(Video) NGO Monitor - Justice and Human Rights Denied:

Five Years of NGO Silence on Shalit

NGO Monitor
17 October '11


Since June 25, 2006, when Gilad Shalit’s captivity began, NGOs that claim a human rights mandate have demonstrated little interest in Shalit’s human rights. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN), B’Tselem, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, Gisha, and Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) did not conduct sustained campaigns on his behalf. Gilad Shalit was simply not a priority for these NGOs.

Instead, they used this issue to condemn Israeli responses to terror from Gaza. Their statements immorally equated Shalit, who was illegally held incommunicado and without access to the International Red Cross, and Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisoners according to international legal standards.

Prof. Gerald Steinberg interviewed on the IBA English News October 17, 2011 about the 
Gilad Shalit prisoner deal and the utter failure of Human Rights NGOs during Shalit's
 5 years in a Hamas prison.

Uploaded by NgoMonitor on Oct 17, 2011

In turn, international institutions, such as the Red Cross and the UN Human Rights Council did not devote enough resources to the blatant violations of Shalit’s rights. In fact, while Shalit was held in Gaza without access to the Red Cross, the Red Cross sheltered Hamas officials in its East Jerusalem offices for more than a year, in violation of the organization’s alleged mandate of political neutrality. Similarly, the Goldstone Report, which was primarily based on NGO documents and lobbying, downplayed Shalit’s captivity.

In addition, NGOs have not condemned the immoral extortion exacted by Hamas on Israel, resulting in freedom for hundreds of terrorists, including murderers serving life sentences, who were tried and convicted according to due process of law. Aside from adding to incentives for future attacks against civilians, the use of Gilad Shalit as a hostage to force the release of individuals who have not completed their sentences seriously undermines international legal principles and promotes impunity for heinous crimes.

Instead, Gisha wrote, “We join in...of course the relief felt by the Shalit family and the families of the prisoners who will be released,” (emphasis added); Adalah, Al Mezan, and Arab Association for Human Rights “consider the release of 1,027 Palestinian and Arab prisoners from Israeli prisons a positive step” (emphasis added); Shawan Jabarin of Al Haq claimed that “This transfer and deportation of protected persons goes against the Geneva Conventions...This latest deportation is just another step in Israel’s policy to drive Palestinians out...[The Israeli] philosophy behind that is that if you live outside, you won't come back and you will take your family with you”; and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) released a statement entitled “Closure of Gaza Must Be Lifted as Shalit’s Pretext Diminished.”

(Read full "Justice and Human Rights Denied")

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