NEW YORK — Today, T’ruah, a rabbinic human rights organization that represents over 2,000 rabbis and cantors, responded to reports that the Trump administration is considering declaring Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam as antisemitic and that governments should not support them.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, Executive Director of T’ruah, released the following statement:
“A robust human rights sector is an essential element of a democracy. The work of human rights groups ensures that no government can violate k’vod habriot, basic human dignity, without fear of accountability. In casting aspersion on longtime respected human rights organizations, the Trump administration joins an ignoble list of autocratic governments that have discredited, smeared and even banned their own internal human rights organizations. Actions such as these damage U.S. democracy by threatening the transparency necessary to protect human rights.
“Human rights and civil society groups play a prophetic role, even if their words may not be ones governments want to hear.
“Any U.S. government declaration that these groups are antisemitic for criticizing the Israeli government is ridiculous, and contributes to the silencing of Israel’s human rights defenders. Israel is a state bound by international human rights law, like all other members of the United Nations, and like other countries can be criticized when it fails to live up to these commitments. By falsely smearing human rights organizations as antisemitic, the Trump administration only makes it harder to counter actual acts of antisemitism when they happen, while simultaneously harming these organizations’ effectiveness in reporting on all countries’ human rights abuses– including those of the United States.
“The Trump administration’s smear of these three human rights organizations is yet one more example of this administration’s disregard for democracy and human rights at home and abroad.”