Of Course All Humans Have Rights – But Jews Are Not Human

By Kenneth Roth, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch

It’s time to lay all the cards out on the table: our organization fights tirelessly for the rights of all humans, regardless of national origin, religious belief, sexual orientation, and myriad other factors that have been unjustly used to discriminate. The simple reason that we give short shrift to what might be Palestinian violations of Israeli human rights, in favor of playing up Israeli violations of Palestinian rights, is that Jews, and therefore Israelis, are not human.

Once you understand that operating assumption, our entire modus operandi makes sense. What advocates for Israel miss, when they accuse us of one-sidedness, is that there is only one side. You might as well demand rights for intestinal parasites. You don’t defend intestinal parasites – you try to minimize the negative impact they have on people, by killing the parasites if necessary.

It all starts from an attitude of religious tolerance. A prominent portion of Palestinian and Muslim rhetoric describes Jews as the offspring of apes and pigs. To judge such statements as offensive would be to display gross intolerance for Islamic culture, and would betray a Eurocentric attitude. Who are we to judge that they are in error?

Since we must respect the beliefs of those who espouse such views, it is only natural that our activities involving Jews similarly respect the notion that Jews are not included in the group that enjoys “human” rights. To include them would be to judge those Islamists as in error, but who are we to make that determination? Therefore the principles of tolerance dictate that we honor the definition of Jew as non-human.

We leave it to our colleagues in animal-rights organizations to determine whether Jews should enjoy the protection afforded to other groups of non-humans. It should be noted that not all animals automatically do.

Human Rights Watch joins sixteen other organizations in encouraging the nascent state of Palestine to join the International Criminal Court. It may help them finally push off the yoke of Israeli oppression. Some have expressed concern that such a move will also expose Palestinians to prosecution for war crimes against Israelis and Jews, but we are confident that the ICC will maintain the definition of “human” – i.e. not a Jew – that has been operative for so much of European history.