NGO Suicide Bombing Condemnation Watch: Will any condemn the latest attack in Israel?
In recent weeks, many NGOs funded by the EU and the New Israel Fund have issued harsh condemnations of Israel’s alleged “blockade” and “collective punishment” in Gaza. HRW and Amnesty have been some of the most vocal critics of Israel’s anti-terror measures claiming that Israel’s “security concerns” regarding the Gaza border are a mere pretext to “arbitrarily block[…], delay[…] and harass[…]” Palestinians. Well, today, the very real nature of Israel’s security concerns manifested itself in dramatic and tragic fashion. Two Palestinian suicide bombers, who had apparently entered Israel via the breach in the Egypt-Gaza border, killed one and injured thirty eight civilians in the Israeli city of Dimona. As of 4:30pm, no NGOs had condemned the attack. We will update this list as condemnations of this violation of human rights come in, but we expect to be waiting a long time . . .
-Anne Herzberg
Update:
As of 7pm today, the only NGO to condemn the bombing has been B’tselem. B’tselem was one of the first and only NGOs to also condemn the January 15, 2008, killing of Carlos, an Ecuadoran kibbutz volunteer, by a Gazan sniper. Despite the political objectives of the organization which tend to result in distorted reports, particularly regarding Palestinian casualties which fail to distinguish between civilians and those involved in terrorism, NGO Monitor welcomes this effort to promote universal standards of human rights.
Amazingly, the EU-funded ICAHD posted an entry dated February 4 (though as of 4:30pm Israeli time, it was not on the website) regarding the JNF decision to recognize “destroyed Palestinian villages”. There was no mention of the bombing that occurred earlier in the day. Amnesty’s latest news item is entitled, “Egypt blocks Gazans’ access to the outside world” but mention of the bombing which emanated from Gaza is nowhere to be found. Human Rights Watch, as well, remains silent.
If you come across any condemnations, we’d love to know about them.
You make a veiled accusation that the NGOs whose job it is to monitor human rights abuses are somehow condoning the terrorist attacks by not condeming them.
Ironically, in your “related posts” section you mention one of those NGOs, B’tselem, as condemning an earlier murder by Hamas terrorists of Carlos Chavez.