Although Israel has won decisive victories on the battlefield, she has faced numerous losses in the court of world public opinion. Leading the charges against Israel are non-governmental organizations (NGOs), who claim to impartially monitor human rights and humanitarian needs around the globe. Due to a “halo effect” which grants legitimacy to anyone claiming to speak from a perspective of human rights, these NGOs have come to define how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is understood by the media and politicians. But as this past summer’s events in Gaza demonstrate, NGOs frequently fail to live up to their mission statements by engaging in particularistic and political agendas.

On June 25, eight Palestinian terrorists attacked the Kerem Shalom crossing, killing two Israeli soldiers and taking one, Gilad Shalit, hostage. The Israeli government launched Operation Summer Rains, sending IDF troops into southern Gaza and bombing infra-structure targets to prevent Shalit’s kidnappers from transporting him over the Egyptian border. This Israeli action was met with widespread condemnation by NGOs. Although they condemn the kidnapping of Shalit as a war crime, multi-million dollar organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have used recent events in Gaza as further opportunity to attack Israel, ignore the history and context of terror, and erase any Palestinian responsibility for their situation.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a press release on June 29 which called the kidnapping of Corporal Shalit a “war crime,” but primarily criticized Israel’s strike on a power station in Gaza. HRW’s comments focus on Israel’s alleged human rights infractions with minimal attention to Palestinian responsibility for initiating the crisis, following a pattern of disproportionate focus on Israel (Over 1/3 of all HRW Middle East publications in 2004 were on Israel, which is especially striking when compared to their relative lack of reports on notorious human rights abusers such as Sudan, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Syria.) In a June 27 press release, Amnesty International (AI) condemned the abduction of Corporal Shalit, stating that “hostage taking…is expressly prohibited under international law” and calling on the “Hamas-led Palestinian Authority (PA) and the PA President Mahmoud Abbas” to secure Shalit’s release. However in the same statement, AI also took the opportunity to condemn Israel for "using excessive force" and "endangering disproportionately the lives of Palestinian civilians," and described Israeli "artillery shelling and air strikes in residential areas of the Gaza Strip" without mentioning the context of continued rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza, or the deliberate terrorist tactic of using civilians areas for protection.

These NGO statements are reminiscent of their reactions to the June 9 explosion on a Gaza beach that killed 8 Palestinian family members. Many NGOs immediately assumed that Israel was responsible for the explosion, regardless of any evidence or investigative findings, and issued press releases accusing Israel of callously endangering and killing Palestinian civilians. In the general din of condemnation, the various NGOs ignored the IDF’s conclusion that Israel was not responsible for the explosion, or, in the case of HRW, dismissed it as being “partisan” and not credible. Other NGOs showed their politicized agendas when they rushed to accuse Israel of deliberately targeting civilians based on discredited media footage emanating from the PA. As with the “Jenin massacre” myth, the ability of NGOs to make flagrant and widely accepted charges against Israel based on sloppy or non-existent evidence illustrates their political power to create history, despite their lack of internal accountability. To win the P.R. war, supporters of Israel must look critically at NGO activities and hold them accountable for their politicized attacks and non-humanitarian agendas.

Sarah Willig is a political science major entering her senior year at Stern College, Yeshiva University. She is currently working as an intern for NGO Monitor, https://ngo-monitor.org/index_new.php, and can be reached for comments at swillig123@yahoo.com">swillig123@yahoo.com.