Israel has reversed its ban on awarding a work visa to a representative of Human Rights Watch, less than 24 hours following a statement by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Emmanuel Nahshon who told Ha’aretz the ban came in response to “the organization’s extremist and anti-Israeli agenda,” since HRW has “placed itself in the service of the Palestinian Authority, acting in a significant, clear and unambiguous fashion against the State of Israel, in a completely biased way. This is the reason we are no longer prepared to turn the other cheek and will not issue a work visa to a person who arrives here with a clear goal of damaging Israel and its good name.”
That’s all changed now, apparently, and the same spokesperson Emmanuel Nahshon has stated that Israel would be open to reexamine the case should HRW appeal the original decision.
Meanwhile, according to Nahshon. “a representative of HRW could certainly come in on a tourist visa.”
Performing a furious back crawl in the pool of state, Nahshon told Ha’aretz that the foreign ministry’s view had been given to the interior ministry before the completion of the internal decision-making process, which is why the foreign office intends to reexamine its decision. Nahshon admitted it was all the fault of the foreign office.
According to Ha’aretz, citing an anonymous Israeli senior official, the decision to reverse the decision came from Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who was visiting Australia and only heard about the ban from the media. Netanyahu was responding to a “dissatisfied” inquiry from the US Administration regarding the unexplained mistreatment of an American NGO.
According to NGO Monitor, HRW uses distorted legal rhetoric to regularly accuses Israel of “war crimes,” “serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law,” “collective punishment,” and fostering a “culture of impunity.” The group applies double standards and unique standards to Israel as part of its broader delegitimization campaign. Systematic NGO Monitor analyses demonstrate that HRW disproportionately focuses on condemnations of Israel and that publications related to Israel often lack credibility. Promotes an agenda based solely on the Palestinian narrative of victimization and Israeli aggression.