Who Can Palestinians Rely on for Human Rights Advocacy? Not Al-Haq

Every human being has rights, and organizations that defend those rights should be lauded.

But what happens when an organization ostensibly dedicated to human rights, instead uses its resources to attack, discredit, and disparage Israel — instead of protecting the universal rights of all people?

This is exactly what Al-Haq does, with official support from Western governments.

Al-Haq describes itself as “an independent Palestinian non-governmental human rights organization,” and receives funding from the governments of  Sweden, France, Germany, the European Union, Denmark, and Norway. Al-Haq’s primary activities are intense politicized campaigns against Israel — not actually protecting human rights.

In fact, internal Palestinian human rights dynamics are not prominent on the agenda — or the website — of Al-Haq. There is not a word about the lack of elections for nearly 20 years in the Palestinian Authority (PA), where Mahmoud Abbas has been in charge since 2004. Nor is there anything about femicide or honor killings, despite the fact that UNICEF singled out PA-controlled areas for the prevalence of the murder of women by their husbands or male relatives. And Al-Haq has nothing to say about the PA’s well-known death penalty for people who sell land to Jews.

What Al-Haq does have plenty to say about is “genocide” — especially since Israel went to war against Hamas in the wake of the terror group’s October 7 massacre.

Of the 117 tweets by Al-Haq and its key officials in the two months after October 7, 63 (54%) mention “genocide” and/or “ethnic cleansing,” with the organization claiming (falsely) that Israel is committing genocide. According to Al-Haq, Israel’s war is “not against Hamas, but against the Palestinian people as a whole … Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza is an opportunity for settlers to ‘eradicate’ Palestinians.”

In reality, Israel has made near-unprecedented efforts to avoid civilian casualties in a complicated urban warfare setting.

Al-Haq has drained its resources to castigate Israel for its defensive war against the Hamas terrorists who murdered some 1,200 women, children, and men in cold blood, kidnapped more than 200 others, and committed horrific acts of sexual violence — without condemning the barbaric attacks.

Since the October 7 massacre, Al-Haq has used the rhetoric of “resistance” and “resistance fighters” — code for terrorists that target any and all Israelis, including civilians.

On October 12, Al-Haq was a signatory to a joint statement justifying Hamas’ attacks, claiming, “the criminal acts committed by the Israeli military constitute prohibited collective punishment as they target Palestinian innocent civilians for prior acts attributed to Hamas … Hamas and other Palestinian resistance movements are the product of Israel’s aggressive occupation that started in 1967, in breach of the UN Charter, an unlawful use of force that continues today.”

On October 30, Al-Haq’s Head of Legal Research and Advocacy, Susan Power, tweeted, “There is an international law right to resist, and peoples under colonial domination, have the right to resist as outlined in numerous resolutions, protocols etc. Legally this is not an issue. All acts of resistance must comply with rules of IHL. But still int’l right to resist.”

Going even further, Al-Haq’s Head of the Training and Capacity Building Unit, Ziad Hmaidan, celebrated the attacks and called for people to join in the resistance. On October 10, Hmaidan wrote on Facebook, “It is written in the Hadith: ‘You must wage jihad. The best jihad is preparing for war, and it is best to prepare for war in Ashkelon.”

A day later, he posted on Facebook, “Anyone who would watch the carnage; And remain silent; Partner in it!!” (translated from the original Arabic). And Al-Haq Legal Researcher and Advocacy Officer Aseel Al-Bajeh tweeted, “We don’t need to speak of our right to resist, for it is not a right, but a way of being & survival for Palestinians.”

Support for “resistance” against Israelis, apparent justification of Hamas’ murderous rampage, and baseless accusations against Israel should be seen in light of Al-Haq’s links with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The United States and others have designated the PFLP as a terror organization, and Israel banned Al-Haq in 2021 due to its ties to this terror group.

And this is just the tip of the Al-Haq iceberg. One could go on about its endless efforts to organize and promote BDS campaigns — even at the expense of the economic advancement of Palestinian workers — as well as its efforts in urging parliaments and governments around the world to condemn Israel for imagined crimes.

The public, as well as the organization’s donors, should know that rather than promoting human rights, Al-Haq is just hiding behind a curtain and encouraging hatred of Israel.

Citizens of countries donating to this organization should be outraged that this is where their tax money is going, and those governments should be ashamed to be supporting a terror-linked organization promoting hate.

Naftali Balanson is COO at NGO Monitor (www.ngo-monitor.org), a Jerusalem-based research institute. 

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