Rights groups provide jihad with free services

Op-ed: As always, European countries are funding bodies that issue reports allegedly about ‘human rights,’ while in fact waging a campaign against Israel’s existence.

By Ben-Dror Yemini, YNET

The European Council, a body that is made up of all European countries and is wider than the European Union, has adopted a report written by Eva-Lena Jansson, a representative of Sweden’s Social Democratic Party, which accuses Israel of engaging in “an appalling pattern of apparently systematic unlawful killings” of innocent civilians.

The report is based on the Al-Mezan NGO, which is supported by Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands. The NGO itself supports the BDS Movement and is part of the campaign that is based on denying Israel’s right to exist.

As always, European countries are funding bodies that issue reports, allegedly about “human rights,” while in fact waging a campaign against Israel’s actual existence.

Relying on an Al-Mezan report about Israel is sort of like relying on a report of Jewish far right organization Lehava on the Palestinian Authority. The Lehava report, with all due lack of respect, will likely be more accurate.

But that is exactly the way respectable European countries are acting. And Israel has failed, a miserable failure, in its battle against this absurdity.

Israeli NGO Gisha issued a new report last week as well about the suffering of the Gaza Strip’s residents. The funding comes from similar sources to the ones funding Al-Mezan. The conclusions are known in advance. It’s Israel’s fault.

Excuse me? After all, the Hamas government is demonstrating amazing abilities when it comes to development and industry. It is digging and building and laying foundations and developing infrastructures. A huge momentum. There is only one problem. All this talent and energy are directed at one place only: The death industry. Hamas couldn’t care less about the residents’ distress. But according to the horror propaganda of al-Mezan and Gisha, which is adopted by the European Council, it’s Israel’s fault.

It should be noted that it was not Israel, but the Quartet (the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia) that presented clear conditions to Hamas for continuing the cooperation. They include recognizing previous agreements, recognizing Israel and renouncing violence.

Hamas has made it clear time and again that it rejects those terms. When it comes to development and prosperity or rockets and tunnels, it has chosen the latter.

The EU launched an initiative based on demilitarization in exchange for reconstruction. That was also rejected out of hand by Hamas.

That doesn’t mean that Israel should sit idly by. It should have launched another initiative and yet another to raise the Quartet and EU proposals again. It’s true that we know the answer in advance. But why not offer again and again? After all, such an initiative is basically a win-win situation. The response doesn’t matter. Israel only stands to gain from it.

One thing is clear: With or without another Israeli initiative, the responsibility for the extremely grim situation of the strip’s residents lies on Hamas’ shoulders. Only Hamas. In fact, wherever radical Islam grows or rules, the result is ruin and destruction.

The thing is that both the Swedish representative who wrote the report and the Gisha and Al-Mezan organizations adopt the same language. It’s not concern for the strip’s residents; it’s a contribution to the Hamas propaganda. If the different rights organizations wish to understand why the abhorrence towards them is only growing, it’s not because of their concern for human rights. It’s because the free services they are providing jihad with.