NGOs Accuse Israel Of Carwashing

“Sometimes this carwashing activity also features an application of polish, though that requires additional expense and time.”

Tel Aviv, May 8 – Human rights and civil rights groups lambasted the Jewish state again this week, this time pointing to the country’s alleged attempt to distract from its treatment of Palestinians by engaging in having automobiles cleaned.

Amnesty International, Code Pink, Human Rights Watch, and several other non-governmental organizations decried on Monday what they called Israel’s practice of “carwashing,” in which the country tries to divert attention from the occupation and oppression of Palestinians by noticing that the car is getting a little dirty and it’s time to have it professionally scrubbed and dried.

In a joint statement, the organizations criticized Israel for such behavior and called on it to address Palestinian demands. “For too long Israel has exploited the international community’s willingness to look only at certain aspects of the state’s policies,” the statement began. “The short attention span and fleeting news cycle make it possible for Israel to take its vehicles to an establishment that uses either machines or manual labor to apply water and detergent to the exterior of those vehicles so as to remove accumulated dust, dirt, and debris.”

“Sometimes this carwashing activity also features an application of polish, though that requires additional expense and time,” it continued. “For some units, the automated, conveyor-belt-type of carwashing might prove too abrasive, and instead the facility staff power-wash the vehicle. In all cases the drying is done either by hand or in the sun.”

“Moreover, most such facilities offer interior vacuum-cleaning services for an additional charge,” the statement added. “This is most common in the week or two before the Passover holiday and immediately following the occasional dust storms that hit the region. We call upon the international community not to fall into the trap of being distracted by Israel’s carwashing, and not to let Netanyahu and his far-right allies continue to enjoy impunity. The carwashing must stop.”

Israel defenders dismissed the allegations and accused the rights groups of an obsessive focus on Israel. “The fact that Israel has the cleanest cars in the Middle East isn’t some contrived policy,” remarked a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Our society is organically welcoming to clean cars, and to owners of cars that want their vehicles to be clean. I would suggest to the various ‘human rights’ organizations that they apply the same standards in their criticism of Israel to their treatment of other countries, and ask them selves why they never see fit to characterize car-cleaning activities in countries with far worse human rights records in the same terms.”

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