By G. STEINBERG The Jerusalem Post OpEd November 25 2010
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=196659
The people and institutions that claim to uphold human rights and democracy
are in fact nullifying these core moral principles.At 87, Robert Bernstein,
founder of Human Rights Watch, began his second life. Thirty- three years
after he founded Helsinki Watch in 1976, which evolved into HRW and became
one of the most influential human rights organizations in the world, he
disowned his earlier creation. In October 2009, in an explosive column
published in The New York Times, Bernstein denounced HRW and its leaders for
distorting and exploiting human rights to attack democracies, and for
playing a central role in turning Israel into a “pariah state.”
Now, Bernstein has gone further in working to reverse the moral failures of
HRW and the wider network of highly politicized groups that use the façade
of human rights to attack moral principles. Delivering the Goldstein Lecture
on Human Rights at the University of Nebraska at Omaha [published in full on
page 13 of today’s Jerusalem Post], he contrasted Israel’s democratic values
with their notable absence in the Arab regimes and Iran. But most of HRW’s
human rights accusations are directed at Israel. Bernstein demonstrated that
these “human rights organizations, including the one I founded,” as well
Amnesty International, the Carter Center and other groups, are leading the
political war against Israel by working closely with corrupt UN frameworks.
His involvement in free speech grew out of his background as a book
publisher. In the 1970s, he went to the Soviet Union to negotiate copyright
issues, and met the dissident scientist Andrei Sakharov and his wife, Yelena
Bonner. Bernstein encouraged Sakharov to write an autobiography, and
provided support as he came under increasing harassment, including exile to
Gorky. (Natan Sharansky was jailed and sent to the gulag for his work with
Sakharov.) The Soviet regime revoked Bernstein’s visa in a failed attempt to
end this support.
This was the beginning of Helsinki Watch, which grew into HRW.
After the Cold War, Bernstein turned his attention to human rights issues in
China, leaving HRW in the hands of cynical leaders who played a leading role
in exploiting human rights principles to attack Israel. As the assault grew,
amid the carnage of Palestinian terror bombings that killed more than 1,200
Israelis, Bernstein returned to an active role, joining HRW’s Middle East
North Africa Advisory Board and observing its cynical manipulation of moral
rhetoric.
He quickly noted the close cooperation between HRW and the UN Human Rights
Council, which was “so critical of Israel that any fair-minded person would
disqualify them from participating in attempts to settle issues involving
Israel.” The UNHRC sought out “prominent Jews known for their anti-Israel
views,” such as Richard Falk. (Falk had written an article comparing Israel’s
treatment of Palestinians to Hitler’s treatment of Jews in the Holocaust.)
When Israel objected, HRW “leaped to his defense, putting out a press
release comparing Israel with North Korea and Burma in not cooperating with
the UN.”
The text defending Falk was written by Joe Stork, deputy director of HRW’s
Middle East Division. As Bernstein reminds us, Stork had been an editor of a
notorious pro-Palestinian newsletter before being hired by HRW.
Most of HRW’s accusations against Israel were not based on the 1948
Universal Declaration of Human Rights but on subjective interpretations of
the laws of war, the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law.
But HRW has “little expertise about modern asymmetrical war.” Noting that
Israel was responding to terror attacks from Iran’s non-state proxies –
Hizbullah and Hamas – Bernstein relates the ways in which HRW’s reporting on
this conflict consistently “faulted Israel as the principal offender.”
At first, Bernstein, like most journalists, diplomats and academics, was
“inclined to believe what Human Rights Watch was reporting.
However, as I saw Human Rights Watch’s attacks on almost every issue become
more and more hostile, I wondered if their new focus on war was accurate.”
THE BLOW that led a reluctant Bernstein to break publicly with his
organization was HRW’s central role in promoting Richard Goldstone – one of
executive director Kenneth Roth’s closest allies and an HRW board member –
to lead the UN’s assault following the Gaza war.
“Human Rights Watch has been by far the biggest supporter” of this campaign
to “bring war crimes allegations against Israel – based on [Goldstone’s]
report.”
As Bernstein observed, HRW has ignored “many responsible analyses
challenging the war crimes accusations made by Goldstone,” as well as
detailed refutations of HRW’s own reports, which were filled with
unverifiable and false claims.
Referring to the unresolved Marc Garlasco affair, Bernstein noted that “a
military expert working for Human Rights Watch who seemed to wish to contest
these reports was dismissed and... is under a gag order. This is
antithetical to the transparency that Human Rights Watch asks of others.”
And he recalled that when HRW’s Sarah Leah Whitson went to Saudi Arabia in
2009 to raise funds by selling its support for Goldstone’s attacks on
Israel, it is doubtful that she discussed textbooks published by the Saudis
calling Jews “apes and pigs.”
Bernstein’s painful accounting regarding the organization he founded has of
course been summarily rejected by this corrupt humanrights priesthood and
its acolytes. As a result, the people and institutions that claim to uphold
human rights and democracy are in fact accelerating the tragic destruction
of these core moral principles.
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The writer heads NGO Monitor (www.ngomonitor.org) and is professor of
political science at Bar-Ilan University.
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