Dollars for Durban II - Back to the U.N

" In the coming year, the planners would like to hold a series of advance meetings, jetting around the world for consultations and regional conclavesAll this takes money. But the Durban II planners, including such oil-rich regimes as Iran and Libya, are not proposing to fund it themselves. Instead, they want U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to give them a free ride by allocating to this conference and its preparations some $7.2 million for starters from the U.N. regular budget.

Response to the Seth Freedmans "Selective Criticism" article in the Guardian

In his Guardian article on NGO Monitors conference, Seth Freedman demonstrated that we are doing our job promoting critical debate and accountability on human rights NGOs in the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is right that nobody gets a free ride the halo effect which has protected political superpowers like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch from serious examination has no justification.

Letter to Jerusalem Post in response to Oped by Jessica Montel, Executive Director of BTselem, "Palestinian civilians as political currency"

"...Jessica Montell is big on Israels responsibilities towards Gazas population and totally silent on the responsibilities of Gazas Hamas government, both to Palestinian civilians whose health requirements they are now required to meet and to Israelis in the Negev whom they have no business attacking."

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights condemns violent Hamas action against protestors

Sending our youth the wrong signals

ReliefWeb (UN OCHA): Israeli UN Ambassador describes Rights Council as morally bankrupt, ReliefWeb carries this story

The UN-based and funded ReliefWeb reported November 6, 2007 on the speech of Israeli UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman to the UNs Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural), in which Gillerman described the commission as a moral bankruptcy . The inclusion of this statement is to be noted as a welcome precedent, especially given ReliefWebs problematic track record.

Gisha: University repudiates Palestinian presented by rights group as student trapped in Gaza

A Palestinian included by a human rights group [Gisha] as one of hundreds of university students trapped in Gaza is apparently not a student and used what appeared to be a forged document to make his case to leave for Texas, The Associated Press learned on Thursday.

Letter to the Editor on Christian Aid

June Jacobs personal experiences aside (October 19, 2007 letter), the examination of Christian Aids political activities in the Middle East must be based on the facts. NGO Monitors detailed research shows a consistent, highly biased and politicized approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Instead of concentrating on genuine humanitarian aid, Christian Aid uses a great deal of its resources to demonize Israel, erase Palestinian responsibility and ignore terrorism.

"Author of US Air Force Study of 2nd Lebanon War dismisses criticism of Israel 'war crimes' as baseless"

In an October 14, 2007 article, the New York Times discusses a report by military analyst William M. Arkin on Israels bombing of Lebanon in the 2006 war. As the article notes, Arkin is a professional air-power analyst familiar with the work of human rights groups, who served as an advisor to Human Rights Watch during the 1999 Kosovo war, and as a military adviser to a United Nations mission to Israel and Lebanon in 2006. The article quotes Arkins sharp criticism of human rights groups claims that elements of the bombing campaign constituted a "disproportionate response" and "war crimes".

NGO Monitor tackles Halper as source in The Guardian

I noted with concern that in the October 10th article Israeli army orders confiscation of Palestinian land in West Bank, Coral Urquhart innocently refers to Jeff Halper as an Israeli geographer. He is in fact far better known as head of the highly politicized group, Israel Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) - This mandates that his opinion must be treated with far more caution than that of a simple geographer.