Jewish Groups Respond to Human Rights Watch Report

Several Jewish groups condemned the April 27 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report accusing Israel of apartheid. The 213-page report doesn’t compare Israel to apartheid South Africa, but it does accuse certain Israeli government policies to be apartheid by using a definition akin to the 1998 Rome Statute and 1973 Apartheid Convention, according to Reuters.

The report specifically cites the 2018 Nation-State law, as well as demolishing Palestinian homes to build Israeli settlements, as examples of apartheid. The report called for sanctions and travel bans against Israel.

“While much of the world treats Israel’s half-century occupation as a temporary situation that a decades-long ‘peace process’ will soon cure, the oppression of Palestinians there has reached a threshold and a permanence that meets the definitions of the crimes of apartheid and persecution,” HRW Executive Director Kenneth Roth said in a statement.

Jewish groups denounced the report. “Human Rights Watch has a long record of demonizing Israel through falsehoods and propaganda,” the American Jewish Committee tweeted. “Its latest report is just more of the same. Let’s call a spade a spade: HRW has zero credibility on Israel and this report has no validity.”

Human Rights Watch has a long record of demonizing Israel through falsehoods and propaganda. Its latest report is just more of the same.

Let's call a spade a spade: HRW has zero credibility on Israel and this report has no validity.https://t.co/WqGa17JmTg

— American Jewish Committee (@AJCGlobal) April 27, 2021

Roz Rothstein, CEO and co-founder of StandWithUs, similarly tweeted that HRW’s “antisemitism is showing” since they’re singling out Israel while “#Hamas is constantly launching rockets at Israeli civilians & [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas has rejected peace & offers to meet.”

Human Rights Watch: Your antisemitism is showing. Again. Going after only #Israel even as the Palestinian terror organization #Hamas is constantly launching rockets at Israeli civilians & Abbas has rejected peace & offers to meet–doesnt seem to be in your report. Why? @hrw https://t.co/XKGP5kswE4

— Roz Rothstein (@RozRothstein) April 27, 2021

Melissa Landa, founding director of Alliance for Israel, grew in apartheid South Africa and said in a statement to the Journal that the HRW report “is a blatantly biased document that fails to provide the full context for Israel’s military actions.” “Since September 2015, Israel has experienced a wave of Palestinian terror, including missiles from Gaza, stabbings, shootings and vehicular attacks, echoing decades of violence against Israel civilians.

“The report also fails to mention that most Palestinians do not wish to become Israeli citizens, but want a state of their own — on the land that comprises the State of Israel. Apparently unable to grasp these complexities, Human Rights Watch has instead presented a simplistic ‘good guys, bad guys’ scenario, demonizing the Israelis, infantilizing the Palestinians and doing nothing to promote peace.”

Jack Saltzberg, founder and president of The Israel Group, also said in a statement to the Journal, “With the amount of misinformation, factually inaccurate content and propaganda spewed against Israel, it’s surprising that HRW didn’t list the BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] Movement as its main content provider.”

B’nai Brith International said in a statement that the HRW report “defames Israel” and accused HRW of having an “anti-Israel bias.” “Israel’s harshest critics often use this apartheid language in an attempt to delegitimize the Jewish state. This pervasive singling out of Israel on the world stage must stop.”

The Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Americans Chair Diane Lob, CEO William Daroff and Vice Chair Malcolm Hoenlein called the report a “libelous document” that demonizes and delegitimizes Israel. They also noted that the author of the report, HRW Israel and Palestine Director Omar Shakir, is a BDS “operative.”

“The apartheid system practice by South Africa was characterized by tyranny and dehumanization; this has no equivalence to a vibrant democracy where all citizens have rights and representation in the national legislature,” their statement continued. “These kinds of misguided efforts to vilify Israel inflame existing tensions and incite violence, obstructing the path to peace and the resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. HRW should be denounced for giving voice to such vicious hate while purporting to defend human rights.”

Jewish Leaders Denounce Anti-Israel Report by Human Rights Watch pic.twitter.com/Cz2KMww6Z7

— Conf Of Presidents (@Conf_of_Pres) April 27, 2021

NGO Monitor President Gerald Steinberg said in a statement, “The demonization of Israel through comparisons to the heinous legacy of the South African apartheid regime has deep roots, going back to the Soviet and Arab campaigns, and the infamous Durban NGO Forum. HRW’s latest contribution consists of the standard mix of shrill propaganda, false allegations and legal fictions. Exploiting the ‘apartheid’ image for propaganda is a cynical appropriation of the suffering of the victims of the actual apartheid regime.” NGO Monitor published their own analysis of the report on April 25; the Kohelet Policy Forum, an Israeli think-tank, similarly published an April 26 rebuttal to the report.

Other Jewish groups praised the report. “@hrw affirms what Palestinians have long said: Israeli authorities are committing apartheid and persecution,” Jewish Voice for Peace tweeted. “It is long past time for the rest of the world to call this what it is. It could not be more clear. It’s #apartheid. We must act accordingly.”

BREAKING @hrw affirms what Palestinians have long said: Israeli authorities are committing apartheid and persecution.

It is long past time for the rest of the world to call this what it is. It could not be more clear. It's #apartheid. We must act accordingly. https://t.co/aJ9kpWoMbt

— Jewish Voice for Peace (@jvplive) April 27, 2021

IfNotNow similarly tweeted, “We recognize that for many Jews, reckoning with a thoroughly researched and well-documented report about Israel’s apartheid practices, is going to be a painful experience, but it’s also a necessary one.”

We recognize that for many Jews, reckoning with a thoroughly researched and well-documented report about Israel's apartheid practices, is going to be a painful experience, but it's also a necessary one.

See below for an example of how not to engage with @hrw's report. https://t.co/cPl9umW1KK

— IfNotNow🔥 (@IfNotNowOrg) April 27, 2021

B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights organization that published their own report in January accusing Israel of apartheid, hailed the HRW report as “groundbreaking” for serving as “as an urgent wake-up call for the international community, to finally take concrete action in rejection of apartheid and in support of human rights, democracy and justice.”

1/4 B'Tselem welcomes the groundbreaking legal analysis by @hrw of Israel's apartheid regime. Firmly grounded in a careful research of the unfolding reality between the river and the sea, the alarming findings by HRW https://t.co/7OZdIS1NkP

— B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) April 27, 2021

2/4 are essential reading for anyone who desires to truly come to terms with Israel’s domination over Palestinians and its systematic oppression of them. To date, the international community has by and large refused to wake up to the reality of Israel's apartheid regime.

— B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) April 27, 2021

3/4 Instead, it preferred to keep pretending that the apartheid threshold might be crossed at some unspecified time, always pushed into an ever-distancing future. https://t.co/DFU922lNvC

— B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) April 27, 2021

4/4 Thus, “A Threshold Crossed”, the aptly named HRW report, must now serve as an urgent wake-up call for the international community, to finally take concrete action in rejection of apartheid and in support of human rights, democracy and justice.

— B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) April 27, 2021