Comments on: Human Rights Watch has just released a report – Cruel Brittania

By: Nachman

Nachman — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:23:41 +0000

Amused a good and detailed rebuttal of Richard Goldstone:

http://camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=118&x_article=1736

He was also rebutted by Dore Gold in open debate who destroyed most of his so called evidence. I do not think he is making the same quote as published by you any more.

By: Nachman

Nachman — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:19:09 +0000

That’s it Amused because I am Israeli I am not entitled to hold an opinion which is contrary to your view.Yes I am biased when a so called human rights organisation is funded by a State which is actually apartheid and commits the worst kind of human rights abuses with impugnity. The reason why reports on Israel are so well publicised is with respect part of the plan to demonize and delegitimise the State of Israel. If you think that may sound paranoid it doesn’t mean to say it is not right. The fact is that Israel is the only country that the UNHRC deems appropriate to appoint a commission at the behest of the built Islamic majority to prove it has committed War Crimes – I never saw such a commission mooted when the Russinas were destroying Chechnya or when the US and the UK destroyed half of Iraq. Furthermore HRW has singled out Israel for a plethora of reports far more than any other country bar none. If you do not see the double standards at work here then you are blind!

By: Amused

Amused — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:18:01 +0000

A good and detailed interview of Richard Goldstone:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iya6reWxxg0

“The response has not been to deal with the substance of those allegations [in the report]. I have seen and read no detailed response in respect of the incidents on which we report… People hate being attacked. There is a knee jerk reaction to attack the messenger rather than the message.”

By: MoreMediaNonsense

MoreMediaNonsense — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:11:03 +0000

To be fair to HRW a quick glance at their web site does show lots of stuff about the worst abusers ie a report on China’s “black jails” is on the front page, quite right too. Also there is a report on abuses in Cuba.

http://www.hrw.org/en/home

The issue is as much how some parts of the media here like to concentrate on HRW reports about the West ie see the Guardian leading with this report today.

By: Amused

Amused — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:04:10 +0000

You can read umpteen reports on China from various human rights groups. I am sorry to disappoint chaps here, but the reason why reports on Israel are so well publicised is not because of some sort of grand antisemitic conspiracy but because the Israeli/Palestinian conflict has been put on the front burner for years now: the US,UK and other countries have spoken of its importance in the Middle East and more generally. Judging by its heavy coverage at HP too, this website seems to concur.

It’s an odd stance to take. Someone complains about Israel, and some other folk point at China. All rather silly: there are undoubted human rights violations in China, but those do not lessen anything going on in the Levant. The fact that China can get a ‘get out of jail free card’ (I don’t disagree that this can be the case) is unfortunate, but should not be used to offset violations elsewhere.

By: M-o-r-g-o-t-h

M-o-r-g-o-t-h — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:52:40 +0000

Its their culture, innit?

By: Greg

Greg — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:50:07 +0000

The struggle for human rights is universal or it is nothing at all

Quite, so when NGOs focus on small scale Western infringements, or Israeli infringements, it begs the question why aren’t they issuing report after report about the regimes that use torture all the time, like, oh, I don’t know, the Arab countries, China, etc.? China executed two people yesterday for selling tainted milk, for chrissake. Where’s the outrage on that? Or does China get a free ride here because it’s ethnic/communist?

By: Tony Benn

Tony Benn — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:46:55 +0000

But we all know that for Decents, HP, and more so their hangers on, every human rights organisation is suspect: HRW, Amnesty International, various UN bodies, etc., etc.

“What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you use it? To whom are you accountable? How do we get rid of you?”

By: Amused

Amused — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:51:59 +0000

The rather phlegmatic response to these allegations reveals the biases of Nachman and others; still, at least HP posted about it. The struggle for human rights is universal or it is nothing at all, even if it annoys nationalists of various stripes. Israeli nationalists share the blindspots of other nationalists – these are simply a function of nationalism itself.

By: Nachman

Nachman — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:02:03 +0000

It is not denigrating HRW for focussing on Israel but the fact that they have demonstrably been shown to fit the facts to a pre-conceived conclusion. As I said in one of my previous posts their wild accusations regarding the use of phospherous by the IDF were shown to have been false but that did not stop the Goldstone Inquiry using that flawed evidence and rejecting any evidence which was produced to the contrary. What has happened is the magic words “Human Rights” means that whatever they say appears to be accepted at face value when disturbingly even the founder of HRW believes that it is not performing to the remit for which it was created. I hold no brief for the British Government and it may be that it has been complicit in torture but having seen how HRW has handled the Israel/Arab conflict I am extremely wary of any report they produce and Mettaculture has done a good job of reinforcing that wariness.