Posted by David Bernstein:
Human Rights Watch and the Presumption of Good Faith:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_07_12-2009_07_18.shtml#1247749388
Human Rights Watch's fundraising in Saudi Arabia has cast a welcome
light on the organization's anti-Israel agenda. Much of the response
among HRW's defenders has been along the lines of, "how dare you
attack a human rights organization? Typical right-wing Zionist crap,
attacking the messenger."
This criticism, of course, presumes that HRW is acting in good faith
as a neutral human rights arbiter. The other possibility is that HRW's
Israel policy is driven by a leftist "anti-colonialist" agenda
masquerading as a human rights agenda, and using the halo effect of
HRW's human rights work in other regions to provide it with
credibility.
The evidence strongly suggests the latter.
Take a look at NGO Monitor's investigation of HRW's [1]Middle East
staff.
It includes researcher Nadia Barhoum. Barhoum is a Palestinian
activist who [2]publicly supported divestment from Israel because of
its "apartheid" policies.
A blog she wrote while living in the Palestinian territories hardly
shows an even-handed concern with human rights abuses emanating from
the Palestinian side. [3]Here's what she wrote after Hamas won
election in Gaza:
right now, the western powers are threatening to halt aid to the
palestinians on account of hamas and its stance on the use of
violence against the state of israel. ironic, because i never once
heard a western power threatening to discontinue its billions of
dollars in aid to israel on account of the violence used daily
against palestinians.
And that's just one example. Read the whole NGO Monitor report.
Of course Human Rights Watch could counter that it hires "activists"
on all sides, because they have a particular incentive to ferret out
abuses by their opponents. A dubious argument, but completely
undermined by the fact that HRW doesn't hire pro-Israel activists, and
it's laughable to think it ever would.
That doesn't mean that HRW is never right when it points out perceived
Israeli wrongdoing. It just means that HRW's reports on Israel should
be treated with the same skepticism one would treat them if they came
from any other anti-Israel NGO. The "human rights" halo is a false
one, and the presumption of good faith unwarranted.
References
Visible links
1.
http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/hrw_hires_another_pro_palestinian_activist
2. http://www.dailycal.org/article/17107/uc_must_divest_from_israel
3.
http://nadiabar.blogspot.com/2006/04/world-is-comedy-to-those-that-think.html
Hidden links:
4. file://localhost/var/www/powerblogs/volokh/posts/1247749388.html
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