When HRW was schmoozing with the Saudis
What a difference a few months can make… Sarah Leah Whitson
– who is the executive director of the Middle East and North Africa Division at
Human Rights Watch – is now raging against Saudi Arabia. You can find countless
examples of her fury on her Twitter feed.
But just a few months ago, Whitson apparently felt that the
Saudis (and other repressive Arab regimes) could make great allies against
Israel.
Back in the merry month of May, Whitson quoted a tweet by
Jordan’s foreign minister condemning Israel’s response to the Gaza riots and
added the comment:
“Your turn @AdelAljubeir and @abzayed and @mfaEgypt -- have any
firm words for your ally @Netanyahu and his open fire policies that allow
this massacre to unfold?”
The people she tagged as contemptible ‘allies’ of Israel’s
prime minister Netanyahu included Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Aljubeir and
United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed as well as Egypt’s
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
It clearly didn’t matter to Whitson that these countries
have dismal human rights records – she would have been only too happy if they
joined her to bash the Jewish state for defending its borders from violent mobs
incited by Gaza’s Islamist rulers.
Just like Whitson has changed her tune on the Saudis, her
boss Ken Roth is by now also sure that they really deserve to be shunned. As he
commented
disapprovingly on a recent report about brisk business at a Saudi investment
conference: “Shame, shame, shame. What people won’t do for money.”
Well, less than a decade ago – when the Saudi human rights
record was hardly better than now – one could have said: “Shame, shame, shame.
What Human Rights Watch won’t do for money.”
It’s worthwhile checking out this superb post
by Jeffrey Goldberg from 2009 on “Fundraising Corruption at Human Rights Watch.”
Goldberg notes that he first found it hard to believe a
report which claimed “that Human Rights Watch officials went trolling for
dollars in Saudi Arabia, and that the organization’s senior Middle East
official, Sarah Leah Whitson, attempted to extract money from potential Saudi
donors by bragging about the group’s ‘battles’ with the ‘pro-Israel pressure
groups.’” As Goldberg put it back then: “this allegation, if proven true, would
cast serious doubt on whether Human Rights Watch’s Middle East division could
ever fairly judge Israel again.”
Goldberg then recounted his efforts to find out whether the
allegation was true, and he posted his astonishing email exchanges with Ken
Roth, who did everything humanly possible to avoid answering Goldberg
questions.
In the end, Goldberg managed to get Ken Roth to admit that
his organization had indeed tried to solicit Saudi donations by highlighting
HRW reports on Israel and by claiming that Israel’s supporters “fight back with
lies and deception.”
Well, that was probably a very worthwhile fundraising effort
in a country that had long made sure
that “modern-day Muslim readers have at their disposal the whole gamut of Nazi
antisemitic mythology and iconography.”
Shame, shame, shame. What Human Rights Watch won’t do for
money.