HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH SLAMS ISRAEL

Group: Israel Violating International Law
JERUSALEM - Israel has violated international law by systematically destroying Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip town of Rafah in a bid to create a buffer zone along the border with Egypt, according to a human rights report released Monday. The Human Rights Watch report also accused the Israeli military of exaggerating the threat posed by weapons-smuggling tunnels running from Rafah to Egypt — the main justification for the home demolitions.

Human Rights Watch Report on Gaza Lacks Credibility and Reflects a Political Agenda
The Human Rights Watch report condemning recent Israeli security actions in Gaza reflects unverifiable Palestinian allegations and unsubstantiated security judgments. For example, HRW claims that IDF actions were taken despite the absence of "military necessity," ignoring hundreds of rockets fired by Gaza Palestinians at Israeli towns. HRW's report stands in stark contrast to its minimalist approach to terrorism. In the past four years, HRW has issued over 100 reports, press releases, and other condemnations of Israeli defensive actions, in contrast to a handful of low-profile reactions to terror. HRW reports on Israel lack substantive credibility and are driven by a clear and consistent political and ideological agenda. Beyond contributing to the destruction of human rights norms and demonization of Israel, this agenda also diverts attention from genuine human rights catastrophes, such as in Sudan, which has received far less attention from HRW. (NGO Monitor)

See also HRW Falls Short - Editorial
Terrorism, as HRW has eloquently stated, is a human rights problem. Yet the human rights community has a long way to go to fully absorb the implications of this, by shining their spotlight at least as brightly on terrorist groups and the governments that support or tolerate them as they do on democracies that are willing to sacrifice their own soldiers' lives to uphold the sacred value of innocent human life. (Jerusalem Post)