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NGO Monitor’s response:

Letter to the editor in response to Dan Izenberg, "Physicians protests Gaza Strip closure", Jerusalem Post, September 26, 2005.

(letter not yet published)

Editor:

The article on the report by Physicians for Human Rights – Israel ("Physicians protests Gaza Strip closure", September 27) should have noted that this group promotes a radical political agenda that has undermined the credibility of its claims regarding humanitarian issues. (For the record, the name of this NGO is Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and it is not a branch of the US-based Physicians for Human Rights.) NGO Monitor has documented PHR-I’s emphasis on its political and advocacy activities, and reports such as the one on the impact of the Israeli disengagement from Gaza must be analyzed in this light. In February 2005, PHR-I and a partner organization issued a political statement claiming to examine the impact of the separation barrier ("the Wall") which erased the context of Palestinian terror. Earlier, PHR-I published highly offensive cartoons to promote this agenda that led to public censure from the Israel Medical Association, and a decision by the Israeli Physicians’ Union (Histradrut Harofim) to end cooperative activities.

The reports by members of this NGO, which is funded by the European Union and other external sources, cannot be taken at face value.

Dov Rabinowitz
Director of Communications
NGO Monitor