woensdag 1 september 2010

NGO Monitor over eenzijdigheid Amnesty International in het Midden-Oosten


Deze brief kan ik helaas geheel onderschrijven. Ik ben zelf (nog) lid van Amnesty International, omdat ik hun werk voor politieke gevangenen zo belangrijk vindt, maar het wordt me de laatste jaren wel moeilijk gemaakt.
In het septembernummer van Wordt Vervolgd een uitgebreid verhaal over de smokkeltunnels in Gaza, waarin wordt beweerd dat voor de recente versoepeling van de blokkade Israel niks binnenliet: 'Israel schiet op alles wat Gaza probeert binnen te komen'. En 'na het flotilla incident eind mei (de aanval op een internationaal hulpconvooi dat onderweg was naar Gaza, waarbij zeker tien doden en zestig gewonden vielen) is de Israelische blokkade nog steeds van kracht, al zijn de sancties wel verlicht, waardoor goederen nu via de Israelische grens binnenkomen'. Niks over de overstromingen in Pakistan, niks over de Iraanse vrouw die ter dood is veroordeeld, en een feel-good verhaal over islamitische vrouwen waarmee het stukken beter zou gaan.
 
RP
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NGO Monitor
August 26, 2010
www.ngo-monitor.org/article/ngo_monitor_letter_to_salil_shetty_secretary_general_of_amnesty_int_l

Mr. Salil Shetty
Secretary General
Amnesty International
London, UK

Dear Mr. Shetty,

Your appointment as Secretary General of Amnesty International follows a major decline in this once prestigious organization's moral reputation and influence. We therefore strongly urge you to give priority to ending Amnesty's systemic bias, lack of credibility, and violation of universal principles in many of its activities.

In particular, NGO Monitor notes:

1) The Gita Sahgal incident, in which Amnesty's leading women's rights activist was forced to resign after questioning cooperation with an alleged Taliban supporter, Moazzam Begg, and the interim Secretary General Claudio Cordone publically condoned "jihad in self-defense." Amnesty's behavior also demonstrated the absence of accountability in the organization's response to legitimate criticism.

2) Amnesty's activities related to the Arab-Israel conflict reflect a consistent and intense bias. For example, during and after the Gaza war (December 2008-January 2009), Amnesty issued many unsupported condemnations of Israel's response to rocket attacks against civilians, including unverifiable and false charges of "war crimes." Amnesty also led one-sided calls for an arms embargo against Israel, as part of the wider BDS campaign. This focused on Israel ignored illegal arms shipments from Iran and Syria to Hamas, reflecting the disproportionate attention given to Israel by Amnesty.

3) Amnesty has been central in promoting the distortion of international law and false claims made against Israel in the Goldstone report, including intense lobbying the UN and the EU. Similarly, Amnesty called for discriminatory sanctions against Israel in the form of suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement, and also for politicized "lawfare" cases against Israeli officials in the International Criminal Court.

4) In another reflection of an organizational culture of discrimination, the executive director of Amnesty-Finland, Frank Johansson, referred to Israel in a highly offensive manner, translated as "a scum state". Similarly, Ben White, author of a publication with the grossly immoral title of Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide, has been the featured speaker at a number of Amnesty-UK events targeting Israel. Such hate speech is further evidence of an Amnesty agenda which is entirely inconsistent with the claim to support ethical principles and universal human rights.

5) With the exception of Israel and Iran, and to a lesser extent Iraq, Amnesty International does not report on Middle Eastern countries (see NGO Monitor's review of Amnesty in 2009). This biased agenda ignores systemic human rights violations by the regimes in Saudi Arabia, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Gaza, and many other countries, and violates the core principle of universality in human rights.

6) While Amnesty has conducted an obsessive (and inaccurate and misleading) campaign on the issue of water in the Arab-Israeli conflict, there has not been a sustained campaign on behalf of the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been held in Gaza without Red Cross access for more than four years.

NGO Monitor looks forward to your response to these concerns, and to continued dialogue with Amnesty International on these important issues.
Sincerely,

Gerald Steinberg
President
NGO Monitor

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NGO Monitor (www.ngo-monitor.org) is a project of the Amuta for NGO Responsibility. Based in Jerusalem, it was founded to promote critical debate and accountability regarding the political activities of non-governmental organizations that are active in the Arab-Israel conflict zone. NGO Monitor's reports are quoted frequently in the press, academic publications, by NGO officials and donors, and in governmental and parliamentary discussions.
 

1 opmerking:

  1. Wat meer info over NGO Monitor, gevonden op Wikipedia, zodat de ethische vraag "qui bono" juister beantwoord kan worden:

    >>NGO Monitor (Non-Governmental Organization Monitor) is een niet-gouvernementele organisatie (NGO) gevestigd in Jeruzalem. Het doel van de NGO Monitor is om NGO's met een vermeende "ideologisch gemotiveerde anti-Israël agenda" een halt toe te roepen. "The Economist" en "Jewish Telegraphic Agency" (JTA) achten NGO Monitor een pro-Israëlische NGO.

    In haar doelstelling verklaart NGO Monitor dat zij werd opgericht om "verantwoording te promoten, en een krachtige discussie te bespoedigen over de rapporten en activiteiten van humanitaire NGO's in het kader van het Arabisch-Israëlisch conflict." NGO Monitor is gezamenlijk opgericht door de Amerikaanse "Wechsler Family Foundation" en het Jeruzalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), een organisatie die zegt dat zij "tal van hoogst geavanceerde programma's ontwikkeld en uitgevoerd heeft om de Israëlische zaak aan de wereld te presenteren". <<

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