The Palestinization of Human Rights: Al-Haq and HRW as Templates

This paper documents and analyzes the role of core individuals and institutions in the exploitation of human rights frameworks in targeting Israel, Zionism and the Jewish people. Through extensive use of double standards and invented norms, these frameworks have a primary role in shaping modern blood libels, particularly after October 7, through labels that include “apartheid,” “starvation,” and “genocide.” To examine this process covering approximately forty years, this paper examines two core NGOs – the Palestinian NGO Al-Haq, led by Shawan Jabarin, and the group’s Western tutors and allies; and Human Rights Watch, including Executive Director Ken Roth, and Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) division. The analysis of their publications, press statements, submissions, and later, social media posts, demonstrates the highly disproportionate targeting of Israel through human rights terminology and institutions – interspersed with cultural and religious antisemitism, such as conspiracy theories about Jewish power. Based on the “halo effect” surrounding these institutions, they systematically leverage political, media and academic platforms, thereby greatly expanding their impact. Additional dimensions to be examined include the mechanisms and relationships by which these actors receive funding that amplifies their power and influence through alliances with post-colonial anti-Western ideologists and related institutions.