To the Editor:

Regarding “Amnesty blasts ‘trigger happy’ Israel” (Mar. 7 2014): There has been a great deal of criticism regarding Amnesty International’s serious lack of credible research and fact-finding methodology, as  found in its latest report on Israel. Unfortunately, this was not reflected in Daniella Cheslow’s coverage of the report.

NGO Monitor’s analysis of the report shows that Amnesty falsely accuses Israel of “callous disregard for human life,” using numerous non-specific claims without any evidence, definitions, or comparative data to support their politicized allegations. This analysis has been featured in numerous media articles.

While Cheslow includes comments from the Israeli NGO, B’Tselem, this organization has also faced serious criticism for its misrepresentations of international law, inaccurate research, and skewed statistics.

Independent research institutions such as NGO Monitor, an organization that promotes accountability and transparency among human rights NGOs (non-governmental organizations), can provide important critical analysis of reports and other outputs of B’Tselem, Amnesty International, and the rest of the international NGO community, and should be consulted in the interest of balanced reporting.

Sincerely,

Emily Ziedman
Communications Associate, NGO Monitor
Emily.Ziedman@ngo-monitor.org | +972-2-566-1020