World
Top Critic
HUMAN
RIGHTS
WATCH
Founder of Human Rights Watch
starts new group to counter Mideast biases.
Gary Rosenblatt
New York Jewish Week
R
obert L. Bernstein has enjoyed
two distinguished careers, one
professional and one volunteer, in
the interest of freedom of expression. Now,
at age 88, he is about to launch a third,
which he calls his "obsession" and "one of
the most important things I've ever done:'
Bernstein is best known as one of
America's leading publishers. He had a
34-year tenure at Random House, where
he was named president and chairman in
1966, and for the next 25 years published
many great authors, from William Faulkner
to Toni Morrison to Dr. Seuss.
On a trip to Moscow in 1973 to discuss
copyright law with the Soviets, Bernstein
became interested in publishing the works
of dissidents unable to publish in their
own countries. Three years later, back in
Moscow, he met Andrei Sakharov, and his
wife, Yelena Bonner, and struck a deal on
the spot to publish the autobiography of
the famous Soviet scientist-turned-human
rights activist.
That, in turn, led Bernstein to pub-
lish other dissenting voices, like Natan
Sharansky, Vaclav Havel and Jacobo
Timerman, and to launch an organization
that became Human Rights Watch (HRW),
now the world's most prominent group of
its kind, with an annual budget of more
than $40 million and a staff of nearly 200
advocating for and monitoring human
rights responsibilities in 90 countries.
But over the three decades of his lead-
ership, as chair and later founding chair
emeritus, Bernstein became convinced that
HRW had developed a strong bias against
one country: Israel.
(An investigative report by Ben
Birnbaum, titled "Minority Report',' was
published in The New Republic last April,
and details the strong case of HRW's one-
sided reporting on Israel.)
After years of acrimonious internal
debate and a feeling of isolation within the
group he founded and led, Bernstein went
public with his complaints in dramatic
fashion. He published an op-ed in the New
York Times in October 2009 explaining his
break with HRW and accusing it of "issuing
reports on the Israel-Arab conflict that are
helping those who wish to turn Israel into a
pariah state:'
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Since the article was published, Bernstein
has become a pariah himself within HRW,
none of whose board members have spo-
ken with him since.
New Organization
Tall, robust and energetic, Bernstein is
excited to talk about the launching of his
latest project, Advancing Human Rights,
which he sees as a corrective to the mis-
guided efforts of HRW and groups like it,
with an initial and primary focus on the
Middle East.
He said organizations like HRW can be
harmful because they have an asymmetri-
cal approach to reporting on the Mideast
conflict in describing Israel as a "principal
offender" of human rights rather than an
advocate.
Instead of noting that Israel is the only
state in the Mideast that supports freedom
of speech, the rights of women, an open
education and freedom of religion, the
focus has become the conduct of war, and
Israel is faulted disproportionately and
unfairly for fighting back against attempts
to destroy the Jewish state.
He readily acknowledges that Israel, like
any country, makes mistakes, sometimes
serious ones. But he believes human rights
groups should, most importantly, shed light
on closed societies rather than democra-
cies like Israel, which has some 80 human
rights organizations of its own that are
monitoring its actions, an independent,
vigorous press and an active and responsive
Supreme Court.
He was deeply upset by the fact that HRW
had just appointed to its advisory board
Shawan Jabarin, who heads a human right s
organization, Al Haq, in Ramallah, and is
believed by Israel to be a senior activist in
the Popular Front terror organization.
The HRW appointment was made
despite the fact that Israel's Supreme Court
in 2007 described Jabarin as "a Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde,' part director of a human
rights group and part "activist in a terrorist
organization" responsible for murder.
Bernstein was "shocked, but even more
saddened that an organization dedicated
to the rule of law seems to be deliberately
undermining it."
On Feb. 24, Bernstein held the first pub-
lic meeting of Advancing Human Rights,
which he described as still in formation,
to explain its goals to a group of about 30
associates and friends, and to introduce
Col. Richard Kemp, the former commander
of British forces in Afghanistan. Kemp is
an expert on warfare who has said that the
Israel Defense Forces in Gaza "did more to
safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat
zone than any other army in the history of
warfare."
Bernstein explained that the new group
"will try very hard to stick to the issues
and not the politics," and described his
effort as "one of the most important things
I've ever done."
HRW Critique
He reviewed his primary complaints about
HRW's Middle East division and said that
somewhere along the way" the group
departed from championing the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and "made
one of its main focuses to be an expert on
war, which I believe it is not:'
Starting with three young associates
whose ages, Bernstein pointed out, total
less than his, Advanced Human Rights will
focus on closed societies, starting with the
Mideast, China and Russia, as well as issues
related to women's rights and free speech.
One associate, David Keyes, explained
that he had worked for Natan Sharansky
in Israel and founded Cyberdissidents.org
in 2008 to promote freedom by supporting
online dissident bloggers around the world.
Kemp, the featured speaker who will join
the board of the new group, asserted that
"global insurgency" is at an unprecedented
level, aided by the fact that insurgents do
not adhere to the laws of war and instead
mingle among civilian populations.
He condemned the UN Goldstone Report
on the war in Gaza for not addressing the
problem of armies, like Israel's, unable to
attack and defend themselves without the
risk of harming innocents.
The fact that Israel was cited for war
crimes, despite its restraint, will only
encourage terror groups like Hamas and
the Taliban, Kemp said, to continue to
exploit civilians in such a callous way.
"This work is vital: he said of Advancing
Human Rights, "as the problems presented
by terrorists gets worse:'
Edith Everett, a philanthropist and for-
mer stockbroker, is the only person who
resigned from the board of HRW over
its Mideast reporting. Bernstein remains
founding chairman emeritus.
((
Robert Bernstein
"For a long time,' though she felt the
group was overly critical of Israel, "I felt
free to ask questions" at board meetings
discussing the Mideast."But when that
became no longer true, I left."
A turning point, she recalled, was the
2006 war in Lebanon, when HRW leaders
insisted that Hezbollah soldiers were not
hiding among civilians.
"They never backed down" from their
position, said Everett, a member of the
Jewish Week board. "They are not objective
people."
She admires Bernstein but is not directly
involved in his new project. Others who
support Bernstein worry about the credibil-
ity of his new venture.
In a quiet moment, Bernstein acknowl-
edged that he is "concerned" about how his
new group will be viewed. No doubt some
would see it as an effort to bolster Israel's
standing and an act of revenge on HRW,
and thus be marginalized by critics.
"If you are for free speech, women's rights
and religious freedom, I believe that makes
you pro-human rights above all," Bernstein
said. "And I am for all nations that believe
in those ideas."
An HRW spokesman, lain Levine, said
the group does not agree with Bernstein's
criticisms and noted that HRW covers 17
countries in the Mideast, including closed
societies.
In a letter to the New York Times after
Bernstein's critical 2009 op-ed, the current
and past chairs of HRW's board charged
that Bernstein was insisting "that Israel
should be judged by a different human
rights standard than the rest of the world."
On the contrary, though, what Bernstein
does insist on is that groups like HRW
judge Israel by the same standards it judges
other countries. Li