January 12th, 2010 by NGO Monitor Staff | Category: Human Rights Watch, NGO Monitor For Ken Roth and Human Rights Watch (HRW), the new year has begun much as the previous one ended – with exposure of another false accusation against Israel. In a vitriolic op-ed published on December 30 in the IPS’s online publication Foreign Policy in Focus, and reproduced widely, Roth accused Israel of “a campaign to undermine …. essential rules for protecting civilians caught in war.” The article is based on falsehoods and distortions, including the allegation that MK Tzipi Livni, the former Foreign Minister and current leader of the opposition, urged Israeli forces to avoid distinguishing between combatants and civilians in the Gaza war. Roth highlighted Livni’s statement in the Knesset, “They don’t make a distinction, and neither should we” ...

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November 5th, 2009 by NGO Monitor Staff | Category: Human Rights Watch, NGO Monitor Here is another news release that HRW should have written, but did not: "Iran /Syria: Investigate Alleged Arms Shipment" or "Hezbollah: Examine Claims of Arms Transfer from Iran." But like Iran, Lebanon and Hezbollah, HRW had no comment on the arms shipment that Israel captured, carrying at least 3,000 deadly missiles. The hundreds of tons of weaponry aboard the Francop ship marks the largest arms seizure in Israel's history. Many of the containers were labeled ''I.R. (Islamic Republic of) Iran Shipping Lines Group,'' while others featured the logo of the Iranian Petroleum Ministry. Cargo certificates showed that the ship departed from an Iranian port and its destination is listed as Syria, from where these weapons, like tens of thousands of missiles before them, would be transferred to ...

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October 29th, 2009 by Gerald Steinberg | Category: Ethics, Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, NGO Monitor While Human Rights Watch (HRW), headed by Kenneth Roth, attempts to defend itself from the powerful critique levelled by founder Robert Bernstein in the New York Times, Helena Cobban -- on the board of HRW's Middle East and North Africa division -- added further evidence of total moral collapse. In her October 22 posting, Cobban attacked Bernstein for ostensibly advocating an "old fashioned" view of human rights in which some kinds of societies (open and democratic) are better than others (closed and tyrannical). Continuing with an eerily similar kind of argument, Cobban then expounded her views on Hamas, demonstrating how this ostensibly stalwart defender of universal human rights is actually an apologist for terror. In her January 2009 blog ...

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October 29th, 2009 by NGO Monitor Staff | Category: Adalah, Al Haq, Amnesty International, Badil, Defence for Children International-Palestine, EU, Government Funding, Human Rights Watch, International Commission of Jurists, International Humanitarian Law, Ittijah, Palestinian Center for Human Rights, UN Taken from UNHRC webcast: MRAP (France): "Despite the dozens of resolutions adopted by various UN bodies condemning the actions of the state of Israel, colonial occupation follows the destruction, massacres follow the abuses, and the international law is constantly trampled." FIDH, PCHR (Raji Sourani) (Norway, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, European Union): "The smell of death and destruction because of the war [is] still there. Still there in criminal siege imposed among the protected civilians in Gaza…For the first time ever war crimes were broadcasted live on air at the real time and the whole world witnessed it. Can we hold these criminals accountable? Can we bring sort of justice to the victims?...I want to say here, on its ...

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October 26th, 2009 by NGO Monitor Staff | Category: Human Rights Watch In response to Robert Bernstein’s shattering October 20 New York Times Oped that HRW places disproportionate focus on Israel, members of HRW’s board responded that “Human Rights Watch does not devote more time and energy to Israel than to other countries in the region, or in the world. We've produced more than 1,700 reports, letters, news releases, and other commentaries on the Middle East and North Africa since January 2000” Well, one country HRW is not reporting on is the African country of Mauritania. HRWs “Browse by Country” page does not list Mauritania and neither is the country found on its Africa or North Africa pages. Mauritania is also conspicuously absent from HRW’s 2009 ...

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October 23rd, 2009 by NGO Monitor Staff | Category: Amnesty International, International Humanitarian Law The denial of Palestinian agency or culpability has been a long standing theme in NGO publications on the Arab-Israeli conflict.  Examples include failing to hold Palestinian society responsible for electing a genocidal terror organization and the consequences that have resulted; ignoring Palestinian corruption, and minimizing the Palestinian choice to engage in violence to achieve political aims.  Amnesty is now claiming that the PA is unable to enter into contracts of its own free will. On Tuesday, October 27, 2009, Amnesty will be issuing a 112-page report (www.ngo-monitor.org/data/images/File/Amnesty_water_112.pdf), along with a glossy 12-page summary report (www.ngo-monitor.org/data/images/File/Amnesty_water_12.pdf) and a press conference, echoing this patronizing logic.  Absurdly, Amnesty claims that Israel is violating the human rights of Palestinian because the Oslo Accords “codified inequality ...

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October 14th, 2009 by NGO Monitor Staff | Category: Human Rights Watch On October 13, Garlasco enlisted his good buddy at Esquire, John Richardson, to write a self-serving puff piece about how Garlasco is one of the “bravest” and “effective” investigators at Human Rights Watch, and that NGO Monitor is out to “personally destroy” a “good man.” Garlasco is doing a pretty good job destroying himself all on his own. In contrast to Richardson’s version, NGO Monitor has systematically documented the methodological, technical, and factual inaccuracies in Garlasco’s reports for HRW (Gaza Beach, Razing Rafah, White Phosphorous, Drones). We have also examined the basis of Garlasco’s position as HRW’s “senior military analyst”. In his version of the seven years in the US military establishment (we found no independent ...

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October 11th, 2009 by NGO Monitor Staff | Category: Human Rights Watch “Israel is Responsible for Supplying Hamas students with Textbooks” –  Including Holocaust denial; promotion of attacks on civilians; denying the legitimacy of Israel’s existence? HRW and Sarah Leah Whitson (head of the Middle East division) have again issued a  ridiculous condemnation against Israel (October 9).  This time, the organization, whose Middle East division is run by radical ideologues, and whose “military expert” is an obsessive collector of Nazi medals (Garlasco, aka Flak 88), repeats the canard that Israel is in violation of international law and the Geneva Conventions for not supplying Gazan school children with pens, textbooks, and paper. Notwithstanding that international law does not require Israel to supply such materials, and that Egypt could easily supply school ...

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August 14th, 2009 by NGO Monitor Staff | Category: Human Rights, Human Rights Watch As Nixon taught us, the cover-up is often worse than the original crime. So for those of us following the HRW-Saudi cover up campaign, here is a contribution from Ken Roth, quoted on Human Rights Watch and Its Saudi Donors (July 22). Roth told the Forward that the quotes from the dinner regarding "pro-Israel pressure groups" should be viewed in a broader context. " Some 75% of HRW's money comes from the United States, the group has noted, which is viewed in the Middle East as a bastion of pro-Israel influence. HRW also has many Jewish donors. 'Since many people in the Middle East believe that HRW is too soft on Israel because of our donor base, we often cite ...

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August 12th, 2009 by NGO Monitor Staff | Category: Gaza, Human Rights Watch, International Humanitarian Law, NGOs

On August 6 2009, Human Rights Watch (HRW) belatedly released their report (“Rockets From Gaza”) on Hamas’ rocket barrages aimed at Israel’s civilian population. HRW accuses Hamas members of war crimes and acknowledges the “psychological toll of years of rocket attacks” on Israelis. This publication, which largely repeats the International Crisis Group’s report of April 2009, would have made an impact if HRW had published it six months ago. While the condemnation of Hamas is a step in the right direction for HRW, some claims made by HRW were illogical or incorrect, and other moral issues that required attention were ignored. For example:

• There was no effort to uncover details of weapons smuggling into Gaza, and no mention

...

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