Legal Commentary

Soros and Human Rights Watch

By David Bernstein

Human Rights Watch, bleeding donors because of the various scandals surrounding its reporting on the Middle East, and apparently finding Saudi elites either unavailable or no longer palatable, has found a sugar daddy: George Soros, who is donating $100 million to the organization.
This certainly takes care of HRW?s intermediate funding needs, but also makes HRW?s position as a leading organization of the anti-Israel international left even clearer. Even J Street and Soros parted ways long ago, before J Street even officially launched, because Soros is so toxic to anyone most people sympathetic to Israel, and J Street seeks to represent the left/liberal wing of the pro-Israel community. Gerald Steinberg of NGO Monitor has more.

UPDATE: Putting aside the Israel issue, Human Rights Watch officials consistently and loudly protest that they have no ideological agenda beyond promoting human rights. It doesn?t exactly help their case to be beholden to, a favorite donee of, a prominent left-winger who has been extremely critical of American foreign policy. It?s a free country, and HRW has every right to be a left-wing organization. It just shouldn?t be confused with an objective human rights monitor.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on September 13, 2010 (boomark / email).