Human Wrongs

That's what Human Rights Watch is. It's wrong.

It is wrong to focus on Palestinian assertions of Israeli violations of human rights when it does not even touch the subject of Israelis murdered by Palestinian terrorism. This is not just moral equivalence, but siding with those who use violence to further their goals. Israel's defense of its citizens from terrorist attacks by going after the terrorists and their leadership are roundly condemned, but there is nothing but a deafening silence when Israeli citizens are murdered in the streets, buses, pizza shops, or in bed.

Bar-Ilan University Prof. Gerald Steinberg, head of NGO Watch, an organization which has attacked HRW for having an anti-Israel bias, criticized the situation.

"They seek out the individuals who they think will match their ideological agenda," he charged. "The claim that they don't have donors who are interested in looking at the victims of terror is precisely part of the problem."

He said that the "pro-Palestinian" agenda of HRW meant that "people who are interested in the human rights of Israeli victims of terror are not going to donate to Human Rights Watch."

Roth had a different explanation. "Some of the people who feel most strongly about terror attacks on Israelis don't want [to fund] an organization that criticizes Israelis as well as Palestinians."

So, HRW claims that it is because of the funding that HRW determines where to focus its efforts. Simply put, this is self-reinforcing behavior. HRW focuses on Israeli violations (or US violations) to get a group of people to contribute. The HRW releases reports that bring in more contributions from the same group of people.

Those people who would otherwise contribute to a human rights group are turned off by the bias, and choose to go elsewhere. Meanwhile, the contributions continue to be earmarked for Israeli (or US) violations, even though there are far greater violators of human rights that go unremarked upon.

And it isn't just HRW that suffers from this problem. Amnesty International has the same exact problem, except that these groups don't see it as a problem, so much as a way to garner more contributions from satisfied customers.

Meanwhile, the real violators of human rights continue to do their deadly worst without any kind of critical examination from these groups.