Lack of Evidence
HRW's "Rain of Fire": Neither Thorough Nor Impartial
As in HRWs other statements on Gaza, this report reflects a manipulation of "evidence" and lack of professionalism to support pre-determined political and ideological positions. The charges of "war crimes" are unjustified, based on dubious interpretations of international law, and reflect HRWs role in the wider Durban strategy of demonization. The lack of credibility results from reliance on unreliable and tampered evidence; false and inaccurate claims; and internal contradictions. The authors include a pro-Palestinian activist who has worked at the highly politicized PCHR.
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Amnesty's Gaza "Report" and call for Arms Embargo: Abolishing Israel's Right to Self Defense
In a February 23, 2009 publication, Amnesty International calls on the UN Security Council to impose an arms embargo on Israel. This continues Amnestys leading role in the Durban Strategy designed to isolate Israel and prevent self-defense. Amnesty exploits the faade of a "research report" to make baseless accusations, misrepresent international humanitarian law, and promote an immoral and indefensible equivalence between Hamas and Israel. Amnesty's attempt to equate the transfer weapons to Israel for legitimate defense, with clandestinely smuggled arms to a terrorist organization, is defamatory, immoral, and absurd.
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The NGO Front in the Gaza War: Debate over Palestinian Casualties
There is a growing debate over Palestinian casualty claims. While the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and the Palestinian Ministry of Health have announced that the majority of fatalities were civilians, the IDF has estimated that more than two-thirds of [the deaths] were Hamas members. PCHRs anti-Israel campaigning during war includes accusations of Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity, human holocaust, collective punishment, indiscriminate killing and continued systematic destruction of all the Palestinian institutions and civilian facilities in the Gaza Strip.
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The NGO front in the Gaza war: Human Rights Watch
In the first 16 days of fighting HRW released 11 statements on Gaza, primarily critical of Israel, including many using the rhetoric of international law for political objectives. Sarah Leah Whitson has carried HRWs campaign to the UN -- and similar to allegations made during the 2006 Lebanon war, HRWs claims about the IDFs use of white phosphorus lack credible evidence.
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The NGO front in the Gaza war: Oxfam
35 NGOs claiming to promote human rights and humanitarian agendas have issued more than 132 statements on the fighting so far. These reports are a central part of the soft power war being waged against Israel, in parallel to the hard power rocket and terror attacks. NGO Monitors series entitled, The NGO Front, will focus daily on different organizations, beginning with an analysis of Oxfams role.
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Durban NGO Alert: The Womens International League for Peace and Freedom
Womens International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) has lobbied for an NGO Forum at the Durban Review Conference, erasing the antisemitism and virulent anti-Israel rhetoric of the NGO Forum at the first Durban conference in 2001. In statements to the UN, WILPF falsely accuses Israel of "relentless destruction of Palestinian infrastructure" and maintaining "more than 650 checkpoints where Palestinians are brutalized and die." WILPF is a member of the Coalition of Women for Peace (CWP), a highly politicized Israeli NGO umbrella group funded by NIF and the EU.
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NGOs and Durban Demonization at UN Human Rights Review of Israel
As predicted by NGO Monitor, the majority of NGO submissions to the UN's UPR of Israel ignore human rights issues facing Israelis and areas where Israel is a leader in this field, while grossly distorting the humanitarian, human rights and international legal dimensions of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Nord-Sud XXI, Ittijah, Badil, and PGAAWC exploit human rights terminology and employ inflammatory rhetoric against Israel. Adalah, Amnesty, and others attribute "racist" motives to Israeli policies, instead of acknowledging that these are legitimate responses to Palestinian violence against Israeli civilians.
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