Rep. James McGovern of Massachusetts, a leading voice on human rights in the Congress, said last week that he has “seen no evidence up to this point that would justify” Israel’s effort to ban six leading Palestinian human rights groups as terrorist-linked.
McGovern had written to Secretary of State Tony Blinken last month and called on him as an “urgent” matter to “firmly and unambiguously denounce” the Israeli designation of October.
McGovern was asked what followed from his letter in a Boston Review forum on Middle East peace on November 9. He responded:
We have not heard back yet but I expect we will. We have had some conversations with State Department officials as well as U.N. officials on that. Again, I believe that human rights organizations are not to be criminalized nor should they be labeled as terrorist. And I have seen no evidence up to this point that would justify that. I would like to think that’s an area of common ground no matter where one’s perspective is on this issue.
McGovern’s language about the human rights groups was far more muted in that forum than it was in his original letter, when he wrote:
I urge you to take up the matter directly with the Government of Israel
and ask that it reverse this decision… Mr. Secretary, it is not enough to have expressed an initial leeriness regarding Israel’s decision to designate these six organizations as terrorist groups. It is now time to firmly and unambiguously denounce the actions taken and urge the Israeli government to reverse its decisions.
During the forum, McGovern expressed the view that both sides ought to agree that human rights groups should have the freedom to report.
McGovern has curbed his language because he got taken to the woodshed by the Israel lobby. Here’s what he said on the forum:
I sent a letter to Secretary of State Blinken criticizing the Israeli government for listing six Palestinian human rights organizations as terrorists. And by the way I checked with the UN rapporteur on human rights, I checked with the State Department beforehand just, to say, Am I missing something? I waited. But I asked, Was I missing something.
Most of the feedback I got from pro-Israel forces was pretty hostile. I will give you an exception though. The Jewish Federation in central Massachusetts that called me, we had a pretty constructive conversation. I said to them I considered myself a friend of Israel. I always have, But friends can be critics.
As for urgently firmly unambiguously denouncing — Even as McGovern held his forum Thursday, Blinken was meeting in Washington with Benny Gantz, the defense minister who issued the hateful designation, and saying nothing publicly about the designation.
McGovern, co-chair of the Lantos Human Rights Commission in the Congress, valorized the role of the Israel lobby, telling the forum last week the left needs to hear that perspective.
We need more candid conversations. We ought to have conversations with people who represent very very strong pro Israeli government views at the table. Because quite frankly we need to find out whether there is any common ground at all on this stuff.
He said the reaction to his letter was an example of the ideological polarization in Washington — you can’t work on any issue, big or small, with someone else unless you agree on everything.
And he offered a second example of the polarization, in which he faulted the left for having blinders.
J Street recently had a congressional delegation with some very progressive members who visited Israel, including a new freshman from New York, Jamaal Bowman. Barbara Lee [of the Bay Area in California] was on that trip as well. When they returned to the United States, they were pretty heavily criticized for their trip. I mean, they met with all different perspectives. You met with them right? [Addressing Sally Abed and Alon-Lee Green of Standing Together, an Arab-Jewish group in Israel] Yet they get heavily criticized for meeting with the prime minister of Israel. And at the time nobody really knew what he said. But the pushback was kind of jarring.
McGovern said that “great passion and strong objections” make politicians stay away from an issue: “Here in Washington, I’m not saying it’s the way it should be, I’m saying it’s the way it is, politicians tend to not want to gravitate toward issues that are polarizing or that engender the wrath of whatever constituency is out there.”
I focus on McGovern because he is a leading liberal in the House, and yet he continually emphasized the need to include the pro-Israel perspective in a human rights context. He said, “I have focused a lot of attention on human rights, on the suffering of the Palestinian people, also, you know, on the challenges that the Israeli people face. Often we talk about this in generalizations… Countries are complicated.”
Palestinian solidarity activists reject that type of analysis because it rationalizes apartheid as “complicated” and treats a grossly unequal power-dynamic as a both-sides situation.
McGovern has no choice politically, because he made it clear that there are many pro-Israel forces in his own district he has to listen to.
In my congressional district, I could participate in a forum on this very topic with people with sharply different perspectives [from those represented on the forum]– that would be much more in favor with what the Israeli government is now advocating. That’s just a reality here in the United States. What we need to do is to figure out if there is a way to see if there is any common ground…
There are people who are strongly pro-Israeli government who have their strong points of view who I would not equate as [rightwing Reps.] Marjorie Taylor Greene or Louie Gohmert. We could disagree with them but I think those people need to be engaged…. There needs to be a better job done of humanizing the conflict.
McGovern is addressing the role of the Israel lobby in the Democratic Party. You progressives may see it as regressive, but it can’t be marginalized as a Marjorie Taylor Greene is– I have to deal with them.
His criticism of Israel throughout the forum was nuanced, careful.
The final thing is, We need a better strategy on the expansion of settlements. It is unacceptable and it is obliterating– I hate to go down this road, one state, two state, everyone has their own opinions. The bottom line is it is making it much more difficult to get to a peaceful resolution of all that is going on right now in the region.
But would the Congressman ever support measures with teeth to end the occupation? No. Neither will Blinken. Israel supporters are simply too important inside the Democratic Party.
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https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/12/10/palestinian-prisoners-seek-justice-on-torture-treaty-anniversary
“When will Israel stop torturing Palestinian prisoners?”
“Israel is a signatory to the Convention Against Torture and yet it continues to torture Palestinians with impunity.” By Zarefah Baroud,
Dec. 10/21, Aljazeera.
EXCERPT:
“On June 15, 2016, Israeli forces arrested Mohammed El-Halabi, the director of the Gaza branch of World Vision, a Christian humanitarian aid organisation. Mohammed was accused of funnelling money from World Vision to resistance groups in Gaza. Probes conducted both by World Vision & the Australian government found no evidence of any diversion or misuse of funds.
“Mohammed was nevertheless subjected to 52 days of interrogation & torture. His father, Khalil El-Halabi, testified to the torture his son endured during those months in detention: ‘Israeli intelligence officers placed a filthy bag over his head & hanged him from the ceiling for prolonged periods.’
“Mohammed was also subjected to sleep deprivation & frequently physically assaulted by the Israeli officers who slapped him, ‘kicked him, especially in his genitals, & then strangled him until he felt that he was about to die … At times, they placed him in a small room & played extremely loud music until the pain in his ears became unbearable. In the summer, they would strip him naked, & then blast him with flashes of hot air. They would repeat the same process in the winter, but with cold air, instead.’ More than five years later, Mohammed remains in Israeli detention.
“For Palestinian detainees in Israel, these experiences are unfortunately far from rare. On the 37th anniversary of the United Nations drafting of the Convention Against Torture (UNCAT), the international community must demand an end to the continuing systemic torture of Palestinian detainees by Israel.
“The UNCAT was implemented on June 26, 1987, & ratified by Israel on October 3, 1991. Israel’s participation might seem surprising in light of the numerous human rights violations it has been accused of during the last few decades, including the use of torture, by well-respected human rights organisations, such as Amnesty International & Human Rights Watch.
““Until 1999, torture was considered a legal means of extracting confessions in Israel, especially for Palestinian ‘security’ detainees…”
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“However, once it was made illegal by Israel’s Supreme Court, the Israeli attorney general promised to protect any interrogator who continues to use ‘special means’. And indeed, special means continued to be employed as Israel made broad exceptions to this law, most notably in what they call ‘ticking bomb’ scenarios. According to Amnesty International, ‘Shin Bet operatives have tortured hundreds of Palestinians, citing the ‘ticking bomb’ scenario.’
“Not only do these exceptions allow these egregious, yet routine practices to continue without consequence, but they directly violate Article 2 of the Convention. Article 2, section 2, states, ‘No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.’ Israel has been criticised by the UN Committee Against Torture for its failure to meet this fixed standard.
“In addition, the failure of Israeli courts to fully define what they consider torture does not exonerate Israel from its obligation towards the UNCAT’s definition of torture. According to the Convention, the term ‘torture’ is defined as:
“'[A]ny act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.’
“Common forms of physical & mental torture that are often practised by Israeli interrogators & officers, typically on Palestinians during interrogation and while in detention, include painful handcuffing, being held in painful stress positions, & sleep deprivation. There have also been reports and accounts of threats of rape, & actual rape or sexual assault of, mostly, Palestinian women by Israeli prison personnel. Former detainees have also reported being forced to watch the torture of fellow prisoners to frighten them into compliance with the interrogations…”
A complete discussion of this issue would reasonably include the evidence that Istral could be classified as a terrorist organization. For example,
“Terrorism: How the Israeli state was won”
https://mondoweiss.net/2017/01/terrorism-israeli-state
Joy Reid, Maddow, Hayes, Melber etc no one on cable news even whispering about the pressure Israel and the I lobby continue to exert on Biden administration to step away from any deal with Iran. Not even on BBC. All Iran’s fault on BBC.
Lyse Doucet just played hardball with an Iranian official about the ongoing negotiations in Vienna. NEVER hear her play hardball with U.S. or Israeli officials on this issue. NEVER hear anyone bring up the pressure Israeli leaders are exerting to totally destroy any possibility of another deal
Great piece on McGovern, thanks for covering. Most of us here know how Israel and the I lobby have attacked any U.S. Reps who gets close to stating facts about the conflict, illegal occupation..apartheid Israeli policies.
Reading people like Bowman, McGovern et al out of the movement for justice for Palestinians is unrealistic politics. But those who are committed to human rights for Palestinians must continually turn up the pressure on waffling politicians.