HRW Still Ducks Garlasco and Stork Questions
The revelations in September 2009 that Human Rights Watch military investigator Marc Garlasco is an avid collector of Nazi memorabilia and author of a book on the subject prompted notable defensiveness and stonewalling by an organization devoted to challenging the conduct of others — and expecting corrective action. A March 28, 2010 story in the Times Online by Jonathan Foreman revisits the issue:
The vehemence of Human Rights Watch in defending Garlasco surprised many. But it made sense for two reasons. Though HRW relishes complaints from infuriated dictatorships, it is not used to its personnel and methods being questioned at home. And it coincided with a series of less-well-publicised criticisms of the group. Suddenly, when its own practices came under scrutiny, it became very touchy.
On September 14 last year the organisation suspended Marc Garlasco with pay “pending an investigation”. But as the months went by, HRW said nothing about the investigation — and nothing about Garlasco’s status.
Finally, the organization removed his name from the staff list on their Web site on March 5, 2010. Foreman notes Garlasco is far from the only dubious staff member, citing the case of Joe Stork. As CAMERA originally reported on Feb 19, 2009, deputy head of HRW’s Middle East department Joe Stork is a radical who spoke at a conference on “Zionism and Racism” in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in 1976 and who, in a volume based on that conference,
refers to the “Zionist colonization of Palestine” (p 209), the “Zionist settler-colonial enterprise” (p 214), the “infamous Balfour declaration” (p 214), and the “Zionist theft of the property and productive resources” (p 218). (Zionism, Imperialism and Racism, A.W. Kayyali, editor, Croom Helm Ltd.,1979)
More from SNAPSHOTS
CNN’s Amanpour Condemns “power grab” By Israel’s Prime Minister and Others
April 1, 2020
We’ve said it often, but it’s worth repeating: Anyone interested in reasonably unbiased information about Israel (at least) should avoid the broadcasts of CNN’s Chief International Correspondent and Anchor, Christiane Amanpour. In characterizing responses to [...]
Seattle Media Oblivious To Imam’s Hateful Indoctrination Condemning Jews
January 7, 2020
The Masjid Ar-Rahmah mosque teaching – that Allah transformed Jews into apes and pigs for disobeying him – delivered by Imam (prayer leader) Mohamad Joban – was posted online by mosque personnel. This December 2019 [...]
AP Distorts: Bethlehem ‘Almost Completely Surrounded’
December 10, 2019
Over two years after improving inaccurate language falsely citing Israel's security "barrier surrounding the biblical city" of Bethlehem, the Associated Press once again misrepresents. AP's Joseph Krauss and Mohammad Daraghmeh wrote yesterday ("Palestinians in Bethlehem [...]
Reuters Errs on Administrative Detention For ‘Anti-Israel Activity’
November 5, 2019
The Ofer Prison, near Ramallah (Photo by Tamar Sternthal) A Reuters article today egregiously misrepresents administrative detention, erroneously asserting that it is mainly applied to "Palestinians suspected of anti-Israeli activities," when in fact the Israeli [...]