We, the undersigned, are dedicated human rights advocates who have been at the heart of the Human Rights Foundation‘s (HRF) community as speakers, partners, and their allies. We write to express our deep dismay over HRF’s recent statement on the unfolding events in Gaza.
For a long time, we have considered HRF to be an important platform. But for nearly as long, we have recognized that HRF has had a deeply problematic stance when it comes to Palestinian rights and Israeli violations. The fact that it took HRF over 40 days to issue any statement at all is unacceptable enough – but when it did issue a statement, it only made matters worse.
The statement is not rooted in human rights. While it calls upon Israel to abide by the rules of international law, it fails to mention that these rules have been violated so extensively as to make any such a call meaningless. Even worse, the statement employs the same talking points that have been used to justify the targeting of hospitals, schools, journalists, bakeries, solar panels, and other civilian infrastructures.
HRF fails to call for the absolute minimum – an immediate cease fire – despite the horrific death toll that has already surpassed 17,000 deaths, over 7,000 of them children (according to Euro-Med Monitor). Meanwhile, HRF’s chairman, Garry Kasparov, has been using his Twitter account to engage in rhetoric that we can only describe as shockingly dehumanizing, militaristic, racist, and anti-human rights.
The statement foregoes all context about the brutal persecution of the Palestinians, who have been living under Israeli military tyranny for generations. It makes no reference to the fact that Israel is considered an apartheid regime by the world’s leading human rights experts. It makes no mention of the collective punishment inflicted upon the people of Gaza. And it makes no mention that leading experts & academics have described Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocidal.
HRF has access, via its community, to a large number of civil society activists and experts with deep knowledge of the conflict who were ready to assist HRF with their experience, but the organization chose to release their statement without any outreach or consultation with its community members. This is unacceptable from an organization supposedly working to promote democracy.
We call upon Human Rights Foundation to immediately retract their statement, issue an apology to its community, distance itself from its chairman, and issue a new statement that is in line with the principles of human rights. Until such action is taken, we will no longer take part in any HRF event; nor do we want to be considered a part of its community. We will be advising all human rights activists within our extensive networks to take a similar stance.
You either stand for human rights everywhere or not at all; and HRFs selectivity is an insult to all of us who have been part of this community for years. We hope that HRF will heed our words and stand on the right side of history. Anything less betrays the values and ethics that we stand for.
Signed:
- Sanaa Seif – Speaker, Egypt/UK
- Maryam Al-Khawaja – Speaker, Bahrain/Denmark
- Iyad El-Baghdadi – Speaker, Palestine/Norway
- Fadi Elsalameen – Speaker, Palestine
- Meron Estafanos – Speaker, Eritrea/Sweden
- Filmon Debru – Speaker, Eritrea/Germany
- Lina Alhathloul – Speaker, Saudi Arabia
- Nabhan Alhanshi – Participant, Oman
- Hend Shaheen – Participant, Egypt
- Ramy Essam – 2019 Laureate, HRF’s Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent. Egypt/Sweden
- Omar Abdulaziz – 2020 Laureate, HRF’s Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent. Saudi Arabia
- Wafa Mustafa – Participant, Syria/Germany
- Zineb El Rhazoui – Speaker, Morocco/France
- Habiba Al Hinai – Participant, Oman
- Rania Aziz – HRF Freedom Fellow, Sudan
- Befekadu Hailu – HRF Freedom Fellow, Ethiopia
- Jem Garcia – HRF Freedom Fellow, Philippines
- Ahmed Gatnash – Participant, Libya/UK
- James Lynch – Participant, UK
- Khalid Al-Baih – Participant, Sudan
- Mai El-Sadany – Participant, Egypt/US
- Leyla Hussein – Speaker, UK/Somalia
- Asma Khalifa – Speaker, Libya
- Ahmed Shihab-Eldin – Participant, Palestine
- Mona El-Tahawy – Speaker, Egypt
- Abier Alkhateeb – Participant, Palestine
- Omar Alshogre – Speaker, Syria
- Ramy Yaacoub – Participant, Egypt/US
- Aron Kader – Speaker, Palestine/USA
- Mélody Patry — Participant, France
- Alayna Self – Participant, USA
- Amr Gharbeia – Participant, Egypt/US
- Mohamed Nagi Alassam – Speaker, Sudan
- Anne Zaki – Participant, Egypt/UK
- Amr Waked – Speaker, Egypt
- Aymen Zaghdoudi – Participant, Tunisia
- Bahar Ghandehari – Participant, USA/Iran
- Assaad Thebian – Participant, Lebanon
- Maryam Nayeb Yazdi – Speaker, Iran
- Hadar Cohen – Participant, USA/Israel
- Inès Osman – Participant, France/Algeria
- Celine Kasem – Participant, Syria/ Canada
- Myrian Whaibe – former HRF Research Fellow
- Bas – former HRF Staff
- Azadeh Pourzand – Participant, Iran
And allies:
- Patrick Zaki – Egypt/Italy
- Solafa Magdy – Egyptian Journalist / Human Rights Defender
- Esra’a Al Shafei – Bahrain
- Sahiba Saabqi – Pakistan
- Paul Baroody – USA
- Valentina Tepedino – Venezuela
- Fatimah Elasi
- Nada Arshad – India
- Khalil Jebebli – Tunisia/Greece
- Fathima Ayoob
- Milena Pérez Joglar
- Inês Shaw Evangelista
- Julie Hasjiem
- Tania Hobbs – USA
- Asmae Fadil
- Maggie Lutz
- Monica Bottazzi
- Sarah Hebeisen – Germany/Scotland
- Tarek Halabi – Jordan
- Nadia Mahmoud
- Sabrina Mohd Ismail – Malaysia
- Fawzia Khan – attorney, South Africa
- Adam Nejmaoui
- Faten Shehadeh, academic. Palestine/Jordan/Australia
- John Allen, University of Helsinki
- Natalie Hart
- Bushra Tabassum
- Salman Alkhaldi – Kuwait
- Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman – Saudi Arabia
- Madeline Cross – Australia
- Aamna Memon – Pakistan
- Faten Alhusainan – Syria/Sweden
- Barbara Bijos Maués – São Paulo, Brazil
- Ned Hourani – Philippines
- Aiman Muheisen
- Ziani Yamna – Belgium / Morocco
- Dr Aliyah Zambri – Malaysia
- Najmuddin Hamzah – Malaysia
- Nor Hana Hamzah – Malaysia
- Lauren Gesswein – Brazil
- Eric Hermanny
- Nadine Dahan – Libya/UK
- Jack McGinn – London School of Economics
- Syed Muhammad Hamza Zaidi – Canada/Pakistan
- Carlos Palombini – Professor, Brazil
- Suki Ouaari – Spain/USA
- Saira Yasmin Hamidi – USA
- Chiara Orsini Gravina – Germany
- Kaveeta Sharma – Pakistan
- Deborah Lawson – USA
- Sara R Powell – USA
- Aryana Alnajjar – Canada
- Richard Jacob – UK
- Aishath Shahaadha – Maldives
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Open Letter to Human Rights Foundation 