Factual Inaccuracies and Evident Biases Characterize the HRW’s 2024 Report

Hamzah Rifaat 

Source: Al Mayadeen English

In its 2024 report the HRW has opted for factual inaccuracies and lopsided coverage of "Israel’s" genocide in occupied Gaza.

Better sense should prevail at the Human Rights Watch. It is supposed to be an organization that documents egregious human rights violations, impartially and objectively. In its 2024 report however, the HRW has opted for factual inaccuracies and lopsided coverage of "Israel’s" genocide in the occupied enclave while placing the burden squarely on Hamas and other Palestinian liberation groups over so-called ‘ war crimes and crimes against humanity.’ Such sweeping assessments are made in light of the scale of suffering for Palestinians and amid the ICJ opinion characterizing "Israel’s" settlement policies and prolonged occupation in Palestine as breaching international law. 

Yet the lopsided report was released and deserves to be censured for its inbuilt biases.  

Here’s why: 

It accuses hundreds of gunmen from Palestinian armed groups for breaching the Gaza border fence, targeting citizens indiscriminately and engaging in gender-based violence, hostage-taking, mutilation of bodies and looting. This is farcical based on the casualty toll. More than 120,000 Palestinian citizens have either been killed or injured since "Israel" launched its barbaric genocide with the occupation regime engaged in rapes, prison abuse, extrajudicial killings, torture, and mutilation of Palestinians. The same occupation regime also defied the ICJ’s preliminary judgment of not attacking Rafah and failed to abide by the central tenets of the Geneva Convention. "Israel’s" defiance and adamancy of legal rulings has made it a pariah state, a genocidal regime, and a war-mongering machinery that has violated international law and committed crimes against humanity. 

Yet the HRW squarely blames Hamas and its allies which is abominable.   

The scale of suffering of Gazans since "Israel’s" genocide has alarmed some of the world’s most prominent human rights organizations such as Amnesty International. Additionally, the HRW’s biased coverage in its 2024 report does not cover Israeli violations of the laws of war such as proportionality during conflict and refraining from targeting civil institutions such as schools which constitute war crimes. These aberrations in the report explain why Hamas as a legitimate liberation/ resistance movement and a party to ceasefire negotiations has reacted in anger to it. A closer examination of the report also suggests that HRW has adopted the Israeli occupation narrative of Palestinians being terrorists while enterprises such as illegal settlements which have been recently challenged by the ICJ are ‘victims.’ 

This is absurd and objectionable. 

Take the opening arguments of the report as an example. As Hamas rightly points out, HRW starts its narrative by pointing at an injured ‘settler’ during the events of October 7, 2023, as well as the psychological impact on Israeli women from Hama’s legitimate right to self-defence. There is no mention however, of "Israel" weaponizing starvation to kill close to over 120,000 Palestinians in the enclave while institutionalizing racial discrimination with settlement plans in place. Perhaps the HRW should take a lead from the ICJ’s recent opinion on "Israel’s" occupation of Palestine which characterizes all member states who support Israeli settlements, fund them, aid them, and abet them as fueling entities illegal under international law before it goes on to sympathize with Israeli settlers or the Netanyahu regime. 

The report is also based on interviews with just 144 people and analyzes 280 photographs and videos posted on social media. The sample of the interviewees is also heavily biased in favor of "Israel" while social media accounts run by far-right zealots and Zionists have become a reference point for the HRW to cite its findings. 

This again, is objectionable.  

There are other inconsistencies that also warrant attention. Note that Palestinian territories have been under occupation since 1948 when Zionist militias massacred an indigenous population, rendered thousands homeless and displaced them during the Nakba. The report, however, makes no mention of historical contexts or the underlying causes of Palestinian resistance and hence, lacks historical sensibility and depth. The gruesome record of the occupation regime as being complicit in killings, economic blockades and apartheid has not been accommodated in the findings which questions the veracity of the arguments made and the accuracy and credibility of its claims. Under international law, the occupying force is under an obligation to not subjugate occupied territory or engage in so-called ‘self-defense’ operations, which is a point Hamas alluded to but is glaringly missing from the HRW’s assessments.  

Even on prisoners, the HRW squarely focuses on Israeli captives who have otherwise been treated humanely by Hamas operatives as compared to Palestinians who have been subjected to torture, rape and inhumane treatment at the hands of the occupation forces. This includes women and children subjected to starvation in Israeli prisons and suffering from sexual violence and humiliation. In fact, the HRW goes on to brazenly defend Israeli detention centers and characterizes inmates as ‘suspects’ which is further evidence of the organization defending war crimes and misrepresenting the actual realities of the group. 

The lopsided report which belies reality should be universally condemned by those who are championing the Palestinian cause. In Palestine, various factions ranging from the Popular Front for the Liberation and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine have all united in their denunciation of the HRW report which they rightly believe,  downplays Palestinian suffering. It is however, critical that those who have an understanding of on ground dynamics in the occupied territories, question the veracity of claims made by the HRW and counter it with credible reports which project the humanitarian crisis as it is. 

What is clear, however, is that the 2024 HRW report is nothing but a work of fiction.