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HAITI EARTHQUAKE

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OPINION

Lay Off Israel, Human Rights Watch: Founder

Group founded to light closed societies has gone astray

By Harry Kimball| Posted Oct 20, 09 9:42 AM CDT|

(Newser) – Human Rights Watch has lost its way, writes founder and chairman emeritus Robert L. Bernstein. The once even-handed organization has launched a jeremiad against Israel—a liberal democracy with a “vibrant free press”—while effectively ignoring abuses in closed, autocratic societies in the region it was created to address. Democracies like Israel have a civil society with the “ability to correct” abuses, Bernstein writes. HRW’s scrutiny is desperately needed elsewhere.

“Judging by the amount of news coverage,” Bernstein writes in the New York Times, Israel has “probably more journalists per capita than any other country in the world.” But the locus of reported abuses—the Palestinian territories—is closed, and reports are necessarily suspect. To correct the lack of information, HRW must reengage in the hard-to-reach places that truly need its help, and not cast aside its "important distinction between open and closed societies.”

[Images (5)]

[Quotes (1)]

In this Jan. 18, 2009 file photo Palestinians gather belongings in the rubble of buildings after Israeli troops withdrew from the northern Gaza Strip, in Jebaliya refugee camp. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa, File)

Palestinian relatives of Hamdan Al Astal mourn next to his body during his funeral in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday, May 3, 2009. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Demonstrators hold Palestinian flags in front of an Israeli soldier during a weekly demonstration against the construction of Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Maasarah. (AP Photo)

Masked militants of the Al Quds Brigades, the Islamic Jihad military wing, participate in a training session near Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. (AP Photo)

In this file photo taken on Tuesday Jan. 15, 2008, an injured Israeli woman is seen after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants from inside the Gaza Strip hit the southern Israeli town of Sderot. (AP Photo)

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Open, democratic societies have faults and commit abuses. But we saw that they have the ability to correct them—through vigorous public debate, an adversarial press and many other mechanisms that encourage reform. - Robert L. Berstein, HRW founder

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

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55 comments

VIEWING:

myvoice
Oct 20, 09 9:52 AM CDT

So is he upset because Israel is being treated unfairly? WOW!!!! Reply

| 0 minutes ago

vendetta
Oct 20, 09 9:57 AM CDT

Israel has shown amazing self restraint with the PLO, IRAN, and pretty much every other Arab country around them. Reply

IN RESPONSE:

thephat
Oct 20, 09 9:59 AM CDT

So tit for tat is self restraint?

-2

IN RESPONSE:

rtl
Oct 20, 09 10:18 AM CDT

thephat - How much would YOU take before defending yourself?

IN RESPONSE:

myvoice
Oct 20, 09 10:18 AM CDT

are you saying that Iran is Arab? are you just guber ignorant and think all Muslims are Arabs?

IN RESPONSE:

Snowleopard
Oct 20, 09 10:23 AM CDT

In the last Gaza offensive, Isreal killed 1,500 palestinians, half of which were civilians. Only about 13 Isrealis died. ... In the war on lebanon, isreal was illegally using cluster bombs, which are banned under international law. Isreal now occupies over 95% of what used to be palestine, and is still expanding into palestinian land, forcing them out of their homes.

IN RESPONSE:

Reader64481089
Oct 20, 09 10:39 AM CDT

@ Snowleopard, in the last invasion the United States is suspected of using depleted uranium shells (again) as well as Phosphorous shells both outlawed under treaty in densely civilian populated areas... Israel on the other hand has one distinct difference... Israel was reacting to daily attacks on civilian attacks from mortars. rocket launches which were landing in homes after penetrating the roofs, and suicide bombers. Anoter difference is the ones Israel had attacking them all wore civilian clothing and in a case such as that neither a bomb nor a bullet has built in detectors which can decide which is a good guy or a bad guy, as the article says Isreail does have a free press which does report abuses and puts a stop to them when found, they are a self correcting society just as the USA is suppose to be when our press reports the use of outlawed weapons and such.

IN RESPONSE:

Snowleopard
Oct 20, 09 10:42 AM CDT

If isreal wants hamas to stop with the attacks, the first step is to stop expanding Israeli territory. The Palestinians are practically living in concentration camps. No wonder they're pissed off. Source for those previous death numbers: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8257301.stm

IN RESPONSE:

BleeBloo
Oct 20, 09 10:44 AM CDT

So your definition of "restraint" is to massacre thousands of homeless Palestinians in refugee camps in response to rocket attacks that have killed about 20 people total over the years?

IN RESPONSE:

surestop
Oct 20, 09 10:58 AM CDT

is that 13,000 tit for 13 tat

IN RESPONSE:

Enoughie
Oct 20, 09 11:18 AM CDT

@ Snowleopard: No, the explicit goal of Hamas is to destroy Israel. If Israel wants Hamas to stop the rockets it either has to stop existing or stop Hamas. The Palestinians' conditions - as terrible as they are under occupation - are still better than living conditions in Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and many other Arab or Muslim countries. Would you call Egypt or Turkey a concentration camp? Also, Israel is not "expanding" the occupation. It is building WITHIN the municipalities of settlements that take up 1.7% of the West Bank.

| 0 minutes ago

thephat
Oct 20, 09 10:02 AM CDT

I think it is a very important distinction between closed and open societies. I also think the governments of open societies need to be held to the same scrutiny as any other. Reply

IN RESPONSE:

rtl
Oct 20, 09 10:16 AM CDT

Sure they do - but they get more press BECAUSE they are open. Closed societies have more abuses and they're not reported on because of the consequences. Doesn't mean they don't exist - just that they're not held accountable and the attrocities get worse and worse. The problems we DON'T know about are sure to be MUCH worse than the problems that are out in the open.

| 0 minutes ago

Thinker
Oct 20, 09 10:14 AM CDT

Ever since I saw the video of Israel's "educated" youth calling Obama a Ni**er and spouting hatred for the U.S., I watch reports regarding Israel's violation of Palestinians' rights with new eyes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2KKN3g9wEs Reply

-3

IN RESPONSE:

rtl
Oct 20, 09 10:20 AM CDT

We have that happening in the U.S. Why wouldn't Israel have morons too?!

IN RESPONSE:

Pragmaticrealism
Oct 20, 09 10:29 AM CDT

Honestly, Israelis are some of the most bigoted people on the planet.

-3

IN RESPONSE:

RockyPneumonia
Oct 20, 09 10:35 AM CDT

OK, Thinker, if there are Americans who use racial epithets about President Obama, does that mean that all Americans are haters and that America is a rogue nation? Because that's absolutely the logical extension of your logic.

IN RESPONSE:

njgreen
Oct 20, 09 11:08 AM CDT

@Thinker - I saw that video too. Did you pay attention to the accents? The majority of people interviewed were not Israelis, they were clearly ignorant right-wing American tourists. Who were drunk, to boot. Especially the guy who used the N-word. Even a cursory viewing of the film should tell you this. The political story in Israel is complicated, and to be sure, sad, but this film sheds zero light on the issues. It was biased and dishonest and nothing but propaganda.

| 0 minutes ago

Fatquah
Oct 20, 09 10:30 AM CDT

If Israel REALLY ignored human rights they way their neighbors do their neighbors would be empty parking lots. Reply

IN RESPONSE:

BleeBloo
Oct 20, 09 10:47 AM CDT

Just because their neighbors ignore human rights doesn't mean that pushing Palestinians slowly but inexorably into the ocean (or just massacring them by the hundreds) is commenable.

-1

IN RESPONSE:

RockyPneumonia
Oct 20, 09 10:49 AM CDT

Exactly. If the Israelis were attempting genocide, there would, by this time, be no Palestinians.

IN RESPONSE:

RockyPneumonia
Oct 20, 09 10:50 AM CDT

It also doesn't mean the sun rises in the west or that "green" is "blue" or anything else that isn't really happening.

IN RESPONSE:

myvoice
Oct 20, 09 11:16 AM CDT

Rocky Under your logic.... i guess what Hitler did to the Jews was not genocide either?

-2

IN RESPONSE:

RockyPneumonia
Oct 20, 09 11:51 AM CDT

No, because Hitler really tried to kill all the Jews, but was stopped before he could complete the job. Nothing's stopping the Israelis except the fact that -- hysterical ranting from people who are certain it MUST be so notwithstanding -- they don't want to do it.

| 0 minutes ago

riffran
Oct 20, 09 10:30 AM CDT

but I have noticed that since the palistinians quit shooting rockets and sending suicide bombers...the ass whoopings dealt out by Isreal has also stopped....sound like a clear case of " Killing our people is hazardous to you're countries health"...... Reply

IN RESPONSE:

Snowleopard
Oct 20, 09 10:34 AM CDT

Hardly. Palestinians are still being evicted from their homes, and isreali settlements are still expanding. If your land was being stolen, wouldn't you fight back? http://www.ifamericansknew.org/download/synopsis.pdf

-3

IN RESPONSE:

RockyPneumonia
Oct 20, 09 10:39 AM CDT

Snowleopard, that would be a valid point if the terrorism didn't predate the conditions you that claim motivated it. ...And just so we all know where you stand, you are defending people who deliberately aim rockets at Israeli cities and deliberately blow up teenagers in pizza parlors, while pretending that you don't know that Hamas bases its headquarters and rocket launchers in the middle of densely-populated area, cynically making civilian deaths inevitable.

IN RESPONSE:

Snowleopard
Oct 20, 09 10:48 AM CDT

Hamas are extremists, that approach won't get them anywhere, and will only prepetual the violence. The approach of Martin Luther King and Gandhi is the one that works. But no, the terrorism there did not predate the theft of Palestinian land.

-2

IN RESPONSE:

myvoice
Oct 20, 09 10:55 AM CDT

Rocky.... when you are forced to give up your country.... that was the point of retaliation. So you are wrong about terrorism predating the conditions. BTW how to did the the new Israel citizens respond to the UK's occupation?

-3

IN RESPONSE:

RockyPneumonia
Oct 20, 09 11:23 AM CDT

No, myvoice, I'm not wrong; the terrorism predated the foundation of Israel, and no one was forced to give up their country. There have been Jews there far longer than there have been Arabs.

IN RESPONSE:

myvoice
Oct 20, 09 11:30 AM CDT

The mythic “land without people for a people without land” was already home to 700,000 Palestinians in 1919 and had been Arabic since the seventh century a.d

IN RESPONSE:

RockyPneumonia
Oct 20, 09 11:52 AM CDT

Yes, myvoice, and and there has been a continuous Jewish presence there since before Jesus. I'm glad you see my point.

IN RESPONSE:

myvoice
Oct 20, 09 2:05 PM CDT

so under that logic.... The Dutch should be given back Manhattan or should it be the natives?

IN RESPONSE:

RockyPneumonia
Oct 20, 09 3:28 PM CDT

myvoice, your knowledge of NYC history equals your knowledge of Mideast history. The Dutch traded Manhattan to the English in return for what is now Suriname, in November, 1674.

| 0 minutes ago

RockyPneumonia
Oct 20, 09 10:47 AM CDT

In 1948, all the Arabs (at the time, the term "Palestinian" referred to Jewish residents of the region; the people we now know as "Palestinian" are ethnically the same as Jordanians, Saudis, Lebanese, Syrians....) had to do in order to get their second homeland was...nothing. Since then, there has not been a moment when their chances of getting their second state would not have been greater if they had just stopped killing Israelis, and there has not been a moment when their chances were not worse than they had been the moment before. Reply

IN RESPONSE:

Snowleopard
Oct 20, 09 10:53 AM CDT

please look at the number of palestinian deaths compared to isreali deaths here: http://www.ifamericansknew.org/ ...at this point both sides are to blame, but isreal is being much more of an antagonist.

IN RESPONSE:

RockyPneumonia
Oct 20, 09 11:26 AM CDT

You're still pretending not to know that the terrorists deliberately manipulate the tactical situation so that the Israelis are forced to choose between striking at the people who deliberately target Israeli civilians (and incurring Palestinian civilian deaths) or allowing those attacks to continue. the latter option would be suicidal, and the Israelis are not going to commit suicide just because you think they should.

IN RESPONSE:

Stuart
Oct 20, 09 4:53 PM CDT

Snow Leopard - More criminals are killed by cops than cops by criminals. Using your ridiculous simplistic logic, the cops are wrong and the criminals right. Hamas used its own people as shields committing brazen war crimes by shooting rockets at Israeli cities. Your myth of stolen land does not permit the war crimes the Palestinians have been committing for over 80 years.

| 0 minutes ago

tegd
Oct 20, 09 1:28 PM CDT

The Zionist State of Israel learned a lot from Hitler and is applying those lessons to its treatment of the Palestinian people. The Gaza has become the new Warsaw Ghetto. At one time you heard people ask 'How could the Germen people let Hitler do what he did?' I ask, 'How can the world let the Zionist do what they're doing?' Reply

-1

IN RESPONSE:

Enoughie
Oct 20, 09 1:42 PM CDT

I see you learned a lot from Joseph Goebbels in terms of spreading hate and propaganda... Life conditions in Gaza are still better than in Turkey. Is Turkey a new Warsaw Ghetto?

-2

IN RESPONSE:

RockyPneumonia
Oct 20, 09 3:10 PM CDT

Absolutely true, except for the part between "The Zionist State" and "What they're doing". Israel is surrounded by people who have threatened -- many times -- and attempted -- many times -- to obliterate it and kill every Israeli. You obviously would have them passively accept their destruction, but for some reason they do not seem to think of that as an acceptable course of action.

IN RESPONSE:

RockyPneumonia
Oct 20, 09 3:13 PM CDT

Good point, Enoughie. When the Egyptians controlled Gaza for 19 years, they could have alleviated the suffering of the Palestinian people, but instead, they decided -- as did the Jordanians on the West Bank -- that it was more politically expedient to keep them in squalor. The roads? Built by Israel. The hospitals? Built by Israel. The schools in which Hamas hides its rocket launchers? Built by -- you guessed it -- Israel.

IN RESPONSE:

tegd
Oct 20, 09 4:47 PM CDT

You compare Turkey to Gaza! Now I know how the Nazi and Zionist get away with it. Turkey is a free country that controls its own borders. It engages in trade with other nations. Its citizens are free to come and go. You can visit Turkey but try to get past the Zionist jailers at the Gaza border. Humanitarian Aid can pass Turkey's borders but the Zionist prevent aid from reaching those they oppress.

-4

IN RESPONSE:

Enoughie
Oct 20, 09 5:39 PM CDT

Don't forget the Egyptian "Zionists" jailers who control the Gaza border from their side and do essentially the same thing Israel does. Gaza is a hostage of Hamas, before this terrorist organization overthrew the Palestinian Authority there the borders were open - the control of the borders is in Hamas' hands, if they want to open the borders they need to stop terrorizing Israeli cities with rockets, return the abducted Gilad Shalit, and recognize the agreements signed by the PA (all these are demanded by the UN, US, EU, and Russia) - surely, by your logic Hamas are the nazis. The comparison with Turkey was to demonstrate the hate, lies and propaganda which you so generously spew around here.

IN RESPONSE:

RockyPneumonia
Oct 20, 09 6:34 PM CDT

"Turkey is a free country that controls its own borders". Yes, and Turkey is not ruled by people who are constantly attacking its neighbor.

| 0 minutes ago

PosterNutbag
Oct 20, 09 1:35 PM CDT

Israel seems to be allergic to any kind of criticism. Reply

IN RESPONSE:

DERY
Oct 20, 09 5:01 PM CDT

Well, that's because they're "Gopd's Chosen People", so how dare the dumb goy criticise them?

-4

| 0 minutes ago

jeebus
Oct 20, 09 2:27 PM CDT

All the Israelis/ Palestinians need to resolve their stupid conflict is some good old fashioned atheism. Reply

| 0 minutes ago

PosterNutbag
Oct 20, 09 3:22 PM CDT

Reporters without borders just released their annual press freedom index which has Israel ranking 93rd in the world. Not such a "vibrant free press" after all. Reply

IN RESPONSE:

RockyPneumonia
Oct 20, 09 3:25 PM CDT

Or not such an impartial ranking.

-1

IN RESPONSE:

Enoughie
Oct 20, 09 3:57 PM CDT

Oh please. This ranking doesn't reflect anything - Israel censored the press only during the war in Gaza at the beginning of the year. Which was a lesson learned from the war with Hizbollah (2006) where al-Jazeera was showing live feeds of where rockets were falling on Israeli cities, and monitoring wartime troop movements.. Giving Hizbollah a chance to aim at civilians better. I'd say the lives of civilians are more important than al-Jazeera's efforts to help out Hamas and Hizbollah in targeting these civilians, don't you think?

IN RESPONSE:

PosterNutbag
Oct 21, 09 1:43 PM CDT

So if the ranking system is flawed, then perhaps Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Netherlands, Switzerland, Iceland, and Lituania don't deserve to be in the top ten? Maybe it is just easier to have a vibrant free press if you are not perpetually at war with someone. Also, is it a coincidence that this Op-Ed came out the same day the press freedom index was released?

IN RESPONSE:

Enoughie
Oct 21, 09 10:33 PM CDT

The ranking of Israel for this year doesn't reflect anything. Not the whole ranking system. Usually Israel is somewhere around the 40s.. with France. And yes, you're right, it easier to have freedom of press when you're not threatened with war. Remember the Danish Cartoons controversy? They also censored the press, to avoid angry Islamic mobs from bombing their embassies (no MSM network in the US published these either), so would you say that Denmark doesn't deserve a place at the top?

| 0 minutes ago

DERY
Oct 20, 09 5:07 PM CDT

So Robert L. BERNSTEIN wants HRW to lay off Israel? No surprise, criticize everyone else's criminality, but when it comes to Israel, close ranks. I suppose by that logic, American bombings of Afghan weddings and torute shouldn't be criticized, because America is so free? Screw that bastard. Reply

-4

IN RESPONSE:

RockyPneumonia
Oct 20, 09 6:04 PM CDT

So you're saying that all Jews stick together? Interesting. Do all Blacks look alike to you?

| 0 minutes ago

View all 55 comments »

Palestine • Israel and Palestinians • watchdog • human rights abuse • Human Rights Watch • autocracies • liberal democracy • HRW • Robert L. Bernstein • closed societies

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Lay Off Israel, Human Rights Watch: Founder

Group founded to light closed societies has gone astray

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