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PALESTINIAN CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS SELECTIVELY CONDEMNS TERROR

An internationally-funded ‘Human Rights’ watch openly condones terror activities, as “resistance fighting.” The attacks are encouraged, unless those fatally wounded in the attacks are Arabs.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) has issued two recent press releases scolding terror operatives for their “carelessness” in unsuccessfully launching attacks in or near heavily populated Arab civilian areas. According to <a target="_blank" href="http://pmw.org.il" class="wntu">Palestinian Media Watch (PMW)</a>, the PCHR urges Arab “resistance fighters” to conduct “military actions” in areas where failed attempts will not cause Arab casualties.

PCHR presents itself as a legitimate human rights organization. The “Human Rights” group holds "Special Consultative Status" with the UN's Economic and Social Council, and is largely funded by The European Commission, the governments of Norway and Denmark, as well as by major organizations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden and the Netherlands. PCHR also receives funding from the United States, with donations streaming from the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Fund, and Grassroots International.

While ignoring attacks which claimed Israeli civilian lives, PCHR was quick to point out violations of human rights, when terror attempts on Israelis backfired, killing Arabs instead.

Last month, as the IDF was preparing to evacuate Jews from their homes in Gush Katif, terrorists fired Kassam rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot. The rockets missed their intended target, instead striking an Arab hospital and a home, killing one Arab child and injuring nine others.

Following the incident, PCHR issued the following statement:<blockquote>"PCHR strongly condemns such acts and remains gravely concerned at repeated mistakes in firing those rockets hitting [Palestinian] civilian areas and endangering civilians. PCHR also reminds the Palestinian resistance groups of their responsibilities with regard to
protection of civilians in keeping with international law, and calls on them to abstain from launching any military activities from inside or near civilian areas."</blockquote> Last week, a Hamas weapons cache in a residential area prematurely exploded, killing four Arabs.

In a press release immediately following the explosion, "PCHR reminds the Palestinian resistance groups of their duties towards the protection of civilians, and calls upon them to abstain from conducting any military activity inside or near residential areas...”

According to PMW, “none of the press releases on the PCHR website expresses condemnation for any rocket attacks that have hit their civilian targets and killed Israeli civilians, including young children.”

The PMW report also notes that “PCHR falsifies news items to fit its political anti-Israel political agenda.” Following an anti-terror operation in July, in which the IDF killed three terrorists, the PCHR reported those dead as civilians, stating that Israel merely “alleged” the operatives membership in “resistance groups.” On the same day as the PCHR press release condemning Israel’s strike, three Arab daily newspapers identified the killed operatives as members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad.

According to PMW’s directors Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, “This distortion allowed PCHR to mask the true identities of the terrorists and give support to its fallacious assertion that Israel was targeting ‘civilians.’ The title of their press release stressed this lie: ‘IOF [Israeli Occupation Forces] Escalate Attacks on Civilian Targets.’”

<i>Based on an article by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook which originally appeared on the <a target="_blank" href="http://pmw.org.il" class="wntu">PMW website</a>.</i>