amnesty’s behalf.”

https://twitter.com/amnestynl/status/1249703625787662336

In response, UN Watch head Hillel Neuer tweeted, “Amnesty claims Hind Khoudary — who got Hamas to imprison a peace activist on Thursday — only ‘briefly worked as a freelancer.’ They don’t explain why Khoudary identified as an Amnesty employee until yesterday, nor why they repeatedly glorified her.”

Amnesty claims Hind Khoudary—who got Hamas to imprison a peace activist on Thursday—only "briefly worked as a freelancer." They don't explain why Khoudary identified as an Amnesty employee until yesterday, nor why they repeatedly glorified her. They also don't say: #FreeRamiAman https://t.co/WNRONcj1AB pic.twitter.com/gcKs4eDVmT

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 13, 2020