Congressman Smith Boycotts the Boycotters

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are NGOS, wrapped in their mantles of self-righteousness. They are also two of the most relentless enemies of Israel in that morally topsy-turvical worlde of “human rights” NGOs. Both organizations have been reliable sources of anti-Israel propaganda for decades, everywhere finding fault with the Jewish state, while minimizing the atrocities carried out by Palestinian terrorists on Israeli civilians. Both NGOs have supported the BDS (Boycott, Divest, and Sanction) movement, that attempts to pressure Israel economically, so that it will agree to make dangerous concessions to its Palestinian enemies.

Now Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations, has had quite enough of these two self-described “human rights organizations,” with their deep bias against Israel, and announced that he will boycott the boycotters, by refusing to hear testimony from either NGO. His decision, which all decent people should welcome, is discussed here: “‘Disgusted’: Congressional Human Rights Chair Announces Boycott of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch Over Israel Treatment,” by Andrew Bernard, Algemeiner, June 22, 2023:

The chairman of the Congressional subcommittee responsible for human rights announced on Thursday [June 22] that he would boycott representatives from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch from testifying before his committee because of their position that Israel is an “apartheid” state.

Speaking at a hearing on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias in the UN, the Palestinian Authority and NGOs, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations, said he was “disgusted” by the two human rights organizations.

Isn’t that the Flaubertian mot juste – “disgusted” –that we would all have liked to utter as our response to HRW and Amnesty International? “Disgusted” with the NGOs that deny Israel’s rights, according to the Mandate for Palestine, to engage in “close settlement by Jews of the land.” “Disgusted” with both NGOS that claim, without feeling the need to provide the slightest evidence, that Israel is “an apartheid state.” “Disgusted” with the moral disequilibrium of the NGOs that defend Palestinian atrocities and attack, instead, the IDF when it tries to arrest or kill the perpetrators of terrorism. “Disgusted” with both NGOs for denouncing Israel for its non-existent “persecution” of Palestinians. “Disgusted” when both NGOs charge Israel with deliberately harming civilians.

It used to be that Amnesty International was all about political prisoners, and they had a very sterling reputation,” Smith said. “They have reneged on all of that…Apartheid is an abomination… To sit there and take that type of language and smear Israel with it is appalling and Human Rights Watch is doing the exact same thing…I’ve had representatives of those groups come and testify on other issues. But you know, it just occurred to me, I’m gonna boycott them. Any hearing I have on human rights, Amnesty is not invited, nor is Human Rights Watch, because of their smear, their horrible smear.”

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch did not immediately respond to The Algemeiner’s request for comment.

In a 2021 report titled “A Threshold Crossed”, Human Rights Watch declared that Israel was now an apartheid state. Amnesty International released a similar report in 2022. Those findings have been widely condemned by Israel, US elected officials and Jewish groups, but have been increasingly normalized among international human rights organizations.

Those charging Israel with being an apartheid state never adduce their evidence, for in truth there is none. They hope by dint of repetition to make the charge stick in the brains of a mass audience willing to believe whatever they are told often enough. These Israel-denigrators are counting on the cretinization of the masses, and I’m afraid they are not wrong to do so.

So let’s, one more time (there have been so many), go through the evidence that conclusively shows Israel is not an “apartheid state.”

In Israel, Arabs serve on the Supreme Court, sit in the Knesset, go abroad as diplomats for their country. The chairman of Israel’s largest bank, Bank Leumi, is an Arab. Jews and Arabs work together in offices and factories. Jews and Arabs study together in universities. Jews and Arabs play on the same sports teams and in the same orchestras. Jews and Arabs are business partners in a hundred sundry enterprises, from restaurants to high tech start-ups. Jews and Arabs receive medical care in the same hospitals, from both Jewish and Arab medical personnel. There is only one difference in the treatment of Jews and Arabs, and it is in favor of the Arabs. Jews must, while Arabs may, serve in the military.

All this Congressman Smith knows perfectly well, and he’s not going to stand for either Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International continuing to libel Israel as “an apartheid state” on his dime. They can do it wherever they can drum up a credulous or bigoted audience – the annual meeting of CAIR, perchance? Or a meeting with editors of the New York Times? — but he’ll be damned if he’ll let them appear to spread their poison before his subcommittee. Perhaps “Sixty Minutes” would like to make the Congressman the object of one of their stories — you know, of the Daniel-come-to-judgment variety. It could be called “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.” Or has that been used already?