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Human Rights Watch Diverted Far from Its Founding Vision and Principles
(Los Angeles Jewish Journal) Prof. Gerald M. Steinberg - Human Rights Watch was established in 1978 as Helsinki Watch by Robert Bernstein, president of Random House, after he met with dissidents in the Soviet Union. Bernstein believed in exposing abuses to pressure regimes and lead to positive outcomes. HRW became an NGO superpower with an annual budget of $100 million, and the accompanying media footprint and political power. However, having diverted far from Bernstein's founding vision and principles, HRW is dominated by radical ideologues who help lead a worldwide orchestra that demonizes Israel, including the Gaza "genocide" blood libel, through the manipulation of human rights values and institutions. In 2009, Bernstein denounced the organization for abandoning the founding mission "to pry open closed societies, advocate basic freedoms and support dissenters;" ignoring "brutal, closed and autocratic" Arab dictatorships; and exploiting human rights in order to turn Israel into "a pariah state." Most journalists still embrace the NGO halo effect, treating them as altruistic non-partisan research-driven frameworks that are beyond criticism. The writer is founder and president of NGO Monitor.