Posted by David Bernstein: Pollack on Human Rights Watch: http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_07_26-2009_08_01.shtml#1249097844
I just ust noticed [1]this piece in yesterday's Wall Street Journal by Noah Pollack, discussing HRW's bias against Israel. Pollack is actually too soft on HRW. He focuses on one aspect of the problem, that HRW gives wildly disproportionate attention to what it considers Israeli violations of human rights. But he neglects another aspects of the problem, that HRW's reports on Israel are frequently either inaccurate, or based on information from eyewitnesses that can't be verified. And even when HRW is proven wrong about Israel, it absolutely refuses to apologize or retract, [2]although it has done so when it's come under criticism from pro-Palestinian sources. Is it really possible that HRW has NEVER made an error in its many reports and releases on Israel? Well, no it's not, especially because [3]NGO Monitor, CAMERA, and others including [4]Professor Avi Bell have pointed out such errors. Unfortunately, given that HRW director Ken Roth dismisses such critiques as [5]"lies and deception" and HRW Middle East Director Sarah Leah Whitson says they amount to [6]"griping and whining," it's not terribly surprising that they ignore them. Over at Opinio Juris, HRW fan Kevin Jon Heller pointed to [7]this Jerusalem Post article, reporting that HRW's expert investigator of an incident in Gaza "conceded for the first time since the incident that [HRW] could not contradict the IDF's exonerating findings" and that the investigator "praised the IDF's professional investigation into the blast." Heller takes this as evidence that HRW is indeed willing to apologize/recant/retract when it's wrong about Israel. But oops, this information never made it on to HRW's website, nor was there any other official correction or clarification. Quite the contrary, ten days after the Jerusalem Post piece appeared, [8]HRW reasserted its original accusation, and alleged that Israel's investigation, praised by its own researcher, "betray[ed] a lack of interest in arriving at the truth of what happened." So HRW's leaders will contradict their own researchers' conclusions--at least when it makes Israel look bad. Though challenged, Heller has yet to come up with another example. References 1. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204619004574318344040299638.html 2. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_07_19-2009_07_25.shtml#1248569574 3. http://blog.camera.org/ 4. http://opiniojuris.org/2006/08/28/human-rights-watch-strikes-again/ 5. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_07_12-2009_07_18.shtml#1247680827 6. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=2&cid=1246443832672&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull 7. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1150355528023&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull 8. http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2007/06/30/israelgaza-strip-rockets-and-shelling-violate-laws-war _______________________________________________ Volokh mailing list [email protected] http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
