Antizionist Organizations – Unreliable Sources – NGOs : From Blog Posts to Book 

The purpose of “Antizionist Organizations – Unreliable Sources – NGOs” and these blog posts is to combine them into a published book entitled Safe Schools for Jewish Students: An Educator’s Guide to Preventing Antisemitism and Strengthening Belonging.

Go here for the full Table of Contents.

Chapter 6 – Antizionist Organizations: Unreliable Sources – NGOs

Unreliable Sources – NGOs

Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs)

NGOs are mission-driven non-profits with focuses on human rights, politics, and environmental issues. They are a good source of information, but if their mission is to demonize Israel, they are not reliable.

A good way to evaluate their bias is to check NGO Monitor and do a search for their organization. NGO Monitor will summarize their biases, their source of funding, and their activities.

BDS Movement (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions)

BDS is a global campaign calling for boycotts, divestment resolutions, and sanctions against Israel, and only Israel. The organization, on their website, declares that “Israel maintains a regime of settler colonialism, apartheid, and occupation over the Palestinian people.”

The solution was suggested by Omar Barghouti, co-founder of BDS, in an interview at the University of Ottawa in 2007: “Definitely, most definitely we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine.”

Supporters of the BDS Movement include:

• The Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)
• Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)
• Peace and Justice Studies Association (PJSA)
• American Muslims for Palestine
• Union of Teachers of Private Schools
• American Anthropological Association (AAA)
• American Studies Association (ASA)
• Association for Asian American Studies
• National Women’s Studies Association
• Association for Humanist Sociology
• National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS)
• Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA)
• Seattle Education Association
• Teaching Assistants Association

Amnesty International

Amnesty International systematically demonizes Israel by promoting BDS and antisemitism under the disguise of universal human rights. The bias and discrimination comes in the form of accusing Israel of  “apartheid” and “genocide.” Amnesty International excludes antisemitism as a human rights concern and undermines the implementation of the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.

For example, in January 2019, Amnesty International published “The Tourism Industry and Israeli Settlements,” a report alleging that “the Israeli government has political and ideological reasons for developing a tourism industry in occupied East Jerusalem and Area C of the West Bank.” In the report, Amnesty denies Jewish connections to Holy Land historical sites – including in the Old City of Jerusalem – and faults Israel for preserving Jewish historical and cultural heritage, as well as places that are holy to Christians.

Further, in Amnesty International’s report accusing Israel of committing “genocide,” I demonstrated how Amnesty International had to re-define genocide to shoehorn Israel’s defense of its citizens and retrieval of its hostages as a crime against international law.

Human Rights Watch

HRW has an anti-Israel bias and, in some instances, has equated Israel’s actions with reasons to hate the Jews.

Executive Director Ken Roth, in August 2014, equated “Nazi genocide” with “the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza,” and in September 2014, blamed the attacks on Jews in Germany and the rise of antisemitism in Europe on Israel’s conduct during the Gaza War.

In September 2009, contributor Marc Garlasco, “senior military analyst,” was revealed to be an obsessive collector of Nazi memorabilia, and instead of condemning Garlasco’s activities and removing his publications from HRW’s website, HRW defended him and tried to justify his actions.

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Author Biography of Safe Schools for Jewish Students

Ezra Barany, son of a Bronx father and a Dutch mother from Nazi-occupied Netherlands, loves riveting readers with Jewish thrillers. His first two books in The Torah Codes series were award-winning international bestsellers. In his free time, he has eye-opening discussions on the art of writing novels with his wife and book coach Beth Barany. A high school physics teacher, Ezra lives in Oakland with his beloved wife and two cats working on the next book. Ezra, not the cats.