Dangerous decoy: Ignoring human rights abuses

[King_David]

“Honor killings” – the barbaric murder of women who “shame” their families are the most egregious example of women’s oppression.

Anti-Israel activists spin tales about alleged Israeli human rights abuses to instill hostility against the Jewish state. They have had an impact, but not one desired by most fair-minded people.

The false allegations have served as a decoy, distracting the UN, NGOs, churches, students and the wider public from the real human rights abuses occurring in the Middle East.

The activists invoke and misapply human rights principles to accuse Israel of abuses that are rare in pluralistic, democratic Israel, but are rampant elsewhere in the region. Their hostility to Israel trumps their commitment to the very human rights values they claim to uphold, and gives a pass to real human rights violators in the region.

Consider the ongoing subjugation of women throughout the Middle East.

“Honor killings” – the barbaric murder of women who “shame” their families through unapproved relations with males, by violating codes of behavior or dress, or by being victims of rape – are the most egregious example of women’s oppression. Honor killings are prevalent in Iraq, Jordan, Turkey, the Palestinian Authority (Gaza and the West Bank), Yemen and elsewhere in the region. In Israel, honor killings are outlawed and treated as murder.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Dangerous-decoy-Ignoring-human-rights-abuses-310506

[King_David]

1. Instead, they want to defame the only gay-friendly, progressive country in the Middle East

Consider the oppression of gays in the region. While Israel is among the world’s most progressive nations on gender and sexual issues with the military’s gay policy of “don’t ask, don’t care,” and Tel Aviv has been identified as the world’s top gay tourist destination, gays elsewhere in the Middle East face severe persecution.

Homosexuality is a crime with punishments ranging from imprisonment in Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Morocco to flogging, stoning, hanging, or beheading in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Yemen.

Though homosexuality is not illegal everywhere, gays are often arrested under laws against “lewd conduct” in Egypt, and they experience police harassment and torture in Egypt and the Palestinian Authority. In Iraq, a campaign of extrajudicial executions, kidnappings and torture of gay men began in 2009. Gays may also be the victims of honor killing.

Palestinian society “has no mercy for sexual diversity,” according to a gay Palestinian website. Gay Palestinians know that Israel is a haven for them, and many have fled to Israel where they seek asylum with the help of Israeli human rights groups.

But far too many anti-Israel activists and their supporters don’t seem to care.

Instead, they want to defame the only gay-friendly, progressive country in the Middle East.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Dangerous-decoy-Ignoring-human-rights-abuses-310506

[Deep13]

2. I wouldn't say they are prevelant.

They happen and it's wrong, but they are rare events. So called honor killings are also illegal in Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, and probably the Palestinian territory too. Of course "illegal" and "nonexistent" are not the same thing.

But that's not what this is about, is it. You make a habit of orientalizing Arabs in order to distract attention away from Israel's campaign of ethnic cleansing against Palestinian Arabs.

Since Israel effectively controls most Palestinian Arab territory through occupation, illegal settlements, and other coercive devices, the two state solution is no longer possible. The only just manner of proceeding to peaceful coexistence is the one state solution following a South African style truth and reconciliation commission.

[oberliner]

3. "Palestine from the river to the sea, from the north to the south, is our land....

and we will never give up one inch."

That's from the Hamas chairman.

[shira]

6. You've got it backwards. The "evil" Jews are used to distract attention away....

...from gross human rights abuses committed elsewhere.

The false allegations have served as a decoy, distracting the UN, NGOs, churches, students and the wider public from the real human rights abuses occurring in the Middle East.

False allegations.

Not genuine human rights abuses.

[alc]

4. once we've dumbed down the term enough we can ignore it

At least once a month I hear the term "human right" applied to something that is nothing like traditional human rights.

For example trying to argue that a cell phone is a "human right" - it may be critical to getting a good education in the US (I disagree but it's a topic we can discuss) but it is in no way a "human right". Once people start to read a headline "Republicans violate citizen's Human Rights" and even wonder for a second whether the article is about waterboarding or denying cell phones, the term has lost much of it's power.

[Scootaloo]

5. An image comes to mind...

I'm so glad to know that the fact that Saudi Arabia is a civil rights shithole excuses and annuls Israel's own violations.

Iran's less repressive than North Korea. So we mustn't ever accuse Iran of being repressive.

India has a more ingrained rape-culture than Denmark, so rapists in Denmark should be given a pass.

Stalin was an abjectly horrifying mass murderer and dictator; thus Mussolini should be considered a hero for being on the other side of the war!

People eat dirt cakes to stave off hunger in Haiti, so we can't talk about poverty in the United States.

Israel sets fire to the homes and workplaces of African refugees and West bank Palestinians, so how dare anyone talk about racism in France?

[shira]

7. The article concludes with the results of your anti-Israel advocacy

Yet, the anti-Israel campaigners consider championing these groups or protesting the region’s gender, religious and political apartheid politically less important than maligning Israel. When people call attention to these abuses, they are often silenced with accusations of Islamophobia.

People across the Middle East pay a high price for this misdirection. Their needs are forgotten. The human rights groups who should champion them because they appear to care about the Middle East, are too busy demonizing Israel and simultaneously ignoring the human rights abuses of the PA and the reactionary Hamas regime in Gaza. The most dangerous outcome is that these principles, distorted beyond recognition, could cease to be useful moral yardsticks for bringing desperately needed reforms to the Middle East.

Congrats for being used by fascist anti-Israel forces & doing irreparable harm to the cause of human rights.

[Scootaloo]

8. The article's conclusion is stupid bullshit

And don't talk to me about fascism. It's a rule; stormtroopers can't use the term as a pejorative.

[King_David]

9. Why ?I have seen you talk about bigotry and antisemitism

http://www.democraticunderground.com/113441449

[Scootaloo]

10. For the reasons I outlined in my initial response

If we are to accept that recognizing, talking about, and working against human rights abuses by Israel is "ignoring" human rights abuses everywhere else, well, we have to apply that logic everywhere, and not just contain it to Israel.

By this logic, it is forbidden to speak of poverty in the United States, because people in the United States have it better, in general, than people in Haiti when it comes to poverty. Haiti is worse, we must therefore be silent about not-as-bad. Haiti is, in turn, also not allowed to complain because at least they're not Afghanistan. And since Afghans are ever-so-slightly better-off than Somalis, well, they better keep their mouths shut too, out of all people in the world, only Somalis are allowed to speak about poverty.

By this logic, anyone who cares for the welfare of, say, dogs, is "ignoring" the plights suffered by humans everywhere. Why on earth are there people who waste their time and effort giving a flying fuck about some animal, don't they know there are people who are going hungry and living with abusive families, too?

By this logic, pediatricians in your town are ignoring the staggering child death rates in India and southern Africa due to preventable causes. What fucking hypocrites, right? They pretend to be interested in the welfare and health of children, but when it comes down to it? Pffft, they just want the fame and fortune of attending the heirs of rich Americans, and are complicit in the deaths of all those Malawian kids who died of amoebic dysentery last year.

By this logic, your own focus on defending Israel means you are pro-cannibalism, because you aren't devoting your time to the suffering of the Mbutu people of central Africa, instead. Knowing that these people are literally hunted and eaten like animals by people on both (all?) sides of the ongoing war in Eastern Congo, how can you waste your time whimpering about people shaking their fingers at Israel? How dare you harm their human right to not be fucking eaten!

...Is the flaw of the "other people do bad things, so let's not talk about this other person also doing bad things" argument sinking in yet? I'll bet it's not, oh well. Maybe Ami Kaufman will have better luck getting it through your noggin (probably not, though).

You could, instead, simply let it sink in that people can't be everywhere at once, that tragedies are not ordered on a worst-come-first-served basis, that good things do not erase bad things, that people have pet issues, specialized interests, and individual focuses, and that the existence of an advocacy group for one thing does not erase an advocacy group for another thing (there may in fact be quite a bit of membership overlap between dozens of advocacy groups.)

If I made a sock puppet that looked like David Horowitz, would that help?