It’s almost funny. Human Rights Watch is in a huff because Israel is questioning their reports and calling HRW biased against Israel. Which it is.
Human Rights Watch on Friday accused the Israeli government of waging a propaganda war after authorities questioned the credibility of its latest report on civilian deaths in the Gaza war.
“Instead of responding to the findings of the report, Israeli officials are trying to discredit the report and Human Rights Watch by making false allegations,” said HRW, which documented what it says are the cases of 11 Palestinian civilians shot dead even though they were waving white flags.
“Instead of seriously addressing the findings of human rights groups in Gaza, the Israeli government is waging a propaganda war against them,” said HRW program director Lain Levine.
“If the Israeli government wants to silence critics, it should fully investigate allegations of wrongdoing and take action to end the abuses,” he said.
You know what? Israel did exactly that, investigating the Gaza war, and refuting most of HRW’s accusations against Israel. Yaacov Lozowick, author of “Right to Exist, A Moral Defense of Israel’s Wars” (a book which I have read and heartily recommend) wrote a 20-page summary of the report. Strangely enough, HRW did not acknowledge Israel’s report as anything other than propaganda.
In the meantime, HRW’s Middle East Director is raising money from the human rights abusers in Saudi Arabia by using an anti-Israel pitch. Its ethics have been seriously compromised, its proof of anti-Israel bias established, and all HRW can do now is complain that Israel is saying mean things about HRW.
But hey, give the media another few days, and you’ll hear even more anti-Israel news. The UN Human Rights Council is about to receive the Richard Goldstone report on his investigation into Gaza war crimes. Even Reuters acknowledges the anti-Israel bias of that organization:
Islamic and African countries, backed by Russia, China, Cuba and Nicaragua, currently have a majority on the 47-member council, which has spent more time on Israel/Palestine than on any other issue since being set up three years ago.
Got that? More time on Israel than on any human rights abusers in the world, and yet, there are so many from which to choose: North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, Egypt, Syria, Sudan—why, there’s a whole host of rights abusers they could be discussion. Just look at this map of free vs. unfree nations by Freedom House. Notice the tiny little free country in the midst of all the giant, unfree ones. Yep. Israel. The one that the UNHRC concentrates on above all others.
One could argue that there’s a difference between a nation that is free, and one that abuses human rights. But one would be wrong. Free nations are not human rights abusers. However, three of the members of the UNHRC are on Freedom House’s Worst of the Worst list: China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia. These are only three of the nations that consistently accuse Israel of the world’s worst human rights violations, and yet—Israel is still green on Freedom House’s map.
The hypocrisy of the HRW, as well as the UN, is enough to choke a herd of horses. Which would then be blamed on Israel and listed under animal rights violations.