‘The abduction of soldiers, refusing to allow visits of the International Red Cross, ……withholding knowledge of their health are among the worst crimes perpetrated by the terror organizations. One would expect the human rights organizations, who condemn Israel for every crime, real or imaginary, to raise a voice against this crime and against the continuing cruelty to the familiesof the hostages. ….. Those who raise a voice against every human rights violation have yet to let out more than a faint murmur of a quarter of a protest..

On 29 June 2006, ‘Human Rights Watch’ released a statement that defined the abduction of (Gilad) Schalit a war crime, but mainly condemned the Israeli attack on a power station in Gaza that followed. Amnesty,…….. called for the release of Schalit, on 27 June, but of course added the instinctive condemnation of Israel. These two organizations at least called for the release of the hostage…..The Israeli organizations…..released one statement on that day, in which they did not condemn the abduction as a war crime and failed to demand Schalit’s release…Only Physicians for Human Rights -Israel turned to their Lebanese counterparts to assist in the release of the soldiers kidnapped in Lebanon. There is a growing feeling that human rights, a topic which justifiably jumps to the front of the line on matters of international importance, are a pretext for a certain political viewpoint.’

Click here to read article in Hebrew

See ‘Physicians for Human Rights – Israel asks Lebanese counterparts to work for the release of the kidnapped Israeli soldiers’– NGO Monitor Digest (Vol. 5 No. 7) , March 20, 2007

‘NGOs in the Lebanon War- Update: Covering July 12 through September 10’ – NGO Monitor, September 10, 2006