Holocaust Survivor — Accuses Israel of Genocide on CNN

[Jaga]

Very good interview with many good points about Israel allowing people in Gaza and West Bank to die:

www.mediaite.com/politics/human-rights-watch-founder-and-holocaust-survivor-accuses-israel-of-genocide-on-cnn/

Aryeh Neier, the co-founder of Human Rights Watch and a survivor of the Holocaust, accused Israel of engaging in genocide in Gaza in an appearance on CNN. (See video under here)

Neier sat for an interview with CNN host Fareed Zakaria on Sunday to discuss his conclusion, which he first revealed in an extensive piece in the New York Review of Books, that Israel’s response to the October 7 2023 attack on Southern Israel, a bombing campaign that has killed tens of thousands of people and allegedly sparked a famine in parts of Gaza, amounts to genocide.


Aryeh Neier, the co-founder of Rights Watch and a survivor of the Holocaust, accused Israel of engaging in genocide in Gaza in an appearance on CNN

During Neier’s tenure as the director of Human Rights Watch, he only once labeled a crime as such — Saddam Hussein’s attempt to eliminate the Iraqi Kurds in 1988.

On CNN, Neier said he initially did not endorse South Africa’s charge of genocide against Israel in the International Court of Justice in The Hague, in the Netherlands.

“I thought Israel had a right to retaliate against Hamas, and I thought Israel had a right to try to incapacitate Hamas so that it would never be able to do anything like that again,” he said. “But I was disturbed by some of the actions of Israel, by the use of very large weapons, 2,000 pounds bombs which are utterly inappropriate in a crowded urban area.”

Despite finding its retaliation to have gone “far overboard,” Neier did not initially conclude Israel engaged in genocide. That is, until months of Israel’s “severe obstruction of the delivery of humanitarian assistance” led to famine in Gaza.

“I am now persuaded that Israel is engaged in genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,” he wrote in the NYRB (New York Review of Books). “What has changed my mind is its sustained policy of obstructing the movement of humanitarian assistance into the territory.”

Zakaria questioned Neier on Israel’s defenses against charges of genocide, as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim Israel has a moral army, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF; Hebrew: צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל Tsva ha-Hagana le-Yisra'elⓘ, lit. 'The Army of the Defense for Israel'), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym Tzahal (צה״ל), the national military of the State of Israel.

Neier — who, in his piece in the NYRB (New York Review of Books), argued the reported death toll of around 34,000 in Gaza is likely an undercount given the bodies trapped under the rubble — noted the severe toll in the densely packed enclave. He also pointed to the Israeli settlers attacking aid trucks and destroying desperately needed humanitarian assistance with impunity, as well as the killings of Palestinians in the West Bank. The IDF, Neier said, has aided the settlers in those crimes.

Zakaria asked Neier about Netanyahu’s claim that the ICC (International Criminal Court) is antisemitic because it requested arrest warrants against him and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes.

“The use of the term antisemitism to attack those who criticize Israeli policies degrades the concept of antisemitism,” he said. “Antisemitism has been a great scourge, but it doesn’t insulate the Israeli government from being held to the same standards as that other governments have to be held to around the world.”


Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician, serving as the prime minister of Israel since 2022, having previously held the office in 1996–1999 and 2009–2021.[3] He is chair of the Likud party. Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime minister in Israel's history, having served a total of over 16 years.


Yoav Gallant (Hebrew: יוֹאָב גָּלַנְטְ‎; born 8 November 1958) is an Israeli politician and retired military general. A member of the Knesset for Likud, he has served as Minister of Defense since 2022.

[pieter]

[pieter]

[pieter]

[pieter]

Aryeh Neier



Aryeh Neier (born April 22, 1937) is an American human rights activist who co-founded Human Rights Watch, served as the president of George Soros's Open Society Institute philanthropy network from 1993 to 2012, had been National Director of the American Civil Liberties Union from 1970 to 1978, and he was also involved with the creation of the group SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) by being directly involved in the group SLID's (Student League for Industrial Democracy) renaming.

Early life and education

Neier was born into a German Jewish family in Berlin, then in Nazi Germany. He was the son of Wolf (a teacher) and Gitla (Bendzinska) Neier, and he became a refugee as a child when his family fled in 1939 when he was two years old. He graduated from Cornell University with highest honors in 1961.

Career

He served as an adjunct professor of law at New York University.

Neier was hired by the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) in 1963 and became the organization's executive director in 1970. During his time as executive director, he helped grow the organization's membership from 140,000 to 200,000. Neier was criticized for his decision to have the ACLU support the National Socialist Party of America, a Neo-Nazi group, in its efforts to march in Skokie, Illinois, in the case National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie, despite the presence in Skokie of large numbers of Jews and Holocaust survivors. The ACLU's representation of the group resulted in 30,000 members who ended their ACLU membership. He also led the ACLU's efforts to protect the civil rights of prisoners and those in mental hospitals, fought for the abolition of the death penalty and to make abortions available to those who need them. In his 1979 book, Defending My Enemy: American Nazis in Skokie, Illinois, and the Risks of Freedom, Neier defended his actions in support of the Skokie march, arguing that Jews are best protected by ensuring that the rule of law allowing minorities to speak out is afforded to all groups.


At a party in Washington, D.C., in early 1976, an attendee from New York indicated that he would not vote for Jimmy Carter for president because of his Southern accent, to which Charles Morgan, Jr., the ACLU's legislative director replied "That's bigotry, and that makes you a bigot." Neier reprimanded Morgan, criticizing Morgan for taking a public position on a candidate for public office. Morgan resigned from his post in April 1976, citing efforts by the bureaucracy at the ACLU to restrict his public statements.

In 1978 he was among the founders of Helsinki Watch, which was renamed Human Rights Watch in 1988. As a human rights activist, Neier has led investigations of human rights abuses around the world, including his role in the creation of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. He has contributed articles and opinion pieces to newspapers, magazines and journals including The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Book Review and Foreign Policy.

He now teaches a course called "Promoting Human Rights: History, Law, Methods and Current Controversies" at the Paris School of International Affairs, Sciences Po, in Paris, France.

[Jaga]

Hello Pieter, thanks for finding more information about Aryeh Neier. We need more people like him.