Gerald Steinberg: Double Standard on Israel

Regarding “Diversionary Strike on a Rights Group” by Kathleen Peratis
[op-ed, Aug. 30]:

Ms. Peratis’s defense of Human Rights Watch is based on a grossly
distorted presentation of NGO Monitor’s systematic research. Our
analyses covering the past five years demonstrate that HRW officials
have disproportionately targeted Israel, omitting the context of
terrorism, while neglecting real human rights violations in Syria,
Libya and Saudi Arabia.

Human Rights Watch officials focus far more on alleged Israeli and
American “war crimes” than on the genocide in Sudan or the violence
in Sri Lanka. HRW’s agenda is obsessively partisan, and NGO Monitor
has detailed examples of false or unverifiable claims by HRW.

Condemnations of “indiscriminate attacks” in Lebanon were based on
“eyewitness testimony” denying the presence of Hezbollah members and
weapons in Qana, Srifa and elsewhere. But journalists found clear
evidence of this presence. Such distorted Human Rights Watch reports
feed hatred in Pakistan, Turkey, Malaysia and the rest of the Muslim world.

For all of these reasons, the need for NGO Monitor to watch the
watchers is clear.

GERALD M. STEINBERG

Editor

NGO Monitor

Jerusalem

Prof. Steinberg heads the Conflict Resolution Program at Bar-Ilan University and is a member of the SPME Board of Directors

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/19/AR2006091901551_pf.html

AUTHOR

Gerald M. Steinberg

Prof. Gerald Steinberg is president of NGO Monitor and professor of Political Studies at Bar Ilan University, where he founded the Program on Conflict Management and Negotiation. His research interests include international relations, Middle East diplomacy and security, the politics of human rights and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Israeli politics and arms control.

NGO Monitor was founded following the 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban South Africa, where powerful NGOs, claiming to promote human rights, hijacked the principles of morality and international law. NGO Monitor provides information and analysis, promotes accountability, and supports discussion on the reports and activities of NGOs claiming to advance human rights and humanitarian agendas.

In 2013, Professor Steinberg accepted the prestigious Menachem Begin Prize on behalf of NGO Monitor, recognizing its “Efforts exposing the political agenda and ideological basis of humanitarian organizations that use the Discourse of human rights to discredit Israel and to undermine its position among the nations of the world.”

Steinberg is a member of Israel Council of Foreign Affairs; the Israel Higher-Education Council, Committee on Public Policy; advisory board of the Israel Law Review International, the research working group of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), and participates in the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism (ICCA). He also speaks at a variety of high-level government sessions and academic conferences worldwide.

Publications include “NGOs, Human Rights, and Political Warfare in the Arab-Israel Conflict" (Israel Studies); "The UN, the ICJ and the Separation Barrier: War by Other Means" (Israel Law Review); and Best Practices for Human Rights and Humanitarian NGO Fact-Finding (co-author), Nijhoff, Leiden, 2012.

His op-ed columns have been published in Wall St. Journal (Europe), Financial Times, Ha’aretz,International Herald Tribune, Jerusalem Post, and other publications. He has appeared as a commentator on the BBC, CBC, CNN, and NPR.

Read all stories by Gerald M. Steinberg