Saturday, November 14, 2009
And they know just who to go to to find a willing audience for their "mean Jews" conspiracy theories...The Guardian: Israel 'personally attacking human rights group' after Gaza war criticism
Human Rights Watch denies having political agenda or seeking funds from Saudi Arabia
America's leading human rights organisation has accused Israel and its supporters of an "organised campaign" of false allegations and misinformation, including "extremely personal attacks" on its staff, in an attempt to discredit the group over its reports of war crimes in Gaza.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) ties the campaign - which has included accusations that the group's reports on the Jewish state are written by "anti-Israel ideologues" and that it has sought funds from Saudi Arabia - to a statement by a senior official in the Israeli prime minister's office in June pledging to "dedicate time and manpower to combating" human rights organisations.
The criticism began with Israeli pressure groups and rightwing blogs, but in recent weeks it has drawn the support of influential individuals such as Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and Nobel peace prize winner, and HRW's own founder, Robert Bernstein, who said the organisation's reports were "helping those who wish to turn Israel into a pariah state". He called on HRW to focus more on abuses by Arab governments.
Iain Levine, HRW's programme director, said that while the organisation had long attracted criticism, in recent months there had been significant attempts to intimidate and discredit it.
"I really hesitate to use words like conspiracy, but there is a feeling that there is an organised campaign, and we're seeing from different places what would appear to be co-ordinated attacks ... from some of the language and arguments used it would seem as if there has been discussion," he said."We are having to spend a lot of time repudiating the lies, the falsehoods, the misinformation."...
Evidence of this conspiracy and who it involves (other than us right wing bloggers who do indeed swap emails on any number of subjects...why, a bunch of people and groups even collaborate on a very important web site...hint: that link goes to the About Us page) follows:
...NGO Monitor accused Whitson of attempting to raise money from Saudi officials by highlighting HRW's criticism of Israel, a charge also made in a comment piece for the Wall Street Journal online that was subsequently widely distributed by the most powerful of the pro-Israel lobby groups, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac). Shortly afterwards, the director of policy planning in the Israeli prime minister's office, Ron Dermer, denounced Human Rights Watch...
Some conspiracy! And Whitson, who was an anti-Israel activist even before going to HRW, DID go to Saudi Arabia and pander to their Israel-hate to raise funds. In fact, there are no lies or distortions noted. Where are they? Human Rights Watch is being hoisted by its own petard -- by its founder no less -- and they have no response of substance because there is none.
Update: Elder of Ziyon (part of the conspiracy...duh) has a great take on this: I'm part of the anti-NGO conspiracy! And Richard Landes goes in-depth: NGO's take criticism: "I really hesitate to use words like conspiracy..."
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