Posted by David Bernstein:
HRW's Whitson Defends Fundraising in Totalitarian Countries:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_07_12-2009_07_18.shtml#1247835447
[1]Inter Press Service
Bernstein maintained that "it's extremely unwise for a human rights
group to raise money in a totalitarian country, even from human
rights advocates in that country."
Whitson said the claim had no grounds, noting that the notion "that
any money from Saudi Arabia is tainted because it comes from a
country with a totalitarian ruling regime is a gross
generalisation."
"The ethnic background of our donors is irrelevant to the work we
do," Whitson told IPS. "It's not relevant to our work in Israel
that many, many of our donors are Jewish. And it's not relevant for
the work that we do that we get money from Arab countries."
"Should people be criticising us for the fact that much of our
support base is made up of Jews?" Whitson said. "Should that imply
that our work on Israel is in fact too soft?"
Let's review. The problem with HRW's fundraising in Saudi Arabia is
two-fold: (1) Totalitarian (or even run-of-the-mill authoritarian)
governments will only allow fundraising for human rights NGOs to the
extent that the NGO is at worst only a minor nuisance to it. If HRW
becomes dependent on Saudi money, it will have a significant incentive
softpedal Saudi Arabia's human rights violations; (2) HRW specifically
asked for money in Saudi Arabia due to its research and publicizing of
Israel's alleged human rights violations in Gaza, and the cost of its
battles with "pro-Israel pressure groups in the US, the European Union
and the United Nations" (as if the U.N., with dozens of Arab and
Muslim countries, is a hot bed of pro-Israel sentiment!). So HRW went
to the elites of a totalitarian nation, with some representatives of
the government in the audience(!) to ask for money to help it combat
the controversial policies of a liberal democracy.
On point 1, Whitson has intentionally distorted the point to an issue
of the "ethnic background of our donors." Elsewhere, she responded to
me by concluding that "believe it or not, some Arabs believe in human
rights too." If Whitson has some reason to believe that HRW's mission
won't be compromised by fundraising in totalitarian nations, say that
HRW is limiting its fundraising in such countries to 5% of its budget
so it doesn't become dependent, let her say so. But her claim that the
issue I raised is the "ethnic background" of HRW's donors is
egregiously dishonest.
As for point 2, HRW director [2]Ken Roth has claimed that the pitch
regarding Israel was made in the broader context of discussing HRW's
work in the Middle East, and did not amount to a request for funds
specifically to combat Israel. ("I've been told that we talked about
the range of our work in the region, including Israel, Saudi and
elsewhere.... That's [the Israel stuff] certainly part of the story.
We report on Israel. Its supporters fight back with lies and
deception. It wasn�t a pitch against the Israel lobby per se. Our
standard spiel is to describe our work in the region. Telling the
Israel story � part of that pitch � is in part telling about the lies
and obfuscation that are inevitably thrown our way.")
So, HRW acknowledges that it used its reporting on Israel and its
battles with Israel's supporters as part of its pitch in Saudi Arabia.
The only remaining question is how prominent this was. Given HRW's
constant refrain that it believes in "transparency," HRW should
release a transcript of the remarks made before the Saudi elites, or,
better yet, a video. And while they're at it, how about releasing data
on how much money comes from citizens of repressive regimes, how much
of that money is earmarked, and for what?
Meanwhile, here is [3]lawprof Maimon Schwarchild's account of his
acquaintance with a vociferously anti-American and anti-Israel senior
staffer at HRW.
References
1. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47685
2.
http://jeffreygoldberg.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/07/fundraising_corruption_at_huma.php
3.
http://rightcoast.typepad.com/rightcoast/2009/07/the-mask-slips-again-at-human-rights-watch-maimon-schwarzschild.html
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