Did HRW and Amnesty protest at giving Ahmadinejad a platform at Durban II?

"Prior to Ahmadinejad’s speech, international NGOs including HRW, Amnesty, and others did not protest the giving the Iranian leader a platform, despite his Holocaust denial and Iran´s dismal human rights record."

HRW and other NGOs press for US participation, ignoring the real problems of the conference

While Canada, the US, Italy, Holland, Germany, Israel and other Western democracies decided not to participate, having decided that the Durban process could not be salvaged, and the principles should not be compromised for political expediency, Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned these countries for "undermining" the conference. HRW also claimed (without credibility) that there was "no justification for the decision," and pressed for "engagement." Prior to Ahmadinejad’s speech, international NGOs including HRW, Amnesty, and others did not protest the giving the Iranian leader a platform, despite his Holocaust denial and Iran´s dismal human rights record. HRW, for instance, merely stated that his attendance raised "concern" and blandly calling Ahmadinejad a "divisive figure" for his "controversial" statements on Israel and the Holocaust. This lobbying helped legitimize Ahmadinejad´s absurd presence at a conference against racism.

Even after his hate filled speech, while HRW admitted that it "contradicted the spirit and purpose of the conference" and "Iran´s record of repressing peaceful dissent does great injustice to the struggle against racism and discrimination," the NGO continued to advocate that governments "should respond by staying." This language echoes Commissioner Pillay´s attempt to downplay the impact of such language used under the façade of human rights.

Remarkably, HRW drew a parallel between Ahmadinejad and the Western democracies that did not attend, claiming that their rhetoric was similar, while reiterating that the conference "was earlier undermined by the refusal of the United States to participate, which prompted walkouts by Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Poland." They have thus confused effect (the walkout) with the cause, which is corruption of human rights, aided by the radical NGO network."

Source:
NGO Monitor: UN tries to avoid NGO incitement, but gives Ahmadinejad a platform

- Amnesty International: Abolishing Israel's Right to Self Defense
- Amnesty’s obsession with Israel
- European NGO Amnesty International: relentless and disproportionate focus on Israeli "violations"

"Amnesty ... let the Jews down in Durban", Simon Wiesenthal Center

"Amnesty ... let the Jews down in Durban." (Shimon Samuels, Simon Wiesenthal Center)

"An Amnesty press release handed out during the NGO conference cited several examples of racism and human rights abuses around the world, but mentioned only Israel by name." (JTA)

Source: Extracts from NGO Monitor "Durban II Resource Guide"

"Jewish representatives were subjected to verbal assaults and threats of physical violence throughout the conference. Major international NGO superpowers Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International failed to speak out against the harassment and were even complicit in the exclusion of representatives of Jewish non-governmental organizations."

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Durban I NGO Forum Final Declaration:

"The NGO Forum’s final declaration was a concentrated indictment directed at Israel. This document asserted that the "targeted victims of Israel’s brand of apartheid and ethnic cleansing methods have been in particular children, women, and refugees" and called for:

"a policy of complete and total isolation of Israel as an apartheid state ... the imposition of mandatory and comprehensive sanctions and embargoes, the full cessation of all links (diplomatic, economic, social, aid, military cooperation, and training) between all states and Israel."

The NGO declaration also condemned Israel’s "perpetration of racist crimes against humanity including ethnic cleansing, acts of genocide." It redefined antisemitism to include "anti-Arab racism." Noticeably absent from the declaration was any reference to Palestinian incitement to genocide and terror, or to the Palestinian policy of deliberately endangering its civilians through the use of populated Palestinian areas as launch pads for attacks on Israel.

While some groups, notably the Jewish and European Caucuses, protested the adoption of the declaration, international human rights NGOs either kept quiet or actively supported it. Later, once the NGO declaration was criticized, leaders of HRW and Amnesty attempted to distance themselves from the declaration and the antisemitic atmosphere. However, the record shows their complicity in Durban’s outcome: One journalist noted that "[a]n Amnesty press release handed out during the NGO conference cited several examples of racism and human rights abuses around the world, but mentioned only Israel by name." (...)

The Forum’s declaration has become an action plan – the Durban Strategy – for the radical pro-Palestinian NGOs that helped draft the document, as well as for many of the international NGOs that supported it."

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Durban Strategy:

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• Promoted false allegations of a "massacre" in Jenin (2002).

• Lobbied on behalf of boycotts and lawfare in the Ariel Sharon-Belgium (2001) and Caterpillar (2005) cases.

• Calls for arms embargo against Israel.

• Unjustifiably accused Israel of "war crimes" and "deliberate attacks on civilians" during the Second Lebanon War (2006), relying on Lebanese "eyewitnesses" to allege that Hezbollah did not operate in population centers.

• Disproportionately singles out Israel for condemnation during the Gaza conflict (2007-2009), manipulating terms such as "collective punishment," "occupying power" and "indiscriminate force," and ignoring more severe human rights violations in the region.

Complicity in virulent NGO Forum in 2001:

• "An Amnesty press release handed out during the NGO conference cited several examples of racism and human rights abuses around the world, but mentioned only Israel by name." [JTA report from the conference]

• "Contrary to some media reports, Amnesty International did not walk out of the NGO Forum, remaining at the conference throughout. Although not accepting or condoning some of the language used within the NGO Declaration, Amnesty International accepts the declaration as a largely positive document which gives a voice to all the victims of racism wherever it occurs, including those seldom heard such as Dalits and refugees." [Press release, September 2001]

Statements to UN Human Rights Council:

• "The patterns of human rights violations carried out by the Israeli authorities against Palestinians in the OPT are deeply entrenched in the normative and institutional structure of the state. The Israeli authorities contend that measures which violate human rights of
Palestinians in the OPT are necessary for Israel’s security. Within Israel, discriminatory laws and practices undermine the rights of Israeli Arabs in particular with regard to economic, social and cultural rights, and lack of due process undermines the rights of asylum-seekers and migrants." [Submission to Universal Periodic Review of Israel, July 2008]"

- Amnesty’s obsession with Israel

- European NGO Amnesty International: relentless and disproportionate focus on Israeli "violations"

- Amnesty International: Abolishing Israel's Right to Self Defense

- NGO "Lawfare": Exploitation of Courts in the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Anti-Israel campaigning by Dutch Christian NGO and Oxfam

"The Web site omits any of the barrier's security benefits, and focuses solely on the human suffering it has caused by separating some Palestinian families and dividing their communities and businesses."

List of "barriers" here, but only one gets European NGOs' attention

"The security barrier between Israel and the West Bank is getting a commercial face-lift. A venture by a Dutch organization allows Internet users around the world to get their personal message on the Palestinian side of the barrier, part of which is a concrete gray wall, for €30 per missive.

The maximum 80-character messages, which are sent over the Web and then spray-painted on the wall by a Ramallah-based Palestinian group, are then digitally photographed, with three copies of their missives on the wall sent back to clients via e-mail.

Both humorous and serious messages are acceptable, while obscene, offensive and extremists texts will be rejected, the organizers say.

Some of the messages shown at www.sendamessage.nl are blatantly political while others are surprisingly romantic.

"Elisabeth and Jakob - Forever in my heart - Anna," one message pictured on the Web site reads.

Others are unequivocal.

"Take down that wall," reads one message spray-painted in red capital letters.

The initiators of the Dutch-Palestinian venture say that the goal is to encourage Palestinians living in the West Bank.

"Your message on the wall reminds Palestinians that they have not been forgotten. It helps them keeping [sic] hope alive. That's the message you are sending to them, whatever the words are," the site says.

"Our aim is to make sure there is another method of communication aside from throwing rocks," said Ben Melis, a director of the Dutch organization which initiated the project. "We have no illusion that what we are doing will make the wall go away or change things, but we want to address the issue to raise awareness."

He said that more than 800 people from around the world had sent a message via the Web site since it was launched a year and a half ago.

A Defense Ministry spokeswoman said Wednesday that the office was "unaware" of the international spray-paint venture.

The Web site omits any of the barrier's security benefits, and focuses solely on the human suffering it has caused by separating some Palestinian families and dividing their communities and businesses.

Potential customers are told that there is no danger for Palestinians in spray-painting on the wall in the West Bank, noting that the territory is "a lot more stable than in far away Gaza."

"'Our' Palestinians will never risk their lives to get your message on the wall," the Web site states.

The initiative, which was started by a group of Dutch advertisers during a visit to Ramallah, is supported by the Dutch NGO ICCO [Interchurch Organization for Development Co-operation] as well as Oxfam.

Organizers say that the revenue is intended to support grassroots social and cultural projects in the West Bank via accredited Palestinian NGOs, and that the money does not go to buy weapons for the Palestinians."

Source: article by Etgar Lefkovits in TJP

Ken Loach: "self-proclaimed Jewish State" is greatest instigator of anti-Semitism

"Nothing has been a greater instigator of anti-Semitism than the self-proclaimed Jewish State itself." (Ken Loach)

See video here introducing the "Media Circus Russell Tribunal on Palestine" and admire the self-styled European Bertrand Russells and Jean-Paul Sartres of today. All of them put together have never written a single book worth reading ... In other words, their intellectual output is far from impressive. The initiator of the "Media Circus Russell Tribunal on Palestine" is the head of the official Belgian (French) of the Secular Action Center (Centre d'Action Laïque), Pierre Galand.)
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Source: article by Ben Cohen in Z Word

"Ken Loach, whose oeuvre as a film director includes the masterful Kes and the cringe-making Land and Freedom, believes that antisemitism is "understandable".

According to The Parliament:

"British film director Ken Loach says that a rise in anti-Semitism in Europe since the Gaza crisis is "not surprising and understandable".

He was responding to a report earlier this week by the Vienna-based agency for fundamental rights (FRA) which said cases of anti-Semitism had risen across Europe since last December.

The agency, which collected information from 19 EU members, said rises in anti-Semitism, ranging from vandalism to physical attacks, were a serious concern …

But, speaking in Brussels on Wednesday, Loach said, "If there has been a rise I am not surprised. In fact, it is perfectly understandable because Israel feeds feelings of anti-Semitism".

Loach, famous for films like Kes, Cathy Come Home and Riff Raff, stressed that "no-one can condone violence".

But the director, who has spoken out against Israel in the past, branded the report as a "red herring" designed to "distract attention" from Israel’s recent military actions."

This is a wonderful example of what David Hirsh refers to as the "Livingstone Formulation".

Let’s be clear. What we have here is a Marxist film director, a professed internationalist, saying that if a Jew is beaten to a pulp, Israel is to blame - and that those who dare complain about it are engaged in the well-worn Zionist tactic of changing the subject.

This is the same logic which blames Al Qaeda for assaults on Muslims or the Victoria’s Secret catalog for rape. It is idiocy and it is dangerous. And if Loach and those like him think we’re just going to take it lying down, they are even more stupid than I thought."

Brussels: Launching of the "Russell Tribunal" on Palestine
Editorial: Why Ken Loach should apologise for High School Musical 3
I Understand
A year ago in Brussels another tribunal/another condemnation :
- Israel on trial in Brussels: Iranian and Syrian Ambassadors give standing ovation to judges
- Israel bashing: International citizens' tribunal to try Israel in Brussels
The real thing:
the Russell-Sartre Tribunal

Swedish Christian NGO Diakonia's anti-Israeli activities

"It is unreasonable to provide information about the Holocaust, in which Hitler murdered six million civilian Jews in a meticulously planned industrialised process, without at the same time providing information about 'al Naqba'." (Joakim Wohlfeil, Diakonia’s Policy Officer)

"In one single month, October 2008, Diakonia sponsored 10 articles in the Swedish media, nine of which dealt with the world's only Jewish country. ... Yet Congo, which has seen hundreds of thousands of civilians slaughtered, raped and expelled, has merited just one single article, written back in February." (Ilya Meyer)

Source: Seismic Shock

"Over the last few weeks, it has become readily apparent that charities are increasingly flexing their political muscles when it comes to Israel-Palestine. Oxfam, Christian Aid, War on Want and various other NGOs have issued factually inaccurate statements concerning Operation Cast Lead. Amos Trust, meanwhile, encouraged its supporters to watch the Go To Gaza, Drink The Sea play. For whatever reason, it appears that radical anti-Zionism is becoming increasingly more popular among NGOs. (...)

The leading Swedish Christian aid organisation is Diakonia, which was created by and is supported by the Swedish Alliance Mission, the Baptist Union of Sweden, InterAct, the Methodist Church of Sweden and the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden.

Yet bizarrely, Diakonia’s Policy Officer Joakim Wohlfeil has openly admitted that Diakionia is is more a lobby group with a clear political agenda for the Middle East than a Christian aid organisation. Wohlfeil also claims:

"It is unreasonable to provide information about the Holocaust, in which Hitler murdered six million civilian Jews in a meticulously planned industrialised process, without at the same time providing information about 'al Naqba'."

Diakonia’s regional manager in Jerusalem Cristoffer Sjöholm recently addressed a Sabeel conference, boasting of his organisation’s work of convincing a Swedish company to close a factory built in the West Bank.

Diakonia has previously funded a Sabeel survey, met with the Sabeel to discuss 'present and future partnerships', and openly lists Sabeel as a partner in the Middle East. Naim Ateek himself has praised Diakonia’s work alongside Sabeel.

Diakonia also actively encourages a boycott of the train company Veolia, which has already been successful in Sweden. Now the Interfaith Group for Morally Responsible Investment in the UK is planning a similar move to boycott Veolia.

What is striking and disconcerting about the case of Diakonia in Sweden is that mainstream Christian institutions and the leading Swedish Christian charity have essentially allowed politically-driven anti-Zionist liberation theology to trump both Christianity’s call to 'love thy neighbour' and the core values of the Diakonia charity itself.

Yet at the same time, the status of Diakonia and of these church organisations in Sweden allows them to have a 'halo effect', as many will instinctively trust Diakonia due to its status and reputation. (...)"

Related:
- Swedish Christian NGO Diakonia totally obsessed with Israel

Norway NGO funding: boycotts and apartheid rhetoric instead of peace and coexistence

"Norway provides tens of millions of kroner annually to NGOs that are involved in anti-Israel boycott campaigns and the Stop the Wall Campaign in Norway. Norway also funds extreme Israeli and Palestinian groups. Norwegian People’s Aid accuses Israel of "war crimes" and "collective punishment," and uses "apartheid" rhetoric. A NORWAC member, Dr. Mads Gilbert has engaged in radical propaganda, including justifying the 9/11 attacks and false claims on the Gaza conflict. Norwegian Church Aid is an "important affiliate" of the Stop the Wall Campaign in Norway."

"- The Norwegian government provides tens of millions of Norwegian kroner (NOK) annually to politicized NGOs that operate in the Palestinian Authority and Gaza. Some of these NGOs are involved in anti-Israel boycott campaigns and the Stop the Wall Campaign in Norway.

- Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), which received NOK 49 million from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) in 2007 for its work in with the Palestinians, accused Israel of "war crimes" and "collective punishment," is active in the Stop the Wall Campaign, uses "apartheid" rhetoric, and supported the so-called Free Gaza Movement. NPA also funds other anti-Israel NGOs and partners with them.

- The Norwegian Aid Committee (NORWAC) receives MFA humanitarian funds for emergency medical assistance. A NORWAC representative, Dr. Mads Gilbert has engaged in radical propaganda, including justifying the 9/11 attacks and false claims on the Gaza conflict.
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) partnered with Palestinian "right of return" NGO Badil on a report on the security barrier. The report labels the barrier a "crime against humanity," and does not call for a halt to the terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians that led to the barrier’s construction.

- Norwegian Church Aid supports many NGOs with anti-Israel agendas, including Bat Shalom and EAPPI, and is an "important affiliate" of the Stop the Wall Campaign in Norway. NCA attacked the Norwegian government for refusing to transfer money to the "Hamas government" in Gaza.

- The MFA funds Israeli NGOs B'Tselem, PCATI, HaMoked, and Gisha. The Norwegian Representative Office to the Palestinian Authority supports extreme groups Al Haq, Al Mezan, PCHR, and Miftah. During the Gaza conflict, these NGOs condemned Israel, misrepresenting international humanitarian law to delegitimize Israeli self-defense measures.

- NORAD supports a number of NGOs active in "anti-wall" campaigns, including the Norwegian Association of NGOs for Palestine, the "coordinator for the Norwegian Tear-Down the Wall Campaign and the Norwegian Boycott Israel Campaign.""

Read the whole NGO Monitor report here

A very helpful blog on Norway : Norway, Israel and the Jews

- Norway's pro-Israel opposition leader under 24-hour guard

- Norwegian envoy equates Israel with Nazis

- For Norwegian F.M. Europe much too lenient with Israel

- Norway Funding PA Hate Media

- Norway says it has severed Hamas ties

- Jostein Gaarder - a better friend to the Jewish people than Israel

- Jew-hatred in contemporary Norwegian caricatures

- The Norwegian Organization With Israel for Peace

Italy pulls out of "Durban 2" conference, Fiamma Nirenstein, Italian Chamber of Deputies

"Italy has kept its promise: it will not take part in an initiative spreading anti-Semitic hatred; and moreover, one that is promoted by the United Nations, which is unable to manage and monitor such hatred adequately."

Statement by Fiamma Nirenstein, Vice-president, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Italian Chamber of Deputies

"Italy’s decision to pull out of the forthcoming UN conference against racism, which is set to be held in Geneva on April 20-24, fills me with pride and satisfaction. This is in fact a courageous decision. It is the first coming from a European country, after those of Canada, Israel and the USA. We hope this decision will lead the way to a joint European position, against a conference that seeks to elevate anti-democratic and anti-Semitic hatred.

The decision taken by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Franco Frattini not only completes, but also puts into effect the resolution which, under our initiative, was voted on unanimously by the Italian Parliament on December 4, 2008 - the first time a country in Europe has taken such action. The resolution bound the Government to monitor "Durban 2" preparatory process. The documents formulated during this process have confirmed the worst expectations: as for the first Durban conference in 2001, Israel is being again slandered and defined as a racist state of apartheid, while every other effective case of racism and discrimination is being completely ignored.

Italy has kept its promise: it will not take part in an initiative spreading anti-Semitic hatred; and moreover, one that is promoted by the United Nations, which is unable to manage and monitor such hatred adequately. This gesture by the Italian Government is an important contribution in that it attempts to rescue the UN from the hands of those countries that - like in this case Iran, Libya and Cuba, who are among the States involved in the preparatory process of Durban 2 – are holding this institution hostage with their partisan and discriminatory positions.

On March 12, we will hold a conference in the Italian Parliament, promoted by the Italy-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Association, that will host lectures by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Franco Frattini, Prof. Gerald Steinberg (Bar-Ilan University, Director of Ngo-Monitor), Pierluigi Battista (Deputy Director, Corriere della Sera), Piero Ostellino (columnist, Corriere della Sera) and the board of the Italy-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Association (Enrico Pianetta, President, Rossana Boldi and Gianni Vernetti, Vice-presidents and me)."

Source: Fiamma Nirenstein blog

Italy: Fiamma Nirenstein will be in the next Parliament

France will not boycott Durban II

So far, no European country - although expressing grave concerns - has, unlike the US, Canada and Israel, decided to boycott the "Durban II" UN conference.

A French optimistic "if"

The French PM indicated that "if Israel is again stigmatized", France will withdraw.

The conference draft outcome document that has prompted the US not to attend has had no such effect on the French Government : "Sadly, however, the document being negotiated has gone from bad to worse, and the current text of the draft outcome document is not salvageable. As a result, the United States will not engage in further negotiations on this text, nor will we participate in a conference based on this text. A conference based on this text would be a missed opportunity to speak clearly about the persistent problem of racism." (US Department of State declaration)

Source: EJP

"French Prime Minister François Fillon said France would not hesitate to withdraw from the upcoming United Nations conference on racism in Geneva if Israel is again stigmatized.

Speaking at the annual dinner of CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish secular organizations, Fillon said: "I know that you have legitimate concerns regarding this conference."

"We will not accept that the state of Israel is stigmatized and that its policy is calumniated," he said.

"We will not hesitate to draw conclusions, in coordination with our European partners, and if necessary to withdraw from the conference," he added.

The Geneva conference, also dubbed "Durban II", will be held 20-24 April in the Swiss city. The conference was first held in Durban in 2001. Israel and the United States walked out on the fourth day of the conference in protest against attempts by Arab nations to adopt a resolution attacking Israel and equating Zionism with racism.

The US has decided last week against taking part in "Durban II". Israel and Canada are also boycotting the event.

Prior to Fillon's speech, Richard Prasquier, head of CRIF, called on France not to make any compromise on the "red lines" in Geneva. "Don’t let Iran, Libya and Cuba define what human rights should be," he said in his address.

According to Jean-David Levitte, diplomatic adviser to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who attended Monday's dinner, France is currently concerting with its EU partners in order to find a common position on the conference. "We hope that we will be able to adopt a European position," he told EJP.
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On Feb. 27, 2008, a petition was sent to the French newspaper Le Monde, signed by such prominent figures as Alan Finkielkraut, Claude Lanzmann and Elie Wiesel:

"At Durban, in South Africa, the global conference against racism was held under the auspices of the United Nations, in the very city where Gandhi began his career as a lawyer. It is in the name of human rights that "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" was chanted; and it is in the name of cultural relativism that there was silence on the discrimination and violence committed against women.

The great political crimes have always needed words to lend themselves legitimacy. Words presage action. From Mein Kampf ... to Stalin to Pol Pot, examples abound that justify the necessary extermination of the people’s enemy in the name of a race, in the name of the workers’ emancipation or in the name of some divine spiritual order. Totalitarian ideologues have replaced religions. … On September 11, 2001, several days after the Durban conference, it was in God’s name that the worst terrorist crime in history was committed.

Either democracies get their act together, following Canada's example, who just announced its refusal to participate in Durban II, recognizing that it risked being "marked by expressions of intolerance and anti-Semitism," and cease to abstain from or vote for resolutions contrary to the universal ideal of 1948, or religious obscurantism and its trail of political crimes will triumph under the good auspices of the United Nations. And when the hateful words are transformed into acts, nobody will be able to say: "We didn’t know.""

Hitler hand-out at the NGO forum at Durban I

- Durban II: Just Say "Non"

- Inside the Durban debacle

Brussels: Launching of the "Russell Tribunal" on Palestine

Behind this mock "Russell Tribunal" is Pierre Galand (NGO Monitor Special Report: "Pierre Galand (Belgium) Using Political NGOs to Promote Demonization & Anti-Semitism in the UN & EU")

"Press conference organised for the Launching of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine

Wednesday 4 March 2009 at 10.30 am
Brussels – Residence Palace – International Press Centre – Polak Room

The recent war waged by the Israeli government and the Israeli army on Gaza, already under a blockade, underlines the particular responsibility of the United States and of the European Union in the perpetuation of the injustice done to the Palestinian people, deprived of its fundamental rights.

It is important to mobilize the international public opinion so that the United Nations and Member States adopt the necessary measures to end the impunity of the Israeli State, and to reach a just and durable solution to this conflict.

Following an appeal from Ken Coates, Nurit Peled, and Leila Shahid, and with the support of over a hundred well-known international personalities, it has been decided to organise a Russell Tribunal on Palestine.

Chairman of the Conference:
Stéphane Hessel – Ambassador of France
Speakers:
Ken Coates – Chairman of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation
Nurit Peled – Sakharov prize for the freedom of thought
Leila Shahid – General Delegate of Palestine to the European Union, Belgium and Luxembourg
Pierre Galand – President of the European Co-ordinating Committee of NGOs on the Question of Palestine (ECCP)

With Ken Loach and Paul Laverty

The conference will be held in English and French
Venue Residence Palace – International Press Centre
rue de la Loi 155 - Bloc C – Polak Room
1040 Brussels - Metro Schuman
Press contact Tel / fax: 00 32 (0)2 231 01 74
Mobile: 00 32 (0) 479 12 95 32"

Source: here

A year ago in Brussels another tribunal/another condemnation :
- Israel on trial in Brussels: Iranian and Syrian Ambassadors give standing ovation to judges
- Israel bashing: International citizens' tribunal to try Israel in Brussels

The real thing: the Russell-Sartre Tribunal

Amnesty International: Abolishing Israel's Right to Self Defense

"This continues Amnesty’s leading role in the Durban Strategy designed to isolate Israel and prevent self-defense."

Another rich and powerful European NGO (funded among others by the European Union) dedicated to the demonization of Israel. Reports such as the one Amnesty issued take months to prepare and require highly sophisticated military expertise totally absent from the report, which took Amnesty barely a few weeks to finalize ... Who is going to take them seriously ?

Source: NGO Monitor

- In a February 23, 2009 publication, Amnesty International calls on the UN Security Council to impose an arms embargo on Israel. This continues Amnesty’s leading role in the Durban Strategy designed to isolate Israel and prevent self-defense.

- Amnesty’s inability to distinguish between aggression and defense, and its artificial focus on very narrow aspects of international law are immoral and make a mockery of the foundations of the legal process.

- Amnesty exploits the façade of a "research report" to make baseless accusations, misrepresent international humanitarian law (IHL), and promote an immoral and indefensible equivalence between Hamas and Israel.

- Amnesty officials, including Malcolm Smart (director for the Middle East) and Colm Ó Cuanachain (head of the Irish branch), have been promoting an arms embargo against Israel for years, and this publication is a vehicle for their agenda.

- In accusing Israel of "war crimes," the authors cite weapons found "on the streets, in school playgrounds, in hospitals and in people's homes." Under any standard of law and morality, such "evidence" is meaningless, particularly in the context of response to the thousands of rocket attacks launched from these same areas.

- Amnesty’s attempt to equate the transfer weapons to Israel for legitimate defense, with clandestinely smuggled arms to a terrorist organization, is defamatory, immoral, and absurd.

- As in past publications, officials, including Donatella Rovera, use false claims, rely on unreliable eyewitness reports, and omit evidence that contradicts their ideological goals. While claiming to have seen secret IDF documents regarding Israeli arms, the quotation and source reference an article in Haaretz, in which an Israeli official comments on the use of illegal weapons by Hamas.

- Officials of Amnesty International responsible for abusing human rights claims in preparing this publication should resign.

Full report here

- Amnesty’s obsession with Israel
- European NGO Amnesty International: relentless and disproportionate focus on Israeli “violations”
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For HRW, Israel 2nd worst abuser of human rights in the Middle East

NGO Monitor report: "Examining Human Rights Watch in 2008: Double Standards and Post-Colonial Ideology"

Summary

- Quantitiative analysis of HRW's publications in 2008 reflect the portrayal of Israel as the second worst abuser of human rights in the Middle East. Only Saudi Arabia received more attention, with chronic human rights abusers Iran, Syria, Jordan and Egypt receiving less.

- Analysis of HRW's use of international legal and human rights terminology to condemn Middle Eastern states demonstrates unjustified emphasis that singles out Israel. HRW ignores Palestinian terrorists' use of human shields.

- In 2008, Israel and the Palestinians were the only countries in the Middle East region suspected or accused of "war crimes" by HRW: Israel on six occasions, and the Palestinians in one instance for suicide bombings. HRW placed Israel on par with Sudan, leaders from the former Yugoslavia, Congo and Uganda.

- In 2008 HRW does not call for the release of, or Red Cross access to captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

- Israel was condemned for violations of "human rights law", "humanitarian law", or "international humanitarian law" (IHL) 33 times, compared with 13 citations for the Palestinians, 6 for Hezbollah and 5 for Egypt.

- The evidence suggests that HRW's Middle East personnel approach the Israeli- Palestinian conflict from a post-colonialist ideological perspective, rendering Israel a special case in the Middle East. The double standards and political bias expressed by senior HRW officials in the Middle East Division reinforces this interpretation (see examples below). And the significantly different tone exhibited when reports on Israel involve other HRW departments, indicates that personal political agendas influence reporting. This is clear for Sarah Leah Whitson, Joe Stork, Marc Garlasco, Lucy Mair, and in the addition of Nadia Barhoum in 2008.

- This report includes quantitative analyses of publications from HRW's Middle East and North Africa section, using a weighted scale methodology consistent with NGO Monitor's previous analyses, and an assessment of the use of language in HRW's publications.

Full report here
PA Tortures Journalists, by Khaled Abu Toameh

Gaza not among MSF's 'Top Ten' humanitarian crises

And no mention of "open air prison" Gaza !

Source: Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) releases 11th annual list

"Massive forced civilian displacements, violence, and unmet medical needs in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, and Pakistan, along with neglected medical emergencies in Myanmar and Zimbabwe, are some of the worst humanitarian and medical emergencies in the world, the international medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported today in its annual list of the "Top Ten" humanitarian crises.

The report underscores major difficulties in bringing assistance to people affected by conflict. The lack of global attention to the growing prevalence of HIV-tuberculosis co-infection and the critical need for increased global efforts to prevent and treat childhood malnutrition—the underlying cause of death for up to five million children per year—are also included in the list. (...)"

Belgium: Mary, Saint Joseph, the donkey, checkpoints and the "apartheid wall"

As reported here

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Mary, Joseph and the donkey

Leuven, Saturday 20 December 2008

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A 300-strong (!) human chain to protest against the "apartheid wall"

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Source: MC Palestine and Actieplatform Palestina

..

"Bethlehem is an open air prison. (...) Paletinian society is oppressed by Israelly policies: occupation, stealing of land and sly ethnic cleansing. While this goes on, our leaders look the other way.

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We will therefore form a human chain against the apartheid wall. Will Mary, Joseph and the donkey be allowed to cross the checkpoint?"

European Parliamentarians call upon the Red Cross on behalf of Gilad Shalit

Source: European Friends of Israel

"Today we simultaneously mark the 900th day since Gilad’s abduction and the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Although the latter is being internationally commemorated, rightfully so, European Friends of Israel have determined not to neglect Gilad, whose health and whereabouts have remained concealed for over 900 hundred days, in total negation of his basic Human Rights.

Thus, in almost all of the EU-27 countries, Parliamentarians friends of Israel have contacted local Red Cross representatives, the international and impartial guarantor of human rights, to request that more action is taken to secure Gilad’s human rights, such as his visitation rights and the right to proper medical treatment, which have been continuously denied.

EFI wants to keep awakening the conscience of the world, to display to Gilad’s family that Europe has not abandoned their son, and to determine what more can be done.

EFI thanks all dedication of the Parliamentarians to this cause. We see this initiative as a symbol, both of that aspiration and of the very purpose of EFI to achieve more together than we can do alone."
-----------------------------------------------------------
João Rebelo, Chair of the Portugal-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Group, reported to the EFI on his meeting with the representative of the Portuguese Red Cross, Luís Barbosa. The meeting took place in the Assembly of the Republic, São Bento Palace, on 12 December 2008. Mr Barbosa was made:

"aware of the presence of the Portugal-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Group in the EFI Policy Conference, that took place in Paris in November 2008, in which Gilad Shalit’s father called upon the European Union and the international community to pressure the Hamas movement, in order to the ICRC be allowed to visit Gilad Shalit. Afterwards, the President of the Portuguese Red Cross submitted some elements on this matter, such as:

- The ICRC has to maintain itself very discreet on this matter, since they cannot speak too much about this matter, given the need to keep their neutral statute;

- The ICRC has made continuous attempts to approach Gilad Shalit, but so far has been unsuccessfull;

- The Carter Center informed ICRC that Gilad Shalit is alive;

- The ICRC stresses that the right to visit is a crucial element of the international humanitarian law;

- The ICRC will release an announcement, this month possibly, on the process of attempt to approach Gilad Shalit. However, there are details in this process that may not be disseminated, under penalty of affecting the ICRC neutrality;

- Reciprocity has not occurred in this process, considering that visits to Palestinian prisoners in Israel have been possible, while the same does not occur with Gilad Shalit, in Gaza Strip;

- This process involves elements, as possible terms of exchange (about 3000 Palestinian prisoners for Gilad Shalit), which can turn into a serious difficulty to solve this case;

- The ICRC regulates its conduct through the maximum prudence and unquestionable neutrality, considering that a human life is in danger, bearing in mind the fundamental role this institution played recently in Colombia, Afghanistan and Myanmar."

Swedish Christian NGO Diakonia totally obsessed with Israel

Christian charity Diakonia style : "In one single month, October 2008, Diakonia sponsored 10 articles in the Swedish media, nine of which dealt with the world's only Jewish country. ... Yet Congo, which has seen hundreds of thousands of civilians slaughtered, raped and expelled, has merited just one single article, written back in February."

(Paradoxically 65% of Swedes "... see greater interaction between the West and the Muslim world as a threat. This reflects a growing fear among Europeans – driven in part by rising immigration from predominantly Muslim regions - of a perceived "Islamic threat" to their cultural identities.")

"Is it unreasonable to provide information about the Holocaust without at the same time providing information about the Naqba - "the catastrophe" of the Palestinian Arabs who became refugees in Israel's 1948 War of Independence?

This is the official view of Swedish Christian aid organization Diakonia, whose policy officer for conflict and justice Joakim Wohlfeil said at a meeting in Gothenburg in October that Diakonia is more a lobby group with a clear political agenda for the Middle East than a Christian aid organization. The shocked silence that ensued was quickly filled by his boss, secretary-general Bo Forsberg, who said that Diakonia was still first and foremost a Christian aid organization.

Diakonia operates freely in Israel and the Palestinian territories in pursuit of anti-Israel policies that are often remarkably anti-Semitic in effect. Its record speaks for itself.

Political extremism, religious fanaticism, dictatorships and crimes against humanity are all on the rise. As democrats rooted firmly in the Judeo-Christian affirmation of inalienable human rights, it is always our moral duty to stop human suffering at the hands of anti-democratic despots and their collaborators. Iran, Darfur, Chechnya, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Yemen, Tibet - all require our focus if we are to contribute to a better world.

These, however, are areas in which Sweden's Diakonia is not involved. The ostensibly Christian aid organization appears instead to be totally obsessed with the world's only Jewish state and is uninterested even in coming to the aid of Christian communities in acute distress. Copts suffer systematic racism in Egypt, Pakistan's Christian minority is being hunted to extinction, Christians in the Philippines are being exterminated. Bethlehem's Christian population has been decimated since the Palestinian Authority took control over the area. Yet Diakonia continues to pump Swedish money into the PA apparatus while maintaining total silence on the systematic expulsions of Christians from Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus and the cradle of Christianity.

In the democratic state of Israel, Diakonia collaborates intimately with a whole raft of extreme left-wing organizations. In the PA dictatorship, it collaborates intimately with radical political groups and fanatical religious organizations that refuse to mark Israel on the map and where schoolchildren are systematically indoctrinated in anti-Semitic hatred from grade one.

In Diakonia's 60-page annual report, the word "terror" appears just once - in conjunction with Paraguay - and then only with the qualifier "alleged terrorists." According to Diakonia's worldview, acts of violence against civilians perpetrated by fanatics with an extreme religious and/or political agenda are not characterized as terrorism.

Diakonia's annual report makes no mention of Sderot, whose civilians have been terrorized by more than 8,000 Palestinian rockets and where playgrounds for toddlers have to be built indoors. Yet the Palestinians get 13 percent of Diakonia's total aid, donated by Christians in Sweden who believe in democracy and the equal value of all human life.

In one single month, October 2008, Diakonia sponsored 10 articles in the Swedish media, nine of which dealt with the world's only Jewish country. Diakonia writes in its annual report that its second focus area outside Israel/the Palestinian Authority is Congo. Yet Congo, which has seen hundreds of thousands of civilians slaughtered, raped and expelled, has merited just one single article, written back in February.

Diakonia runs what it calls an "ecumenical accompaniment program in Palestine and Israel" whose stated aims are to "reduce the brutality of the occupation" and to "end the illegal occupation of Palestine." But it does not aim to bring an end to terrorism - the root cause of the occupation and the violence. Despite the flowery language in its policy document, there has not been one single recorded instance of Diakonia ever accompanying children in Sderot. But then these are Jewish children.

It is to this organization that Christians in Sweden donate their millions. And it is this organization that Israel gives free right to operate within its sovereign territory.

History has taught us it is that religion and politics are dangerous bedfellows. When the church pursues its own foreign-policy agenda with substantial financial backing, the result is seldom pleasant and always predictable. One natural question regarding Diakonia's obsession with the Jewish state while ignoring human rights issues in the world's 23 Arab states is whether its Christian benefactors in Sweden actually know what is being done with their hard-earned money. Because if there is one thing Diakonia does not do, it does not contribute to calm and mutual respect in the Middle East by pursuing such a flagrantly prejudiced stance. (...)

It is incompatible with a Christian, humanitarian and democratic worldview that a radical left-wing organization be allowed to operate under the mantle of Christian aid. It is inconceivable that it should receive Swedish governmental financial aid and official Israeli sanction to engage in lobbying and domestic politics in Jerusalem while remaining silent on the plight of Christians being decimated a few kilometers away in Bethlehem. And it is unconscionable that its obsession with the Jewish state causes it to turn a blind eye to the plight of millions of people the world over who are suffering indescribable injustices."

Source: Equal value of all human life?, by Ilya Meyer, TJP
The author is former deputy chairman of the Swedish-Israel Friendship Society, Western Region and is a former board member of the Joint Council for Jews and Christians in Sweden.

Rachel Corrie's ISM: CIA, ISI and Mossad behind Mumbai terrorist attacks

The French branch of the International Solidarity Movement has posted an "analysis" of the Mumbai terrorist attacks by a certain Awami Bharat.

The ISM is supposed to be a pacifist organization and their most famous "militant" was Rachel Corrie. After reading this, there can be no doubt that their ideas are total rubbish.

Here are some excerpts, translated from the French, which give a flavour of the type of harebrained and hateful conspiracies these peace-loving miliants believe in:

"In all likelihood, the terrorists who attacked Bombay were heavily indoctrinated and extremely well trained. They were determined to die for their "cause" and were essentially controlled by the American CIA, the Pakistani ISI and the Israeli Mossad."

"In our view, the Mossad and the CIA aided and abetted the BJP-RSS [two Indian political parties] to plan and carry out this terrorist attack. At the heart of this enormous tragedy was the sordid need for a genuine terrorist group of Pakistani origin to be found and which was then provided by the ISI, with the help of their masters at the CIA and the Mossad. The ISI is an organization of ruthless mercenaries which sells out to the highest bidder. In addition, there are different factions within the ISI, some of which are controlled and paid by the CIA and the Mossad."

"... they attacked the Nariman House in Colaba which is inhabited by Israeli-Jewish families, and took hostages. This incident will only serve to strengthen the links between Israeli Zionist elites and Indian Brahman elites.

The truth is that there are strong ideological links between Zionism and Brahmanism. Both are engaged in racial discrimination, religious and caste superiority. Both also have a history of collaboration with imperialism and exploitation of their people."

Belgium: human chain with Mary, Saint Joseph and their donkey against the "apartheid wall"

"Will Mary, Joseph and the donkey be allowed to cross the checkpoint?" Belgian NGOs will form a "human chain againt the apartheid wall".

Drawing on a Christian deicide theme, over 30 non-confessional NGOs (including Oxfam and 11.11.11, a umbrella group of NGOs - both are generously funded by Belgian taxpayers) will be forming just before Christmas a human chain against the "apartheid wall" and the "sly ethnic cleansing" Israel is supposed to be perpetrating against Palestinians. The organizers also claim that 400 Christian families have had to leave Bethlehem because of Israelly violence ...

One would have thought that NGOs would be devoting all their efforts to alleviate the appalling suffering of hundreds of thousands of civilians in North Kivu who are caught up in a terrible civil war - all the more so because the Congo is a former Belgian colony. Not so, Israel is once again being singled out of and demonized.

Why was the fence built? As Ramadan Shalah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader, publicly admitted, Israel's Security Fence is an important obstacle to the terrorist organizations policy of carrying out suicide attacks (photo above: suicide belts used by Palestinian terrorists turned into human bombs).

Source: MC Palestine and Actieplatform Palestina

"Bethlehem is an open air prison. (...) Paletinian society is oppressed by Israelly policies: occupation, stealing of land and sly ethnic cleansing. While this goes on, our leaders look the other way.

We will therefore form a human chain against the apartheid wall.

Will Mary, Joseph and the donkey be allowed to cross the checkpoint?"

More on anti-Israel campaigning by Oxfam Belgium here

- Gaza: will Oxfam UK also make an appeal to Gilad Shalit's kidnappers ?
- Oxfam anti-Israel campaigns taste bitter: the "Unattributable Gaza Update"

Susan Nathan in Brussels to debate Israel apartheid state

Susan Nathan, is a "good Jew" and the author of The Other Side of Israel: My Journey Across the Jewish/Arab Divide, in which she draws a parallel between the Holocaust and Israel's practices toward its own Arab citizens. She has been invited by a group of Belgian anti-Israeli NGOs to give a conference in Brussels today.

You will have guessed that the theme of the conference will turn around what must have become by now the most recycled and unconvincing platitude "Is Israel a racist country whose cruelty goes far beyond the one that prevailed under the old apartheid regime of South Africa?".

Just like their European ancestors used to demonise Jews

This question is relentlessly debated and written about in Europe by people whose only raison d'être and all consuming obsession seems to be the demonisation of Israel, just like their ancestors used to demonise Jews.

They have been arguing daily and for many years that Israel is indeed a racist country which enforces apartheid style policies towards the Palestinians and that it should be severely punished by the international community: imposition of all sort of boycotts, expulsion from the U.N. etc.

Why is it then that they have to keep on trying to persuade themselves as well as others that Israel, and only Israel, is a pariah state? Could it be that their hype rests on shaky ground and that it requires endless campaigning to keep the flame alive and to cloak it with a flimsy appearance of truth and legitimacy? And above all in their own eyes.

Not many converts to the great cause

One thing is to campaign on the basis of a fallacy and an outright lie, another is to have people believe you. The sheer amount of time, money and energy they devote to the great cause proves that common sense prevails and that not many people are listening to them, let alone believing them or embracing their views. And that's great news.

The other speaker at the conference will be Lucas Catherine:
Lucas Catherine conference at Brussels Catholic school: Israel is an apartheid State

Spanish and Basque NGOs Join Palestinians and AIC in Boycott conference

Yet more evidence of European NGOs' Israel bashing activities. Amazing news: even the minuscule Basque government is having a go at it.

"On October 29-30, 2008, The Bilboa Initiative - a "civil society assembly" organized by the Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO), Ittijah, the Alternative Information Center (AIC), and MEWANDO (supported by the Basque government) - held a conference in Spain to discuss "effective coordination tool[s] for practical campaigning in solidarity for Palestine and for a just peace. " Speakers included representatives from: the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Coalition (PGAAWC), Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott to Israel (PACBI), Zochrot, AIC, BADIL, Addameer, and NIF-funded Ahali Center for Community Development (combined grants of $280,000 in 2006-7). The agenda included implementing boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigns; and lectures on "Israel: Between colonialism and institutionalized racism," and the "right of return. "

MEWANDO (Middle East Without Wars and Oppression Network) is a coalition of Spanish NGOs, which recognizes "the return of all [Palestinian] refugees" and "the liberation of all prisoners. " It accuses Israel of a "Zionist campaign of ethnic cleansing in Palestine [which] has evolved and perfected itself without interruption since 1948" and promotes the "boycott of the Israeli apartheid state. " MEWANDO is supported by the Department of Housing and Social Affairs of the Basque Government."

Source: NGO-Monitor

- Gaza: will Oxfam UK also make an appeal to Gilad Shalit's kidnappers ?
- Amnesty’s obsession with Israel
- Denmark funding anti-Israeli politicized NGOs
- ICAHD loses European Union funding, NGO Monitor reports

Gaza: will Oxfam UK also make an appeal to Gilad Shalit's kidnappers ?

This morning, Michael Bailey of Oxfam UK made an urgent appeal on the BBC on behalf of the the 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Sadly, Mr Bailey forgot one human being, 21-year-old Gilad Shalit, who has been held in captivity in inhuman conditions in Gaza and with no "humanitarian aid" at all for 877 days - NGOs just don't make their work in the Gaza Strip conditional on having access (even for the briefest of moments) to Gilad Shalit.

More on Oxfam UK's curious methods (Source: Blue Truth)

"More Unattributable Gaza Updates from Oxfam

Last month, we published the curious story of Oxfam and its e-mail updates on the situation in Gaza; recipients were explicitly warned that any information in those e-mails was not to be attributed to Oxfam as it could not be verified (though obviously it was good enough for Oxfam to distribute to its recipient list).

Not surprisingly, in the through-the-looking-glass world that is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this story even "curiouser and curiouser". It turns out that Mr. Mohammed Ali Abu Najela, listed on Oxfam's e-mail alerts as "Advocacy and Media Researcher, Oxfam GB, Gaza Strip - Occupied Palestinian Territories" probably has a great deal of experience in advocacy and media. He has been a guest on "progressive" radio stations, on programs with titles such as "Palestinian Resistance against Zionism and US Imperialism"(Canadian radio station CFRO, April 2006). (Hat tip to Lurene for recognizing his name). It's not that surprising that NGOs like Oxfam would rely on local activists in Gaza, since kidnappings of journalists and aid workers have made it a dangerous place for infidels. But then of course one must recognize that staged news photos or NGO reports (whether attributable or not) become just another part of the Palestinian propaganda war against Israel.

Then today I received another e-mail from Michael Bailey in Oxfam's Jerusalem office. This e-mail, however, made no mention of Oxfam at all - it was a press release directly from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights regarding the border closing between Gaza and Israel. Not surprisingly, this document made no mention at all of the fact that the border was closed as the result of fighting that developed when Israeli soldiers went a few hundred yards into Gaza to destroy a tunnel being built under the border between Gaza and Israel. (That tunnel would of course have no use other than to allow terrorists to infiltrate Israel.)

So now it appears that Oxfam's e-mail list is being used to circulate information directly from other Palestinian NGO's. The fact that the agenda of PHCR equates Palestinian "human rights" with the elimination of the Jewish state of Israel doesn't seem to bother Mr. Bailey. PHCR states on its website that "the Oslo accords failed to address the essential elements of the Palestinian question -- the right to self-determination, the right to an independent Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem, the right of return for Palestinian refugees and the removal of Israeli settlements from the OPT." Of course, calling for so-called "right" of return (a right that does not, in fact, exist for descendants of 1948 refugees) is Pal-speak for calling for the demographic elimination of the Jewish state.

Oxfam UK claims that it "recognises the right of the State of Israel and a viable, independent, Palestinian state to exist within secure borders where all citizens can live in security and dignity." So why is it now using its Jerusalem office as a mouthpiece for a group that opposes this?

Once again, Michael Bailey can be reached in Jerusalem at 2 656 6234 ext 223. He has not responded to an e-mail request for his comments on the previous piece."

- Jeremy Hobbs of Oxfam UK also made an appeal for the 1.5 million Palestinians of Gaza, but sadly failed to include Gilad Shalit:
Blockaded Gaza 'faces disaster', BBC
- History of the Oxfam Belgium poster:
Oxfam anti-Israel campaigns taste bitter: the "Unattributable Gaza Update"

In stark contrast to NGOs, former Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt campaigns for Gilad Shalit's release

Ingrid Betancourt pays tribute to Gilad Shalit at the European Parliament

Ex-hostage Ingrid Betancourt calls for Gilad Shalit's release