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NGOs Make War on Israel

(Middle East Quarterly) Gerald M. Steinberg - Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HRW), the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), and others exert a tremendous influence in the UN, the EU, and Western capitals. Over 2,000 NGOs now have consultative status at the UN, the majority defining themselves as "universal human rights organizations." Initially, Helsinki Watch (which later became Human Rights Watch) and Amnesty were instrumental in protesting the denial of human rights to Jews in the Soviet Union and the communist regimes of Eastern Europe, including the case of Anatoly (Natan) Sharansky. But over the last decade, NGOs have expanded their agendas dramatically, going far beyond campaigning against the violation of individual rights. In the process, they have taken sides in international disputes, including the Arab-Israeli conflict. Major NGOs such as HRW, Amnesty, and Christian Aid have been instrumental in promoting the Palestinian political agenda. Despite their tremendous influence and political involvement, NGOs have been largely immune from independent investigation and analysis. Powerful NGOs with budgets of tens of millions of dollars are not accountable to any outside body. The writer is editor of NGO Monitor.
2004-09-10 00:00:00
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