Trump considers labeling top int. humanitarian groups ‘anti-Semitic’
Washington (QNN)- The Trump administration is reportedly considering labelling a number of top international humanitarian organizations as antisemitic after they documented Israeli rights abuses against the Palestinian people, including settlement building in the occupied territories.
The plans were detailed in reports in Politico and the Washington Post and based on briefings from unnamed officials and a congressional aide.
The groups included Amnesty International, Oxfam, and Human Rights Watch. A declaration by the State Department could come as early as this week, adding that it might encourage other governments not to support the groups’ work.
The proposal has prompted sharp opposition from career officials in the department, who say it would be a gift to authoritarian governments that have long sought to delegitimize human rights groups for their work exposing mass atrocities and crimes against humanity.
The move would appear to be another gift to the occupation state in the run-up to the US elections as it is reportedly being driven by Pompeo.
‘Israel’ is known for putting obstacles for human rights organizations. Last year, Gilad Erdan, then strategic affairs minister, threatened to ban Amnesty International from ‘Israel’ over a report that called on websites such as Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia and TripAdvisor to boycott listings in illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories – regarded as illegal under international law – accusing the sites of profiting from war crimes.
“Amnesty International, that hypocritical organisation that speaks in the name of human rights, is acting to promote a boycott of Israelis as part of a campaign of antisemitic delegitimisation,” Erdan said at the time.
Amnesty International accused the Trump administration, and the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, of attempting “to silence and intimidate international human rights organisations”.
Pro-Israeli advocates always complain of “bias” by human rights groups, claiming that they focus too heavily on the treatment of the Palestinian people by the occupation state.
The groups, however, have a lengthy track record of spotlighting the mistreatment of individuals at the hands of governments elsewhere, including authoritarian regimes.
“It’s preposterous,” Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski (N.J.), who previously worked as Washington director of Human Rights Watch, said in a phone call. “They also document the treatment of the Palestinians by the Palestinian Authority. They are critical of every government in the world, including the United States. Yet the State Department under every previous secretary of state has relied on these organizations as credible sources of information and treated them as partners.”
