May 23, 2025
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A former head of Human Rights Watch (HRW) described dozens of hostages held by Hamas as “utter irrelevancies” on Wednesday. Kenneth Ro
by Tim Pearce
A former head of Human Rights Watch (HRW) described dozens of hostages held by Hamas as “utter irrelevancies” on Wednesday.
Kenneth Roth, a visiting professor at Princeton and the former executive director of HRW, accused the Israeli government of giving “diversionary excuses” in response to charges against two top officials by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The ICC charged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, of committing war crimes in the war against Hamas in Gaza.
One of the “excuses” cited by Roth is Israel’s mission to rescue roughly 100 hostages taken by Hamas during its October 7, 2023, terror attack.
“The Israeli government responded to the ICC war-crime charges with the usual diversionary excuses – the need to liberate the hostages, Hamas’s use of human shields, Israel’s democracy and self-defense, supposed ICC antisemitism – all utter irrelevancies,” Roth said in a post on X.
Israel is the low-hanging fruit Human Rights Organizations pick on for validation.
Remember these organizations operate on donations. If you were attempting to maximize donations, which topic would you discuss?
(A) The Uyghur concentration camps in China
(B) The genocide and ethnic cleansing in Sudan
(C) The genocide and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar
(D) One of the worst humanitarian crisis ongoing in Yemen
(E) The terrible human rights violations in Iran
(F) Pakistan expelling two million refugees
(G) Russia's war crimes and massacres in Ukraine
(H) The war in Gaza launched by Hamas
Obviously, the answer is G, as evident by the mind-boggling amount of attention the conflict receives. The popularity of the Israel-Palestine conflict pales in comparison to other global major events and Human Right Organizations know it.
For The Red Cross, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch It is much more profitable, popular and safer to criticize Israel than Russia, Iran, Sudan, China, Pakistan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, etc.
Let's summarize:
The ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) has made 6 times more statements to criticize Israel and has often resorted to hyperbole to cast Israel as a “limitless” destroyer to evoke sympathy for one side and demonize Israel. No statement was made speaking directly about the massacre of October 7th. Beyond language, only 2 statements condemning Hamas include videos and pictures while 38 tweets condemning Israel contain images, graphic testimonies, and videos designed to solicit greater attention and a stronger response. Through their Twitter, it is evident that the ICRC has dedicated large amounts of resources to interviewing doctors and victims in Gaza, to editing infographics and videos, and to appearing on the news to talk about the devastation in Gaza. Comparatively little to no attention was paid to Israeli victims.
Human Rights WatcH (HRW) - Is obsessed with criticizing Israel in the conflict and has been called out by their own founder for abandoning their mission and focusing on scrutinizing Israel. HRW disproportionately focuses on condemnations of Israel and that publications related to Israel often lack credibility. HRW also promotes an agenda based solely on the Palestinian narrative of victimization and Israeli aggression.
Amnesty International - Disproportionately singles out Israel for condemnation, focusing solely on the conflict with the Palestinians, misrepresenting the complexity of the conflict, and ignoring more severe human rights violations in the region. In October 2023, in the aftermath of the brutal Hamas attack on October 7, Amnesty emphasized “the root causes” of the conflict, in particular “Israel’s system of apartheid imposed on all Palestinians.” Amnesty does not identify “root causes” on the part of any other actor, including Palestinians and terror groups.
I will reiterate- these organizations follow the wishes of their donors and while their funding isn't fully transparent here are some notable moments:
• In November 2023, MEMRI leaked a document detailing a €3 million donation in 2018 to HRW from Qatar.
• In February 2020, it was revealed that HRW's Executive Director Ken Roth accepted a donation in 2012 from a Saudi real estate tycoon for $470,000 “promising not to support advocacy of the LGBT community in the Middle East and North Africa.”
• In December 2013, Amnesty International admitted to working with the Alkarama foundation, whose Qatari co-founder has been accused of financing Al Qaeda and its affiliates.
• In February 2021, Indian officials accused Amnesty International India of money laundering.
Recommended further reading:
In repeatedly condemning Israel, and mostly ignoring closed regimes in the Middle East, Human Rights Watch is drifting from its core values,
PDF | The non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) was founded in 1978 and is of American origin with the long term goal to en
Human Rights Watch is a powerful NGO, with a massive budget, close links to Western governments, and significant influence in international
HRW director Ken Roths obsessive targeting of Israel during the Gaza war highlights his lack of credibility and personal animus towards the
Amnesty International disproportionately singles out Israel for condemnation, focusing solely on the conflict with the Palestinians, misrepr
GENEVA, December 11, 2023 — The International Red Cross has adopted an overwhelmingly skewed approach to the Hamas-Israel war in its social
The Red Cross just named ex-UNRWA chief Pierre Krähenbühl as its new head, even though he was forced to quit UNRWA in 2019 in wake of a damn
For those complaining I'm relying on UNWatch and NGO-Monitor: Every word is backed by a source which you are encouraged to verify yourself. Anyone refusing to accept factual data because of their cognitive bias should not be discussing this topic in the first place.
Today is the 187 day since Hamas abducted men, women, elders and children from their homes. 133 of them are still in captivity. Ceasefire will only come when Hamas surrenders and releases the hostages.
Source
Source, where all the links work.
Source, again, where the links work.
Blogging about Israel and the Arab world since, oh, forever.
Josh Wilcox, organizer for Harvard College Palestine Solidarity Committee, writes:
It seems a couple points were absent from Dean Elmendorf’s announcement. At no point did he address the elephant in the room: what scholars like Cornel R. West ’74 have alleged as Harvard’s complicity in silencing voices that call for Palestinian freedom. Similarly, HKS’s track record of offering positions should make us skeptical of the sincerity of its mission statement. HKS has proudly lended [sic] its name to Amos Yadlin, a former general in the Israeli Air Force who participated in the brutal war on Lebanon in 1982. ...Yadlin is only one of several questionable characters. As Harvard students, we cannot continue to let our University welcome agents of colonial violence while denying those who reject U.S.-backed Israeli apartheid.
Who, exactly, has Harvard denied a position to because of their pro-Israel positions? The article mentions this as a fact three times - and the links show us that there is exactly one episode that they can point to.
And that episode is a lie.
In 2021, Cornel West went on a campaign much like Ken Roth's in 2023. He went on multiple interviews claiming claimed that Harvard denied him tenure, and that the only reason he could think of was his anti-Israel position.
He had no proof.
But he lied about the entire episode.
While it is true that Dean Elmendorf’s reasoning is likely linked to Roth’s stances on Israel, this decision is not an attempt by the dean to block all anti-Israel perspectives.
How do I know this? Well, the proof is in the pudding. The reality is that the Kennedy School and Harvard University writ large already feature an array of anti-Israel voices at the faculty, fellow, and student levels, who have been provided with ample support from HKS and the University: Fellows have included former Palestinian Liberation Organization spokesperson Diana Buttu, while HKS hosted a controversial 2012 “One State Solution” conference that was partially sponsored by the Weatherhead Center and the Office of the Provost, to name only a few examples.
Dean Elmendorf never seems to have banned any of these people from discussing their views on Israel, nor has he ever publicly taken an explicitly pro-Israel stance, nor, as far as I can recall, has anyone else in the current Harvard administration, and so it would be hard to claim Dean Elmendorf is just a mouthpiece for the pro-Israel camp.
What is also laughable is that the cohort advocating for Dean Elmendorf’s resignation on the grounds that his decision goes against “principles underpinning free thought in a free society” is part of the same group of organizations that has continually protested about the presence of pro-Israel speakers on campus.
Many of the most vociferous among those who authored and signed this letter — particularly the Palestine Solidarity Committee and the HKS Palestine Caucus — are the same people who have supported the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, which calls for Harvard to divest from any investments in Israeli companies, and who have called on students to boycott Israel Trek, a privately sponsored trip to Israel exploring the conflict from multiple perspectives.
The PSC, for instance, refused to have a conversation with one of Israel Trek’s student leaders to preserve “the comfort level and safety of the Palestinian students” since the fact that some of the trip’s organizers were former Israeli Defense Forces soldiers created a “power imbalance.” But since Israel has a draft, nearly every Israeli student has served in the IDF.