Monday, December 15, 2008

Arab rights body faces sponsors’ ire

By Jonathan Cook
The National

"NAZARETH // The Human Rights Association with its 20-year record of exposing Israeli policies that discriminate against the country’s 1.2 million Arab citizens is facing imminent closure as major funders withdraw money in what some observers believe may be a co-ordinated policy to silence Israel’s harshest “critics from within”.

The association, one of the most prominent of several leading Arab rights organisations, is attracting the opposition of international charitable foundations concerned with promoting democracy in Israel, according to Mohammed Zeidan, the HRA director. The financial squeeze, Mr Zeidan said, is also designed to weaken the representation of Arab groups from Israel as they prepare to make their case at a UN conference in April that is likely to criticise the country’s human rights record.

The Jewish state has announced it will boycott the conference in Durban, South Africa......."

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