Anees writes from Jerusalem:
The other day I had the misfortune of watching this
multi-party discussion on Al-Jazeera/English. One party
was Gerald Steinberg. Untruths were spewing from him so I looked him up
and he is executive director of Non-Governmental Organization Monitor (NGOM). He is also professor of PolSci at
Bar Ilan University. Steinberg's views are sought often on the pages of the NY Times.
for the benefit of government policy makers, journalists, philanthropic
organizations and the general public. We intend to publicize
distortions of human rights issues in the Arab-Israeli conflict and provide information and context for the benefit of NGOs working in the Middle East. We hope this will lead to an informed public debate on the role of humanitarian NGOs."
And to:
of exploiting the label 'universal human rights values' to promote
politically and ideologically motivated anti-Israel agendas."
In other words, NGO Monitor is a monitor of human rights monitors. A watcher of watchers, in its own words. This would not be a problem were it not for a fact that for NGOM, the
only acceptable facts (or 'facts') are the ones that incriminate/smear
Arabs and their defenders. Re the latest massacre in Gaza, their website laments in a headline the "exploitation of international law".
NGOM is one of many creatures of
(effective) psychosis-driven-PR. (See: Campus Watch and the ADL (in its less honorable pursuits).
Needless to say, NGOM has a great many foes in the human rights org marketplace! The magic of Google Search, plus a couple hours of my time, demonstrate:
- NGOM vs. Rabbis for Human Rights
- NGOM vs. Amnesty International
- NGOM vs. Human Rights Watch (actually said to have often discriminated against Palestinians (?) and Lebanese. As well as against Chavez' government in its Venezuela reports. But that's another story)
- NGOM vs. B'tselem (Leading—and much loathed in Israel—Israeli human rights organization)
- NGOM vs. Oxfam
- NGOM vs. UNICEF
- NGOM vs. Jewish Voice for Peace
- NGOM vs. Lutheran World Relief
- NGOM vs. UNRWA (Evil Incarnate! aka United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East)
- NGOM vs. Save The Children
- NGOM vs. Scandanavian things
- NGOM vs. Many things with the word 'peace' in them
- NGOM vs. Machsom Watch (group of Israeli women who monitor Israeli-run checkpoints for human rights violations by soldiers of Palestinian civilians)
- NGOM vs. Muzzlewatch (Monitors monitors of monitors of Israel. WHOA.. too meta!)
- NGOM vs. Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders)
- NGOM vs. Mads Gilbert,
a one-person human righter, the Norwegian doctor who bothered to
volunteer at al-Shifa hospital as well as talk to the media during the
Gaza massacre. (See what Bill Moyers said in response to ADL's Abe Foxman's use of that smear. A smear which Fox News ran first among the 'news' bureaus.) - NGOM vs. Gush Shalom (The wonderful Uri Avnery's Israeli peace activism group)
- NGOM vs. Human Rights First (aka Lawyers Committee for Human Rights)
- NGOM vs. Many things with the words "human rights"
'With human rights advocates like these, who needs human rights?', NGOM propagandists must conclude.
