On March 10, HRW issued a statement condemning Israel for blocking Sharwan Jabarin, Director of Palestinian NGO Al Haq, from travelling to the Netherlands to receive a “human rights” prize and claimed Israel allegedly violated Jabarin’s rights to a fair hearing and freedom of movement on account of his being a “human rights defender”. HRW neglected to mention, however, one small fact in its statement – Jabarin was denied a visa by the Israeli Supreme Court because it found that “material pointing to [Jabarin’s] involvement in the activity of terrorist entities is concrete and reliable material.” This isn’t the first time, the Israeli Supreme Court has taken up Jabarin’s case. In July 2008, the Court noted that Jabarin “is among the senior activists of the terrorist organisation, The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine” and in June 2007, stated

[Jabarin] is apparently active as a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, in part of his hours of activity he is the director of a human rights organisation, and in another part he is an activist in a terrorist organisation which does not shy away from acts of murder and attempted murder, which have nothing to do with rights, and, on the contrary, deny the most basic right of all, the most fundamental of fundamental rights, without which there are no other rights – the right to life.

HRW has a habit of concealing the facts when it comes to Jabarin. In May 2007, HRW omitted from another condemnation of Israel, that in 1985, Jabarin was convicted to 24 months imprisonment for “recruiting new members for the PFLP and for arranging guerilla training outside of Israel.” Guess HRW is only interested in those facts that serve its agenda.