Gerald M. Steinberg

For the former UK Labour Party politician, see Gerry Steinberg.
Gerald Steinberg

Gerald M. Steinberg is an Israeli academic, political scientist, and political activist.

Biography

Gerald Steinberg was born in the United Kingdom,[1] obtained his doctorate in government from Cornell University, in 1981.[2] He began teaching at Bar Ilan University in 1982, and is a professor of Political Science.[3][2]

NGO Monitor

Steinberg is founder and president of the NGO Monitor,[4] an institute whose stated aim is "to generate and distribute critical analysis and reports on the output of the international NGO community" and "to publicize distortions of human rights issues in the Arab-Israeli conflict and provide information and context for the benefit of NGOs working in the Middle East."[5]

Steinberg has been a longtime critic of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Christian Aid, Oxfam and other organizations that he accuses of having "contributed to the hatred, rather than supporting peace".[6] Writing in a 2004 Jerusalem Post article[7] he said, "HRW's press statement exposes it as a biased political organization hiding behind the rhetoric of human rights." Later he accused HRW of "exploiting the rhetoric of human rights to delegitimize Israel".[8] Human Rights Watch accused Steinberg of "sleight of hand" in his reporting of its activities, and of ignoring its condemnations of Palestinian militant actions.[9]

In 2014, former Associated Press journalist Matti Friedman claimed that AP reporters had been banned from interviewing Steinberg and NGO Monitor.[10] The AP denied the claim.[10]

Court case

In January 2010, after the European Commission refused to release documents on NGO funding, Steinberg initiated legal action under the EU's Freedom of Information statutes. The court ruled that instability in the Middle East and the prospect that "such information may pose a danger to human rights groups" justified the refusal.[11] The court further found that Steinberg's petition was "manifestly lacking any foundation in law."[12][13]

Criticism

Yehudit Karp, a former Israeli deputy attorney general, charged that Steinberg published material he knew to be wrong "along with some manipulative interpretation".[14]

References

  1. Friedman, Matti (30 November 2014). "What the Media Gets Wrong About Israel". The Atlantic. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  2. 1 2 Professor Gerald Steinberg Academic cv
  3. "Prof. Gerald Steinberg". Bar-Ilan University.
  4. "Staff". NGO Monitor.
  5. "About Us". NGO Monitor.
  6. Gerald Steinberg (January 13, 2005). "Human Rights Groups are Working Against Peace". NGO Monitor. With their multi-million-dollar budgets, global superpowers such as Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International, Christian Aid, Oxfam and dozens of smaller allied groups have contributed to the hatred, rather than supporting peace.
  7. Gerald Steinberg (March 8, 2004). "Israelis Have No "Human Rights"". NGO Monitor.
  8. Gerald Steinberg (April 7, 2004). "Human Rights Watch can't take the heat". Scholars for Peace in the Middle East.
  9. Kenneth Roth (April 2, 2004). "The Truth Hurts". Human Rights Watch.
  10. 1 2 Bernstein, David (2014-12-02). "Blacklisting of pro-Israel watchdog organization NGO Monitor by the Associated Press". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2016-03-15.
  11. Chaim Levinson (December 25, 2012). "EU court rejects NGO Monitor petition to release details on Israeli rights groups". Haaretz.
  12. "EU throws out NGO Monitor case, tells Gerald Steinberg to pick up the tab".
  13. "ECJ discards Israeli group's NGO funding case". The Jerusalem Post - JPost.com.
  14. Yehudit Karp (March 6, 2012). "NGO Monitor and Adalah: The thinly veiled agenda". Times of Israel.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, April 05, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.