HRW Continues its Anti-Israel Crusade
The South African Zionist Federation fully rejects with contempt the latest report submitted by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), yet another anti-Israel stance based on distortions, misinformation and political agendas of the organisation.
HRW has admitted in the report that it does not base its claims on the repeatedly debunked notion that Israel is similar to apartheid South Africa. Rather, it recruits the use of a dubious United Nations convention from 1973 which does not apply to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is simply another attempt to dilute the meaning of actual apartheid practices in the old South Africa and is an insult to the victims who suffered under it.
The interests of the report are clear in its conclusions, which seeks to reduce Israeli security and avowed support that most maximalist positions of Palestinian extremists, including BDS and other efforts, destroy the Jewish state. This is consistent with the approach of the HRW who have been pursuing Israel in this fashion since the antisemitic Durban Racism Conference, which took place in 2001. The original founder of Human Rights Watch, Robert Bernstein, has even distanced himself from the organisation’s work on the Israeli-Palestinians conflict.
Whilst this report is being promulgated, multiple Arab nations are signing peace treaties with Israel and scaling up their involvement with the Jewish state. Democratically elected political parties with constituents from Arab-Israeli communities are engaging in the Israeli Knesset with their counterparts. Simultaneously, Israel is faced with rocket attacks not just from Gaza but from Syria as well. This reality is not portrayed in the report and contradicts strongly the allegations that it makes.
Rowan Polovin
National Chairman
SAZF
