Why HRW's 'pro-Israel' October 7 report is deeply problematic

When it comes to Palestine and the rights of the Palestinian people, Human Rights Watch (HRW), an American rights group, has a mixed record.

In recent years HRW has published several milestone reports that have exposed Israeli war crimes, including an April 2021 report that recognised Israel as apartheid rule. Yet HRW has been criticised as a more charitable face of US foreign policy, shifting its position on demand.

One must see its October 7 report in this problematic context. Indeed, in the 236-page report published on July 17, HRW not only recycles key aspects of the Israeli narrative with little scrutiny but has gone on record criminalising Palestinian resistance. 

The HRW report effectively parrots Israel's propaganda against not only Hamas but all Palestinian resistance factions — including Fatah and the Popular and Democratic Fronts for the Liberation of Palestine — by claiming at least five Palestinian factions participated in the October 7 attacks. 

As a result, the HRW report has placed Fatah and other Palestinian factions between a rock and a hard place. If they come out and deny their involvement they risk further demonising Hamas, which will have a knock-on effect of criminalising the Palestinian resistance movement as a whole. 

Given that the report was released nine months into Israel's genocide in Gaza — with many of Israel's claims about October 7 since been debunked — the report reads like an endorsement of the Israeli account.

The timing of the report is also of note, with stories of Palestinians being dismembered, buried alive, and mauled to death by dogs flooding the news cycle on the week the report was published. Considering the report's pro-Israel bias, it raises questions about whether the document was intended as a distraction.

Has HRW ignored evidence?

But perhaps the most egregious fabrication that the report mentions is the long-debunked claim that Hamas fighters committed sexual violence against Israeli women on October 7. 

In the immediate aftermath of the New York Times article that alleged widespread sexual violence and rape, fifty professors of journalism across the US complained to the newspaper about its lack of professionalism and integrity, making special reference to the pro-genocide Israeli journalist hired to conduct the investigation and several cases of unprovable testimonies.

However, HRW chose to repeat the same allegations with no new evidence. And while it isn't the first time that HRW has sided with Israel over the Palestinians, never before has HRW issued a report so crude, so politicised, and so biased in favour of the apartheid regime. 

The report's failure to account for the Israeli army's use of the Hannibal Directive — the deliberate killing of Israelis to prevent them from being taken as prisoners — was another shocking oversight. 

HRW conveniently ignored testimonies from Israelis in the Kibbutzim that reported that the Israeli army had shelled, burned and killed Israelis.

We don't yet know if HRW will review its stance. But what is clear is that the report has promoted Israel's narrative about October 7. Its failure to conduct a fair and impartial investigation has dealt a severe blow to Palestinians and supporters of human rights around the world. 

The HRW report mustn't succeed in criminalising the Palestinian resistance. Remember, resistance is a legitimate right of all peoples who suffer under occupation, and there is a fundamental difference between, one a fair investigation that deals with human rights violations, and two providing cover for Israel's genocide against the Palestinians.

Ultimately, what the HRW report looks like is a propaganda campaign that helps legitimise Israel's genocidal war. It reads like a spiteful attempt to reject the Palestinian people's success in revealing to the public Israel's genocidal designs and exposing the occupation to the ICJ.

Our role as journalists, academics and activists is to expose these attempts of criminalisation without faltering, backing down, or fearing to speak the truth. And as we go forth, our compass should be the tears of every Palestinian child left devastated, the cries of every heartbroken parent, and every Palestinian innocent victim whose ghost haunts our sleep, not the imperatives of American human rights organisations.

Lamis Andoni is a Palestinian journalist, writer and academic who launched The New Arab as its editor-in-chief.

This is an edited and abridged translation from our Arabic edition. To read the original article click here.

Have questions or comments? Email us at: editorial-english@alaraby.co.uk

Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff, or the author's employer.