Gerald M. Steinberg
Former Israeli leader Ariel
Sharon died on January 11, and within hours, U.S.-based Human Rights
Watch (HRW) launched yet another obsessive attack on Sharon,
highlighting this organization’s double standards and irresponsible
disregard of both facts and international law.
The
inflated accusations and abusive language in HRW’s statement following
Sharon’s death stand in glaring contrast to their immoral silence
regarding Arab and Middle Eastern terror leaders and tyrants. When
Yassir Arafat died in November 2004, HRW issued no statement referring
to impunity for crimes against humanity resulting from the Palestinian
leader’s central role in mass terror campaigns.
Additionally, HRW’s statements following the
death of Osama bin Laden are a textbook example of moral confusion and
obfuscation, referring vaguely to “the devastating human toll that
terrorism has brought to every continent of the world” and to the
September 11, 2001 and other attacks for which “bin Laden’s al Qaeda
organization is blamed.” Regarding the American anti-terror operation
that killed bin Laden, HRW decided that it did “not have enough
information about the killing to draw conclusions about whether it was
lawful or not…. The US government should provide all the relevant facts
about Osama bin Laden’s death to clarify whether it was justified under
international law.”
HRW’s abysmal record in the Middle East is particularly salient in the endorsement of Libyan’s tyrant Moammar Qaddafi and his sons as “human rights reformers”.
In May 2009, HRW Middle East and North Africa director Sarah Leah
Whitson authored an article in the influential US-based publication Foreign Policy,
titled “Tripoli Spring” and subtitled “How Libya’s behind-the-scenes
reformer is actually, well, reforming.” Whitson’s praise was
unequivocal: “the real impetus for the transformation rests squarely
with a quasi-governmental organization, the Qaddafi Foundation for
International Charities and Development.” On December 12, 2009, HRW held
what was presented as a news conference in Libya – the U.S State
Department referred to this event as helping to “solidify Saif
al-Islam’s reputation as a ‘reformer.’” Two op-eds written by HRW
officials were published in the Guardian and by the Institute for
Policy Studies. The first was titled “Is Libya opening up,” and the
second, written by Whitson, was headlined “Postcard from …Tripoli” and
embraced the Qaddafi human rights reform fraud.
In contrast, Whitson and HRW have a long
history of automatically and viscerally condemning Israel, based on
little or no credible information. For them, no actions to defend
Israeli citizens from ongoing terror campaigns are consistent with
international law or human rights principles – Israelis are treated as
sub-humans and devoid of rights.
This obsessive policy is consistently
reflected in HRW’s attacks on Mr. Sharon, which have continued following
his death, and in which Whitson is quoted extensively. The HRW
statement briefly and selectively quoted from the judicial commission
that investigated Sharon’s responsibility related to the Christian
Phalange killings of Palestinians in the 1982 Lebanon war, distorting
the actual process and reports beyond recognition. This again highlights
HRW’s consistent anti-Israel obsession and exploitation of universal
human rights principles to promote personal and ideological agendas.
HRW also plays a central role in the processes
by which national and international legal structures and principles are
being abused as part of political warfare. While Sharon was serving as
Prime Minister and had the grave responsibility for ending the
Palestinian terror campaign of brutal bus bombings and other war crimes,
HRW officials chose instead to support a cynical effort by Palestinian
groups to bring a frivolous lawfare case against Sharon in Belgium. This
case triggered a flood of efforts to exploit “universal jurisdiction”
statutes and frameworks, including the International Criminal Court,
that were created in order to bring genocidal leaders to justice, for
the pursuit of partisan political campaigns.
In 2009, the founder of Human Rights Watch, Robert Bernstein, highlighted the moral failures of his own organization,
particularly in ignoring the systematic abuses of Middle Eastern
regimes. Bernstein also referred to HRW reports on the Israeli-Arab
conflict “that are helping those who wish to turn Israel into a pariah
state.” Indeed, as the latest obsessive attack demonstrates, it is HRW
itself that is leading this campaign, based on double standards and
misinformation, to delegitimize Israel.
Read more: Ariel Sharon and HRW’s anti-Israel obsession | Gerald M. Steinberg | Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israel http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/ariel-sharon-and-hrws-anti-israel-obsession/#ixzz2qC4JA9Pv
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