I received an e-mail circular from B’Tselem today about Israel’s policies towards Gaza. The first substantial argument offered is this:
“The siege of Gaza is causing enormous suffering among innocents, and it’s hard to see how that deprivation can be justified,” said Uri Zaki, B’Tselem’s USA Director. “International law, as well as basic human and Israeli values, demands that Israel do its utmost to address its legitimate security concerns without inflicting unnecessary harm to the civilians of Gaza. The current policy doesn’t come close to meeting that standard.” Gazans’ rights to minimal standards of food security, shelter, health, education and to travel are protected under international law. These needs should not be held hostage to security and political issues.
Continue reading ‘B’Tselem And Bad Arguments’
This a guest post by Jay Adler of the sad red earth.
Since I posted my first installment of Who Will Watch the Watchers, Richard Landes over at The Augean Stables has very ably pursued the same focus on Human Rights Watch, and more deeply too, emphasizing two issues: the resistance to criticism and the increasing role of postcolonial ideology in driving the agenda, not just of HRW, but of other human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International.
Continue reading ‘On Postcolonial Ideology’
This is a crosspost by Mark Gardner of the CST blog.
It is plain that if the Jewish state is regarded as a pariah, a compulsive serial abuser of human rights, then Jews everywhere will suffer by (real or imaginary) association.
So, it matters when Robert Bernstein, founder and emeritus chair of Human Rights Watch (HRW), and its chairman for 20 years, writes in the New York Times to regretfully inform HRW that its scrutiny and attitude to Israel “are helping those who wish to turn Israel into a pariah state”. As with HRW’s recent Marc Garlasco controversy, however, what matters even more is HRW’s public response to Bernstein:
We fundamentally disagree with Mr Bernstein’s views.
Continue reading ‘“We Fundamentally Disagree With Mr Bernstein’s Views”’
Suspended on full pay, reports the Times.
He ducks, he dives, he evades and then he ends on a note of delusional pomposity. Yes, it’s Marc Garlasco, who concedes that he wrote a “handful” (actually, it was more than 7,000) of “juvenile” posts on a couple of online militaria forums, but wants us to remember that “because of the intense suffering during the Second World War and the genocidal campaign against the Jewish people, I spend my days doing what I can to ensure that such horrors are never allowed to happen again.”
Right. I guess that explains the sweatshirt.
Helena Cobban - a member of the Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch and a trenchant critic of Israel for many years - isn’t impressed (and check out her earlier posts.) However, given that Garlasco could not be writing this kind of trash without HRW’s prior approval, it seems unlikely that Cobban’s concerns will register in the office of the organization’s boss, Ken Roth.
Mark Gardner of the CST with an important piece here.
As documented on numerous other blogs - here and here and here for starters - it appears that this person and this person are one and the same. So what does this tell us about the Human Rights Watch researcher and virulent Israel critic, Marc Garlasco?
Continue reading ‘Nazi Chic at Human Rights Watch’
“You can only imagine what would happen if Israel dealt with its internal political enemies or dissenters in such a fashion,” writes Richard Cohen of a new Human Rights Watch report detailing the appalling abuses of human rights entailed by the continuing rule of Hamas in Gaza.
Continue reading ‘The Hideous Face of Hamas Rule in Gaza’
Over at Open Democracy, Hugo Slim has an interesting piece about the role of NGOs in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Continue reading ‘Gaza: the Role of NGOs’
Last week, Human Rights Watch slammed Israel for what it alleged was the “unlawful” use of white phosphorus in its Gaza operation. HRW’s accusation has been now countered from an unlikely source.
Continue reading ‘Israel’s White Phosphorus Use: Not Unusual, Not Illegal’
“Thus, while many well-intentioned human rights campaigners blame Israel and call for an end to the fighting, the organisations to which they belong share the moral responsibility for this tragedy and loss of life. A ceasefire that only prepares the way for the next and more deadly round will accomplish nothing. To make a lasting and moral difference, the double standards and deep prejudices that have eroded the essential universality of human rights, and allowed leaders of groups like Hamas to expect ‘victories,’ must also end.”
Read Gerald Steinberg on the exploitation of human rights rhetoric by Hamas.
