Posted by David Bernstein:
Heller and Human Rights Watch:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_07_12-2009_07_18.shtml#1247776784
Kevin John Heller, an American teaching human rights law in New
Zealand, has been on a campaign at his blog to discredit my posts
about Human Rights Watch. It's therefore worh reprinting an exchange
from the comments on one of his posts on the issue:
Commenter:
Putting aside Professor Bernstein's post, are your comfortable with
HRW going to Saudi Arabia and using its work vis-a-vis Israel or
Jewish entities in the US as the focus of its fund raising? .... I
think the point is using one's work against Israel as a donation
argument in an Arabic country is very troublesome.
For example, pretend that HRW attended a right-wing event to raise
funs with the argument that they were �sticking it to the Arabs�
with their focus on women's rights.
Heller:
I think that is a very fair question � and I appreciate the civil
tone in which you ask it. My answer depends on whether HRW is
even-handed in its fundraising. If it fundraises with progressive
Jews by highlighting its criticisms of Hamas, no. But if it is
one-sided, absolutely. I have an email into a friend at HRW to ask
precisely that question; I'll report the results when I get them.
That was exactly one month ago. Now, all of us but Kevin know that
Sarah Leah Whitson wouldn't be caught dead fundraising among Jews
sympathetic to Israel by highlighting its criticisms of Hamas (which,
by the way, are much more limited than its criticisms of Israel).
But you would think that now that a month has gone by, with no
examples of anti-Palestinian fundraising by HRW having arisen, you
would think Kevin would at least acknowledge that as sympathetic as he
is to HRW, its fundraising among Saudi elites while promoting its
battle with pro-Israel critics was dodgy. You'd be wrong.
You'd also think that Kevin would acknowledge that HRW director
Kenneth Roth explaining Whitson's statements in Saudi Arabia away by
writing: "We report on Israel. Its supporters fight back with lies and
deception," is at best arrogant (We're always right! They lie and
deceive) and impolitic, and at worst reflects a deep hostility to
supporters of Israel. Nope, the real villain is me, and my "clever
rhetorical move" in noting Roth's unqualified statement.
And Kevin doesn't even try to explain why HRW, if it were at all
concerned with even the appearance of not being anti-Israel, would
hire Palestinian political activists with longstanding anti-Israel
records to be its researchers, while, to put it mildly, not exactly
reaching out to former AIPAC staffers.
No need to open a new thread, you may comment on the previous one.
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