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2023-01-08 -Great Cultural Revolution
Ex-Human Rights Watch chief denied Harvard fellowship over anti-Israel bias
I’m shocked.
[IsraelTimes] Dean of Kennedy School said to side with pro-Israel donors and veto Kenneth Roth’s position at human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
center; HRW has long been accused of bias against Jewish state.

Truly shocked — someone at Harvard is concerned that a lifetime of being blatantly anti-Israel might upset donors?
The former head of Human Rights Watch (HRW) Kenneth Roth
...son of a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, he spent his career actively avoiding the topic of Jew-hate, yet is indignant that Israel notices his prejudice. After all, everybody he knows says the same things about Israel, so they must be true...
was barred by a Harvard University dean from taking up a fellowship at the school over his alleged anti-Israel bias, according to a report on Thursday.

Continued from Page 3



Roth was asked to become a senior fellow by Harvard’s Carr Center for Human Rights, part of the university’s Kennedy School, shortly after he announced his retirement in May.

However,
it's easy to be generous with someone else's money...
Douglas Elmendorf, the school’s dean, rejected the position for Roth due to HRW’s longstanding positions against Israel, The Nation biweekly reported.

Roth, who is Jewish, ran the New York-based group for three decades. He championed a range of human rights issues, including a push to pan anti-personnel land mines, and the establishment of the International Criminal Court for prosecuting war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

Roth and HRW are widely praised among human rights activist muppets for their work, but their harsh criticism of Israel — including accusations of war crimes and apartheid — has angered Israeli authorities and pro-Israel groups.

In 2021, HRW issued a sweeping 213-page report accusing Israel of apartheid. Israel rejected the report, calling its "fictional claims... both preposterous and false," and accusing HRW of having "a long-standing anti-Israel agenda."

Roth told the UK’s The Guardian newspaper that he noticed something was wrong during a phone call with Elmendorf in July.

"We had a perfectly pleasant chat for about half an hour or so, but toward the end, he asked the question, ’Do you have any enemies?’ And I said, ’I’ve got many. That’s a hazard of the trade,’" Roth said, adding he knew the dean was referring to Israel.

"He didn’t want to hear about how I’ve been sanctioned by China, sanctioned by Russia, or attacked by Rwanda or Saudi Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century...
. He wanted to know: What was my position on Israel?"

Roth charged that his position was denied because Elmendorf caved to pressure from pro-Israel donors to the school.

The Nation attributed the dean’s decision to several factors, including a fear of upsetting the donors and damaging its ties with the United States national security community, from which it draws other fellows.

The former HRW head denied claims that his organization singles out Israel in its work, telling The Guardian that the Jewish state "is one of 100 countries that we cover."

"And even within the Israeli-Paleostinian context, we deal with Hamas, a regional Iranian catspaw,, we deal with the Paleostinian Authority, we deal with Hezbollah. We are fair and objective, but we are critical, because the Israeli government deserves to be criticized. It is becoming increasingly repressive, and as we found in the occupied territories it is committing the crime against humanity of apartheid," he said.

Roth left his role at Human Rights Watch in August, and instead accepted a visiting fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania.

Prof. Kathryn Sikkink, who is affiliated with the Carr Center, told The Nation that she was surprised when Elmendorf told her that Roth’s fellowship had not been approved over "anti-Israel bias."

"We thought he would be a terrific fellow," she said, adding she attempted to rebut claims of HRW’s bias in an email to the dean by comparing other similar assessments of Israel, but Elmendorf refused to amend his decision.

James F. Smith, a spokesperson for the Kennedy School told The Nation: "We have internal procedures in place to consider fellowships and other appointments, and we do not discuss our deliberations about individuals who may be under consideration."
Posted by trailing wife 2023-01-08 00:00|| || Front Page|| [12 views ]  Top

#1 Prof. Kathryn Sikkink, who is affiliated with the Carr Center, told The Nation that she was surprised when Elmendorf told her that Roth’s fellowship had not been approved over "anti-Israel bias."
"We thought he would be a terrific fellow,"


Because of the bias, right?
Posted by Frank G 2023-01-08 07:38||   2023-01-08 07:38|| Front Page Top

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