December 11th, 2010 by NGO Monitor Staff | Category:
Amnesty International
Tags: none
On December 7, 2010, Amnesty International issued a statement (“
Israeli rabbis ban home sales and rentals to non-Jews”) condemning “a religious ruling signed by dozens of Israel’s municipal chief rabbis that bans the renting or sale of homes to non-Jews.” Although the press release acknowledged that “the ruling is not official government policy,” Amnesty official Philip Luther criticized the Israeli government for not repudiating the ban.
The central claim is false and reflects ongoing bias. Amnesty’s statement entirely ignores harsh condemnations of this ruling by Israeli government officials from across the spectrum –
President Shimon Peres,
Prime Minister Netanyahu, ministers, the
speaker of the Knesset,
members of Knesset – the ...
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October 19th, 2010 by NGO Monitor Staff | Category:
Gaza,
Human Rights Watch
Charles Enderlin, the France 2 journalist who initially publicized and gave false credibility to the Muhammad al-Dura* incident, has released a new book entitled
A Child is Dead (original French title:
Un enfant est mort), an effort to further promulgate the al-Dura narrative. In the book, Enderlin rejects Israeli military investigations as “non-credible,” and claims that advocates resort to “conspiracy theories” in their defenses of Israel. In an attempt to bolster his allegations, Enderlin references the 2006 “Gaza Beach Incident” and the commentary of former
Human Rights Watch (HRW) “senior military analyst”
Marc Garlasco.
But close analysis demonstrates that Enderlin chose the worst possible example, the worst possible individual, and the worst possible organization to illustrate his ...
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August 29th, 2010 by NGO Monitor Staff | Category:
Human Rights Watch
Why has Hamas failed to conduct investigations into massive violations of human rights during the 2009 Gaza war? Human Rights Watch Senior Researcher Fred Abrahams blames the “
campaign waged by countries like the United States and Israel to deny the group legitimacy.” As Abrahams told the Forward, “In its stance towards Hamas, the U.N. is pursuing the policies of Western states. But it puts them in a less forceful position to demand accountability from them.”
In other words, in HRW’s make-believe world, Hamas, which has no qualms about blatantly violating the rights of residents in Gaza, or murdering citizens of the “enemy” Israel, would immediately punish the perpetrators of rocket and suicide attacks against Israelis, if only the US, ...
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August 22nd, 2010 by NGO Monitor Staff | Category:
Human Rights Watch
Reposted from
Elder of Ziyon:
The
New York Times mentions the new Lebanese law allowing Palestinian Arabs some new rights to employment - but notes that this supposed improvement is, in many way, only on paper:
The law lifts restrictions on Palestinians’ employment in the formal labor market, though they would still be officially treated as foreigners. They would be barred from working as engineers, lawyers and doctors, occupations that are regulated by professional syndicates limited to Lebanese citizens.
The NYT, of course, mostly avoids the main issue of full rights - which would include citizenship for those born in Lebanon. It also refers to them as "refugees," even though they are nothing of the sort. ...
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August 4th, 2010 by NGO Monitor Staff | Category:
B'tselem
Tags: none
In email correspondence (July 27, 2010), B’Tselem informed NGO Monitor that Mitchell Plitnick is no longer employed by the organization. (B’Tselem’s email did not indicate when he left;
Plitnick’s blog indicates that this probably took place prior to June 15, 2010.) Plitnick was the first director of B’Tselem’s Washington, DC office, which opened in September 2008, and became Director of US Communications when Uri Zaki joined B’Tselem’s U.S. staff in December 2009.
As documented by NGO Monitor, Plitnick was previously employed as the director of education and policy at Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). JVP is active in anti-Israel activities, including
divestment, promoting the
BDS (boycotts, divestment, and sanctions) movement, and c
ampaigning to ...
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August 2nd, 2010 by NGO Monitor Staff | Category:
NGO Monitor
Tags: none
To the editor:
As an academic, Prof. David Newman's attack on NGO Monitor was both wrong and irrelevant to the debate on politics in the university ("
Left and right at the lectern,"
Haaretz, July 30, 2010). NGO Monitor is a research organization focusing on NGOs (not universities), and if Newman does not like the research and analysis, he should present his data and make the case.
Just as he disagrees with the sweeping characterization of the Ben Gurion University faculty as "traitors, criminals, and leftists," Newman's attempts to discredit individuals and groups who do not share his ideology are unethical. Political witch hunts from all parts of the spectrum have no place in the academic search for knowledge.
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July 28th, 2010 by Anne Herzberg | Category:
Human Rights Watch
Tags: none
Despite HRW’s disproportionate and obsessive focus on Israel, as documented in NGO Monitor’s
systematic research, Hamas officials still feel they are being treated unfairly by the organization. To reassure Hamas that this was not the case, the head of HRW’s
Middle East and North Africa Division, Sarah Leah Whitson, paid a visit to Gaza.
A May 19, 2010
news item on the website of Hamas’ Central Commission for Documentation and Pursuit of Israeli War Criminals summarized a visit between Hamas “Injustice” Minister Faraj Alghoul, and Whitson and HRW Researcher Bill Van Esveld. According to the account, Alghoul expressed “his hope” that HRW “will commit to neutrality and objectivity,” while remarking that HRW’s reports equate “between ...
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July 26th, 2010 by NGO Monitor Staff | Category:
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch’s press release “
Israel: Withdraw Legislation Punishing Human Rights Activists” (July 25, 2010) presents a long list of complaints against the Israeli government, closely echoing the New Israel Fund (NIF) and NIF-funded political NGOs. HRW’s allegations of “silencing” critics, “threats” to Israel’s “vibrant” civil society, and the “harm” to Israel’s democracy are taken directly from statements by NIF,
ACRI, B’Tselem’s Mitchell Plitnick, and other NIF-related activists. Appended to the ideological laundry list are Israeli NGOs’ grievances over Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem.
A major HRW complaint is directed at legislation to prevent support for anti-Israel boycotts. In the press release, HRW Mid-East and North Africa Director Sarah Leah Whitson asserts that “peacefully advocating for or against ...
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July 15th, 2010 by NGO Monitor Staff | Category:
B'tselem
Editor,
In the article “
IDF Recognizes Help From Israeli Human Rights Group,” (Nathan Jeffay,
The Forward, July 14, 2010) my detailed assessment of B’Tselem was greatly simplified and highly distorted. As I told Nathan Jeffay in our lengthy discussion of this issue, the IDF Advocate General relied on B’Tselem for the limited task of identifying and interviewing Palestinians involved in the relevant incidents.
This does not constitute an endorsement of B’tselem’s main activities, the publications, promotion of the Goldstone report (including the lobbying office in Washington) or its dominant political agenda, and the bias that results. In this interview, I also noted the need to examine the testimony at the forthcoming trials in these cases, in comparison with the reports ...
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June 18th, 2010 by NGO Monitor Staff | Category:
Gaza
Tags: none
June 18, 2010
Reporters Without Borders
Secrétariat International
Middle East Bureau
47 rue Vivienne
75002 Paris – France
Re: “Reporters Without Limits” (Hezbollah’s version of RSF)
According to
media reports, a Lebanese NGO named “Reporters Without Limits” is
organizing another flotilla to Gaza, seeking a clash with Israel. It appears that this group and its name was chosen to appear legitimate, and to conceal Hezbollah’s role.
We are writing to ask whether you are aware of this situation, and whether you are concerned about the use of the name “Reporters Without Limits” by a Hezbollah front organization? We note that a number of
bloggers initially accused Reporters Without Borders of collusion with Hezbollah. (See
here, for an example of translating “Reporters Without Borders” as ...
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