Deserting the Moderates: The Dilution of Human Rights

by Samuel Westrop

Although the Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association [CADFA] claims to promote "human rights," in reality it is a politicized organization that uses human rights to sanitize its support for terrorism and to obtain public funding from the British government and the European Union. Whether a "coalition of women for peace" or the demand for a boycott, many of the NGOs that promise "solidarity" only serve to whitewash the extremists while deserting the moderates.

A new report by NGO Monitor, a group which monitors the activities and funding of non-profit organizations, has uncovered that €602,798 of taxpayers' funds was given by the European Union to the Coalition of Women for Peace, a politicized NGO that has glorified the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine [PFLP] terror group, and advocates boycotts, divestment and sanctions against the State of Israel.

This NGO is just one of many radical organizations that, while promising "peace" and "friendship," are actually, instead, promoting extremism. The extremists use the language of human rights to finagle moral legitimacy and public funds; the genuine moderates are forsaken.

The Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association (CADFA), for example, claims to "promote awareness about the human rights situation in Abu Dis" (a village in the West Bank) through "friendship links and twinning" with Camden, a borough of London.

In 2009, Jon Benjamin, Chief Executive of the Jewish Board of Deputies, wrote to Hampstead School to express his concern over a CADFA-organized event. One anti-Israel activist, brought over by CADFA, had warned children of "Jewish soldiers" who he claimed were persecuting him.

CADFA's chairman, Munir Nusseibeh, who describes himself as a human rights lawyer, in 2012 spoke on Press TV, a news channel run by the Iranian regime, about CADFA's and his support for Khader Adnan -- a jailed terrorist leader from Palestinian Islamic Jihad [PIJ], a proscribed terror group under UK law.

PIJ has conducted scores of car and suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israeli Jews and Arabs. In 2003, PIJ blew up the Maxim restaurant in Haifa, owned and frequented by both Arabs and Jews, and regarded as a model of peaceful co-existence. Twenty-one people were murdered and 51 injured; among the victims were two families and four children, one of whom was a two-month-old baby.

On its website and in one of its 'updates', CADFA proclaims support for the Abu Jihad Museum in Abu Dis. This museum honors imprisoned terror operatives, and describes them as "martyrs." It was founded in support of Khalil Al-Wazir, a PLO terrorist who planned the infamous Coastal Road Massacre, a terror attack that took the lives of 37 people, including 13 children.

CADFA describes suicide bombers as "martyrs" who were "killed" by the Israelis. Its website has listed Osama Mohammad Bahar and Nabeel Mohammad Halabiyeh as "martyrs" of Abu Dis. Bahar and Halabiyeh just so happen to have carried out a suicide bombing in Jerusalem, in which 11 people were killed and 155 wounded, but CADFA made no mention of their murderous acts.

Despite all this, CADFA enjoys financial support from both the British government and the European Union. This support is channelled through a jointly-managed programme called Youth in Action, an EU initiative started in 2007. In the UK, the British Council, a public body accountable to the British Foreign Office, manages the Youth in Action program.

CADFA has reported that its various twinning initiatives with Abu Dis schools are organized in collaboration with Camden local government and are funded by the British Council.

Further, CADFA has used European Union funds to finance a series of propaganda films. According to CADFA's report:

"During summer 2010, we had our very successful fifth youth visit from Palestine. Eight young people from Camden were given time off their school timetables to join eight young people from Abu Dis in a project making film about human rights and anti-discrimination. This took them on visits across London and to schools and youth clubs in Camden. Together, they made a series of small films and the final product, a DVD called "Don't Divide Us‟ was distributed to schools and youth clubs in Camden and Abu Dis."

Although CADFA claims to promote "human rights," in reality, it is a politicized organization that uses human rights as a facade to sanitize its apologies for terrorism and to obtain public funding.

"Twinning" initiatives are not just established by groups such as CADFA; a number of universities' student unions have announced partnerships in Gaza with educational institutions under the control of terror groups.

In 2011, nine student unions successfully submitted a motion through the National Union of Students that "resolved to… [build] links with students at the Islamic University of Gaza." In 2008, the Islamic University of Gaza produced rockets and explosives for use by the Palestinian terror group Hamas. One of Hamas's founders, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, established the University in 1978, and sixteen of the University's lecturers and teachers are elected Hamas members of the Palestinian legislature. It is important to see what is in the Hamas Charter. For example: "Peace and quiet would not be possible except under the wing of Islam," or, " Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time…." or "It is the duty of followers of other religions to stop disputing the sovereignty of Islam…."

The student unions that sponsored the motion claimed it would support "freedom for Palestine." Since then, several other student unions, including the London School of Economics, have also become directly affiliated with the Islamic University of Gaza.

Within universities, the faculty has shown itself to be just as politicized as the student body. In 2002, an academic at the University of Manchester sacked two Israelis from the editorial board of a journal solely because of their place of birth.

Amid the clamour for affiliation with institutions that support terror, British unions also discourage cooperation with their Israeli counterparts. Last week, for instance, one of Britain's largest trade unions, the GMB (membership: 600,000), voted to ban its members from visiting both Israel and the Palestinian territories on delegations organized by the organization Trade Union Friends of Israel, which promotes cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian workers.

In 2010, the Unite union voted to boycott Israeli companies. Last week, however, Adam Weir, a senior official of Unite, welcomed Islamic Jihad terrorist Mahmoud Sarsak to address a demonstration in London.

Whether a "twinning initiative," a "coalition of women for peace" or the demand for boycott, many NGOs and unions -- taxpayer-funded -- that promise "solidarity" only serve to sanitize the extremists while deserting the moderates.


Samuel Westrop

Source: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3788/human-rights-ngo

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.