[R-G] Engineering Human Rights In The Israel-Palestine Conflict

[Anthony Fenton]

Michael Barker, "Engineering Human Rights In The Israel-Palestine  
Conflict," Swans Commentary, February 9, 2009.

(Swans - February 9, 2009)   The concept of human rights is now widely  
conflated with the promotion of fundamental democratic rights, and its  
associated discourses permeate the work of both alternative and  
mainstream global media outlets. Human rights, for all intents and  
purposes, is presented as an idea that can only possibly promote  
equity and justice, and the political ramifications of its promotion  
are rarely questioned. Yet like many progressive ideas that attract  
elite support there is always a danger that its moral underpinning may  
become inverted so that it serves pragmatic political ambitions rather  
than radical emancipatory ideals. In this regard, the abuse of human  
rights is no different to that of any other progressive concept, and  
the discourse of human rights is regularly instrumentalised to support  
and launch imperial conquests. Jean Bricmont has fittingly referred to  
the cynical manipulation of human rights as Humanitarian Imperialism,  
and the intellectual foot soldiers of this cause have been described  
by Edward Herman and David Peterson as "The New Humanitarians."  
Questions must be asked as to whose human rights are really being  
protected when the discourse of human rights is drawn upon to justify  
military interventions into sovereign states. Furthermore, it is  
critical that concerned citizens seek to understand how political  
rights and political institutions might be undermined by such so- 
called humanitarian activities.

The Israel-Palestine conflict provides a useful lens through which to  
interrogate the broader implications of the elite deployment of human  
rights in the service of imperialism. In this case, in particular, the  
funding issue is all the more pressing given that "Western actors  
(governments, media, organisations) have become the primary  
constituencies for local human rights activism." (2) Such a reliance  
on external donors causes genuine problems for sustaining progressive  
activism. However, this is not to say, or imply, that the human rights  
groups examined within this article are not comprised of dedicated  
progressive activists who wish to bring an end to suffering and  
injustice. In fact, if anything, I have only admiration for their  
bravery and commitment to documenting the horrifying human rights  
abuses that are a daily occurrence in this brutal conflict. But this  
admiration does not, and in my mind should not, exempt their work from  
critical enquiry. Consequently, it is hoped that the critique  
presented in this article will invigorate and sustain the work of  
progressive actors in a manner that will help bring an end to the  
ongoing injustices perpetrated daily against the Palestinian people.

By exploring the philanthropic activities of the US-based quasi  
nongovernmental organisation, the National Endowment for Democracy  
(NED), and a key liberal foundation, the Ford Foundation, this article  
locates the discussion of Palestinian human rights within the  
discursive field of philanthropic cultural imperialism. ...

CONTINUED ONLINE AT http://www.swans.com/library/art15/barker13.html