According to Law professor Eugene Kontorovich, Whitson is an active supporter of groups that support Armenian settlements in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, while pursuing rabid campaigns against Jewish communities in the West Bank. This promotion of Armenian settlement products and groups directly contradicts HRW’s assertions regarding Israel.
On December 10, 2019, based on research by Professor Eugene Kontorovich and the Kohelet Policy Forum, the Jerusalem Post published an expose on donations to the European Council for Foreign Relations (ECFR) from companies operating in settlements. ECFR has been one of the leading BDS advocates in Europe under the guise of a so-called “differentiation” policy.
On December 12, 2019, the Belgian Catholic NGO Pax Christi Vlaanderen (Flanders) will award its “ambassador for peace” prize to Brigitte Herremans, a leading anti-Israel activist and former employee of the BDS-supporting organization Broederlijk Delen. The event is scheduled to be held at Kazerne Dossin “a transit camp from which Belgian Jews and Romani were sent to concentration camps during the Holocaust.” The selection of this venue draws a false equivalence between Nazi war crimes and Israeli policy, a violation of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.
Since the beginning of 2019, French organizations that promote an anti-Israel agenda have been lobbying French elected officials to oppose a “motion for a resolution to combat anti-Semitism.” Some of these groups receive French government funding.
In the ten days leading up to Shakir’s departure, HRW launched a social media campaign under the hashtag “#WhoIsNext.” The campaign attempted to make a slippery slope argument, that if Shakir is deported, many other activists would be at risk. In reality, Israel has a vibrant and diverse civil society made up of thousands of NGOs. As the Supreme Court found, Shakir, specifically, met the criteria in the Israeli law.
On November 12, Palestinian Islamic Jihad launched hundreds of rockets at Israeli population centers. According to media reports, one of these projectiles misfired, hitting a Gaza building that houses the office of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR). However, several international and Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) immediately blamed Israel for the attack, providing no evidence for their claims.
Omar Shakir has been a consistent supporter of a one-state framework and advocate for BDS (boycotts, divestment, sanctions) campaigns, fitting the longstanding HRW practice of hiring anti-Israel activists to serve in key positions relating to Israel.
The 42nd Session of the UN Human Rights Council continued the bias and hypocrisy that has come to define the UN in general and the UNHRC in particular. NGO Monitor was present, speaking before the Council and documenting the numerous false accusations made by self-proclaimed human rights NGOs.
On August 23, 2019, Samer Arbid commanded a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror cell that carried out a bombing against Israeli civilians, murdering 17-year old Rina Shnerb, and injuring her father and brother. Arbid previously worked for Addameer – a Palestinian NGO closely linked to the PFLP
According to Israeli security officials, on August 23, 2019, Samer Arbid commanded a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror cell that carried out a bombing against Israeli civilians, murdering 17-year old Rina Shnerb, and injuring her father and brother. According to the Israel Security Agency (Shabak), Arbid prepared and detonated the explosive device