[Opinion] Let's Make Sure Humanitarian NGOs Stand For Human Rights
[Excerpts]
This week marks 75 years since the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in the wake of the Holocaust. Today, NGOs have become important vehicles for advocating for human rights and helping improve the lives of many around the world through humanitarian work. But when it comes to Israel and the Palestinians, the majority of human rights-oriented NGOs, many backed by Western government funding, fail at that task.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is one such example. HRW’s publications, statements and posts focusing on Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, far exceed those in any other region of the world. For years, HRW reports have often contained false and unverified information about Israel, including blaming it for war crimes, ethnic cleansing and apartheid. Now, the organization has been nearly silent on the travesties perpetrated by Hamas on Oct. 7, instead castigating Israel for “war crimes” in its efforts to uproot the terror organization. And in the process it doesn’t even get the facts right; for example, HRW said that “there was no evidence put forward [by Israel that] would justify depriving hospitals and ambulances of their protected status under international humanitarian law” despite clear evidence that Hamas indeed was using hospitals as terror bases.
It’s impossible to take seriously a group called “Human Rights Watch” when it ignores the human rights of Palestinians, forced to seek medical care and attend school in places used to store Hamas weapons, as well as those of Israelis, murdered in their own homes and communities.
