Egyptian Mona Seif has been nominated for what is known as the “Nobel Prize for Human Rights,” the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders.  The nominee was chosen by a panel of human rights organizations which include Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Human Rights First and the International Service for Human Rights.

Seif was nominated in her capacity as one of the main founders of an Egyptian grassroots organization, “No to Military Trials for Civilians,” which started a national movement bringing together lawyers, activists, the families of victims and other interested parties all of whom oppose what they insist are the inappropriate restrictions of Egyptian military trials for civilians who should not be encumbered with such restrictions.

Seif, along with others who sought to resist the freedom restrictions imposed by Egyptian president Mubarak, used social media to broadcast the oppressive moves of the Egyptian government, and helped mobilize protesters and supporters to join her in Tahrir Square during the Egyptian Revolution in January 2010 – February 2011.  In the post-Mubarak Egyptian world Seif has continued monitoring and broadcasting actions of the post-Revolutionary Egyptian government.

But the 27 year old biology graduate student has a darker side.  Although fully able and energized to advocate for Egyptian rights and freedoms, at the same time Seif gleefully tweets about blowing up gas pipelines to Israel.

This dualism is one that we have seen repeated with young Egyptian human and civil rights advocates.  Several times over the past year the West has at first applauded, and sought to laud, young Egyptian women activists whose pursuits came to the attention of the West because of their social media skills.  But each time, a darker side has been revealed, one that, once exposed, brought disgrace not only to the activist.  It also reflected poorly on those whose due diligence failures revealed an over-eagerness to reward non-Western activists.  The problem is that the activism of these particular individuals was animated solely by a desire to benefit those similarly situated, but who were just as willing as their own oppressors to vilify and deny rights to others.

A good example of this propensity was when First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry almost gave the “Secretary of State Woman of Courage Award” to an Egyptian woman, Samira Ibrahim, in early March.  Ibrahim, like Seif, was a Twitter activist in support of Egyptian rights, but Ibrahim also supported terrorism and the murder of Americans and Israelis.

However, just hours before Obama and Kerry were to present Ibrahim with the Award, the decision was cancelled (postponed they said at the time) after a relentless chorus of horror rose up to stop them.  It was social media that almost swept in Ibrahim as an honored activist by American leadership.  However, a wave of disgust towards Ibrahim who had tweeted praise for the murders of Americans in Benghazi on September 11, 2012, extolled the terrorist bombing that killed 5 Israelis and a Bulgarian last summer, and praised Hitler, swept her back out just before the awards ceremony.

Turning back to Seif, a look at her social media accounts before selecting her as a potential recipient of such an important human rights award should have been standard procedure.  After all, she was well known and was brought to the attention of the human rights organizations precisely because of her extensive and sophisticated social media activity.  Perhaps after this fiasco social media searches will become de rigueur for all sophisticated due diligence efforts.

Because Seif’s Twitter account reveals a propensity to express the most vulgar kind of hatred towards Israel, both in terms of how she expresses herself: #F[expletive deleted]Israel is a popular choice, as well as the substance of her messages, which advocate terrorism against the Jewish State and which harshly criticize Human Rights organizations which dare to suggest the terrorist group Hamas should refrain from killing Israeli civilians.

Tweets of Mona Seif encouraging blowing up gas pipeline between Egypt and Israel, and using vulgar and violent hashtag.

In addition, Seif is sloppy with her facts and fails to remove slanderous falsehoods even after they’ve been definitively exposed.  An example of this is when she sent a picture on Twitter of a man mourning the murder of his small child, which she blamed on Israel.

An Israeli military court Tuesday sentenced  Bassem al-Tamimi, a 45 year old Palestinian man who encourages Palestinian youth to attack Israeli soldiers with projectiles, was sentenced to 13 months in jail.

Al-Tamimi, who garnered the support of the European Union, which criticized Israel for imprisoning him, was released after the trial, having served all 13 months while awaiting trial.

Al-Tamimi’s tactics have been called child abuse by some, who accuse him of manipulating children to endanger themselves and others in a street war against Israel.  Amnesty International called al-Tamimi a “prisoner of conscience,’’ and celebrated him as a protest leader.

Proving that public officials must read their own stories before sending them out, we found an item on the Palestinian news agency Ma’an’s website Saturday that began:

“Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and north Africa called Friday for Israel to stop using excessive force against demonstrators.”

The item continued (2nd paragraph): “Ann Harrison said reports that dozens were hurt at demonstrations were “extremely worrying, particularly in the light of frequent and persistent use of excessive force against Palestinian protesters.”

Only the third paragraph recalled that the same Ms. Harrison also had some critical things to say about the Palestinian demonstrators’ own brothers in arms, citing her statement:

“We are also concerned at reports that Palestinian Authority security forces have tried to prevent protests in areas under their control, while Hamas security forces have beaten protesters in Gaza.”

There, that last part, about Hamas beating the daylights out of their own people, that was buried way down there. Because, let’s face it, you kind of expect Hamas and the PA to beat the you-know-what out of Palestinians, it’s what they do. Israel, on the other hand, is expected to turn the other cheek.

According to the Amnesty International annual review of death sentences and executions, only 10 percent of the world’s countries, or 20 out of 198, carried out executions last year. But those countries that did, were extremely enthusiastic about it.

You didn’t have to be a murderer to be executed in 2011. People were executed or sentenced to death for a range of offenses including adultery and sodomy in Iran, blasphemy in Pakistan, sorcery in Saudi Arabia, the trafficking of human bones in the Republic of Congo, and drugs in more than 10 countries.

At least 676 people were executed with full public disclosure worldwide. Methods of execution in 2011 included beheading, hanging, lethal injection and shooting.

Some 18,750 people remained under sentence of death at the end of 2011.

But, according to the report, these figures do not include the thousands of executions that Amnesty International believes were carried out in China, where the numbers are suppressed.

Nor do they account for the probable extent of Iran’s use of the death penalty – Amnesty International has received credible reports of substantial numbers of executions not officially acknowledged. Also – at least three people were executed in Iran for crimes that were committed when they were under age 18, in violation of international law. Four additional, unconfirmed, executions of minors were reported in Iran, and one in Saudi Arabia.

In the Middle East there has been a sharp rise in recorded executions – up almost 50 per cent over the previous year.

A mere four countries tipped the balance for the entire region: Iraq (at least 68 executions), Iran (at least 360), Saudi Arabia (at least 82) and Yemen (at least 41). These accounted for 99 per cent of all recorded executions in the Middle East and North Africa.

The rise in Iran and Saudi Arabia alone accounted for the net increase of 149 recorded executions across the world, compared to 2010.

But the press release which, in the end, is offering the information news outlets around the world will be quoting, is saying nothing about executions which took place in the Gaza strip, authorized by the Hamas government.

One has to download the report and search for “Hamas” (skipping over countless references to the Bahamas) to discover the statement:

“Three men were executed in the Palestinian Occupied Territories, and at least five death sentences imposed. All executions took place in Gaza under the Hamas de facto administration, and were carried out without the approval of the President of the Palestinian  Authority (PA) Mahmoud Abbas as required under Palestinian law. One death sentence was reported from the PA-controlled West Bank, but President Abbas has refrained from approving any executions.”

Incidentally, when users check for “Palestinian Authority” in a drop-menu on Amnesty’s website, they are sent to the message: “There is no Amnesty International presence in this country.” This message is followed by: “However, you can still donate to Amnesty International or join as an International Member.”

We thought you should know…

The United States remains the only country in the Americas and the only member of the G8 group of leading economies to execute prisoners – 43 in 2011.

Illinois became the 16th state to abolish the death penalty. A moratorium was announced in the state of Oregon.

Some countries are known to add the element of surprise to their executions: in Belarus and Vietnam, prisoners were not informed of their forthcoming execution, nor were their families or lawyers.

Showmanship was also employed in some places: public judicial executions are known to have been carried out in North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Somalia, as well as in Iran.

But Secretary General of Amnesty International Salil Shetty appears satisfied that the general trend in the area of executions of prisoners is moving in the right direction. “The vast majority of countries have moved away from using the death penalty,” he said, adding, “Even among the small group of countries that executed in 2011, we can see gradual progress. These are small steps but such incremental measures have been shown ultimately to lead to the end of the death penalty.”