Why SHOULD Israel let HRW into Gaza?
Human Rights Watch press release, Israel: End Ban on Human Rights Monitors, February 22, 2009
Israel continues to obstruct independent investigations into allegations of laws of war violations by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Hamas military forces in Gaza by preventing independent human rights monitors from entering Gaza, Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem said today. After submitting applications for permission to enter via the Erez crossing in January 2009, the groups faced continued delays from the IDF unit reviewing the applications. In February, the IDF told Human Rights Watch that it had rejected its application. The Israeli military denied B’Tselem’s first request to enter Gaza and has failed to respond to a second.
“Israel’s refusal to allow human rights groups access to Gaza raises a strong suspicion that there are things it doesn’t want us to see or the world to know about its military operation there,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “If Israel has nothing to hide, why is it refusing to allow us in?”
Given the false reports issued by HRW during the Second Lebanon War, the misrepresentations of international humanitarian law that frequently appear in HRW publications, their lack of credibility so far on the Gaza war, and the general bias of HRW’s Middle East division…why should Israel let HRW into Gaza? What contribution to genuine human rights can HRW credibly make? Besides, there’s always the border with Egypt…
