Freedom House Readies Downgrade of Israel, Based on Palestinian Deceit
Latest update: October 31st, 2012
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Photo Credit: YY
For Freedom House to downgrade Israel as “less free,” given the reality on the ground, one has to wonder at the non-profit’s objectivity and research capabilities. Was such “lying by omission” simply errors due to sloppy research on the Internet that relied on Palestinian and ISM propaganda websites? Or was it possibly the result of donations from Arab or Muslim special interest groups? Repeated attempts to contact Freedom House about these discrepancies were ignored.
This is not the first time Freedom House has collided with the truth. In 2006, a member of its Board of Trustees, ironically the current president of the Gatestone Institute, resigned over a vote by the Board that would require every report, before being released, to be approved by all members of the Board of Trustees – a form of censorship. The decision was occasioned by a report, “Update: Saudi Arabia’s Curriculum of Intolerance,” written by Nina Shea of the Center for Religious Freedom (then a semi-autonomous a branch of Freedom House, but which also, after the vote, parted company with the organization). Shea’s report was written at the request of Muslims in America who had brought her copies of the official Saudi Textbooks in Islamic schools in America. They claimed they were concerned about the hatred and violence toward people of other religions that was being promoted in these textbooks, and wanted it exposed. After the report was released, however, a member of the Board at the time, Farooq Kathwari, CEO of Ethan Allen Interiors, Inc., was apparently approached by Dr. Faroque Khan, a founding member of the Mosque and Islamic Center of Long Island, in Westbury, New York. Khan seems to have determined that Shea’s report did not reflect favorably on the Muslim community and therefore, unlike the Muslims who had originally approached Shea, instead approached Kathwari to see if Shea’s report could be suppressed. The Board evidently agreed with Dr. Khan.
Sadly, the integrity of a once-venerable organization, which claims to promote freedom throughout the world, is now more than suspect, as the supposed guardians of freedom work overtime to empower totalitarian movements and regimes.
Originally published by the Gatestone Institute.
tell a friendAbout the Author: The writer heads Stop the ISM. He is an investigative journalist and contributor to Front Page Magazine, senior intelligence analyst and communications director for the Northeast Intelligence Network, and also heads Defending America for Knowledge and Action (DAFKA).
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I don't get this. I just looked at Freedom House's 2012 report, which you can find here:
http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2012/israel
It still lists Israel as a "Free" country with a 1.5 rating. I didn't see anything in the report that was not factual. And it has quite a ways to go before it can be rated as only "partially free".
And the idea that it is caving to Arab pressure is ludicrous given that not a single Arab country is rated as "Free".
Is any part of the above article found in the report? The Waqf is in control of the Temple Mount. Isn't it?
I don’t get this. I just looked at Freedom House’s 2012 report, which you can find here:
http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2012/israel
It still lists Israel as a “Free” country with a 1.5 rating. I didn’t see anything in the report that was not factual. And it has quite a ways to go before it can be rated as only “partially free”.
And the idea that it is caving to Arab pressure is ludicrous given that not a single Arab country is rated as “Free”.
I don’t get this. I just looked at Freedom House’s 2012 report, which you can find here:
http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2012/israel
It still lists Israel as a “Free” country with a 1.5 rating. I didn’t see anything in the report that was not factual. And it has quite a ways to go before it can be rated as only “partially free”.
And the idea that it is caving to Arab pressure is ludicrous given that not a single Arab country is rated as “Free”.