Israel Matzav

Human Rights Watch sells out to Soros

Gerald Steinberg says that Human Rights Watch's acceptance of a $100 million donation from George Soros completes the organization's sell-out to anti-Israel forces.

Over the years, HRW lost its moral compass and substituted ideology and an Israel-obsessed agenda. Bernstein was trying to awaken the group's leaders to the decayed state of what was once a human-rights superpower.

Instead, Roth has opted to accept Soros' $100 million grant -- which should offset nicely the income lost from core donors who've walked away in the wake of a host of scandals. It won't, however, address the root problems.

In May 2009, HRW launched a fund-raising drive in Saudi Arabia, using its anti-Israel record to solicit funds from "prominent members of Saudi society." That September, HRW "senior military analyst" Marc Garlasco was "outed" as an avid collector of Nazi memorabilia -- a troubling hobby for the main author of a number of HRW reports that accused Israel of "war crimes" and other violations.

Add to this the recent work by NGO Monitor, the watchdog group that I lead, and others on the severe ideological biases at HRW's Middle East and North Africa (MENA) division. The systematic research in NGO Monitor's report and articles in The New Republic and the Sunday Times detail the severe ideological biases of MENA director Sarah Leah Whitson and deputy director Joe Stork.

Both Whitson and Stork came to HRW with backgrounds in pro-Palestinian political activities, and continue to promote their anti-Israel political agendas through their "human rights" work.

Whitson was and remains an advocate of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. In July 2009, she referred to Israel's "system of apartheid." Stork's publications in the Middle East Research and Information Project from the 1980s and 1990s focus on attacking Zionism, Israel and American "imperialism" in the Middle East, while promoting the Palestinian narrative.

This is further evidence of Bernstein's conclusion that HRW is "helping those who wish to turn Israel into a pariah state."

Bernstein was the founder of Human Rights Watch and Steinberg is referring to a New York Times op-ed that Bernstein wrote last year criticizing the organization.

The picture at the top is former Human Rights Watch 'senior military analyst' Marc Garlasco, who was quietly dismissed by the organization last year after a group of bloggers led by Omri Ceren outed his passion for collecting Nazi Memorabilia.

Read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:32 AM