Human Rights Falsehood: Opeds and Letters
This mailing features three recent publications by NGO Monitor’s Editor, Professor Gerald Steinberg — 1) "Human Rights Falsehood" (oped in the Washington Times); 2) "Changing Accountability" (Boston Jewish Advocate), and 3) "NGOs and Arab Terrorism" (European Jewish Times). We welcome any feedback, and encourage you to forward these articles to others who might be interested.
Professor Steinberg appeared as The Washington Times’ “Today’s Columnist” on October 23, 2006:
"…But a deeper examination of the issues shows fundamental flaws that undermine both the moral argument and the claim of HRW, Amnesty and other NGOs to a central role in negotiating arms-limitation agreements. Morally and logically, every nation under attack has the right to self-defense, and the rules of law, including various weapons bans that have been adopted, cannot result in greater slaughter of civilians…”Click here to view article
On September 7 and 14, 2006, Charles Jacobs published two articles, “ Amnesty’s Disproportion” and “ Amnesty’s Dirty Little Secret” in The Jewish Advocate exposing bias in Amnesty International’s and Human Rights Watch’s reporting. Amnesty International Northeast Regional Director, Joshua Rubenstein, responded. Here is Professor Steinberg’s reply, published in The Jewish Advocate on October 6, 2006:
"As Natan Sharansky declared, organizations claiming to promote human rights, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have lost their way. After leading campaigns to free political prisoners during the Cold War, they now exploit human rights for gratuitous attacks on Israel. But for many years, the “halo effect” protected Amnesty and HRW officials from independent examination or accountability.
…In response to Charles Jacobs’ exposure of the dirty details (Sept. 7 and 14 columns), Amnesty spokesman Joshua Rubenstein provided snide put-downs and isolated anecdotes (Letters, Sept. 22). Amnesty will have to do more to restore its reputation and credibility to universal human rights." Click here to read article
III. “NGOs and Arab Terrorism”
The following article appeared in the September 2006 edition of Shalom – The European Jewish Times, (also translated into French and German):
"[R]adical NGO activity and demonization could not take place without a great deal of money, and generous funding is provided by governments (particularly Europe and Canada). Many pro-Palestinian NGOs are able to promote their agendas under the frameworks of development support, human rights (via EIDHR and the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN)), and peace advocacy.
Funding for MIFTAH (headed by PLO spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi), Hamoked, the Arab Association for Human Rights (HRA), B’tselem, PHR-I, and dozens more gives these groups access to the media, diplomats (including direct involvement in UN discussions) and other public relations channels. Hundreds of pro-Palestinian NGOs, linked together in associations such as PNGO (the Palestinian NGO Network), and closely tied to the PLO political leadership, have formed partnerships with the global NGOs." Click here to view article