Human Rights Watch Accepted Three Million Euros from Qatari Government: Report

New documents purportedly show Human Rights Watch accepted 3 million euros from Qatar, according to a new report from the Washington D.C.-based outfit, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

The January 2018 exchange MEMRI captured is reportedly between Qatar’s office representing the prime minister and finance minister Ali Sharif Al-Emadi. “His Excellency the Prime Minister has agreed to provide monetary support of 3 million euros to the organization Human Rights Watch, under the Humanitarian Aid section, and that it should be distributed with the knowledge of the Embassy of Qatar in London so that it can be aware of it and take the necessary [steps] with regard to it,” the document, written in Arabic and translated by MEMRI, note.

The subject line of the memorandum, which was labeled “confidential and urgent,” details that the letter is for “providing additional monetary support to the organization Human Rights Watch.”

“HRW never solicited or accepted any money from the Qatari government or any other government. We do not accept money from governments. There is simply no truth to the allegation,” the group told National Review request on Friday morning.

However, Gerald Steinberg, the chief executive of NGO Monitor, a watchdog group that investigates not-for-profits, said the leak “is not surprising, given the other evidence over the years. In 2009, then executive director Ken Roth sent Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson to raise funds from Arab dictators in the Gulf and also from Gaddafi in Libya,” Steinberg National Review on Friday. “It is also possible that executive director Ken Roth (1993-2022), and his Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson, as well as board members, violated the Foreign Agent Registration Act.”

Hillel Neuer, the chief executive of UN Watch, a watchdog group, demanded a proper investigation into the matter, particularly given Qatar’s record as a “human rights abusing regime.” The country also plays host to Hamas’ political leadership.

“They enslave migrant workers . . . caused thousands of them to die. They support the Taliban. They support Hamas. They support terrorism. They have an egregious human rights record,” Neuer told the Israeli outlet i24 after the revelations were published. “These reports are very disturbing. They need to be fully investigated. There are strong reasons to fear that this may be true. We would need accountability. The money would have to be returned.”

The revelation comes days after a former senior editor at Human Rights Watch, Danielle Haas, resigned her posting, citing the organization’s “toxic” environment and ignoring the abuses committed by Palestinian terror groups since hostilities erupted in early October. “HRW’s initial reactions to the Hamas attacks failed to condemn outright the murder, torture, and kidnapping of Israeli men, women, and children,” she wrote. “They included the ‘context’ of ‘apartheid’ and ‘occupation’ before blood was even dry on bedroom walls,” Haas wrote in a public letter to 600 staffers in late November.

“[A]s the organization grew and its composition shifted, so too did the focus, tone, and framing of its Israel-Palestine work. Following the Hamas massacres in Israel on October 7, years of institutional creep culminated in organizational responses that shattered professionalism, abandoned principles of accuracy and fairness, and surrendered its duty to stand for the human rights of all.”

While Haas elaborated that “criticism of Israeli politics and actions” are “valid,” it was “the expression of years of select historical and political framing that could always contextualize and ‘explain’ why Jewish Israeli lives were lost in Palestinian violence.”