SPECIAL MEDIA REACTION: Human Rights Report

UNCLAS ABU DHABI 000336 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA/ARP; NEA/PPD; NEA/RA; INR/R/MR; PA; INR/NESA; INR/B; RRU-NEA IIP/G/NEA-SA WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE; NSC SECDEF FOR OASD/PA USCINCCENT FOR POLAD LONDON FOR SREEBNY E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OIIP KMDR TC SUBJECT: SPECIAL MEDIA REACTION: Human Rights Report ¶1. SUMMARY: Two editorials attacked the annual Human Rights Report. The first dismissed the U.S. as unqualified to issue the report given our own lack of credibility on human rights. The second denounced the report as biased in favor of Israel and "Zionism". End summary. ¶2. Unsigned editorial in Sharjah-based Arabic daily "Al-Khaleej" 3/16 entitled "Human Rights": "If a nation other than the U.S. should release a global human rights report - and listed its own assessment of violations - it would be understood, acceptable and even welcome, for it would at least be based on a minimum level of credibility, truth and transparency, without political objectives and unilateral points of view. When the State Department releases a human rights report, however, spreading accusations against nations that violate freedom of expression, [commit] political arrests and torture, it is ridiculous and provocative. Not due to the lack of violations in those nations, but because...the party issuing these accusations is unqualified to take on the task." "There are many organizations and international committees more credible and neutral than America. If we want to point to nations that violate human rights, the U.S., no doubt, leads on both the local and international level. The American people have been exposed to all kinds of terror, monitoring and racist practices since 2001, especially Americans of Arab and Muslim origin. Internationally, U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq [responsible for] destruction and the killing of thousands of civilians, represent violation of human rights and international legislations.... Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones." ¶3. Editorial in Abu Dhabi-based Arabic "Akhbar Al-Arab" 3/16 "Washington does not want to understand": "Washington insists on not understanding the facts on the ground, distorts perceptions and confuses images in favor of the Zionist Movement that keeps extending its control through the neoconservatives who rule the White House. The State Department issued a strange report in which it said that there was an increase in the level of hostility towards Jews worldwide, and a similar increase in anti-Semitism, listing countries whose governments promote anti-Semitism among their own people and in the world. The report is biased in favor of Zionism and lacks objectivity, simply because it was written and released by a party that aims to accuse and condemn Arab and Muslim nations without any justifications except the upcoming Arab summit at the end of this month. The report aims to distinguish between Jews and Israelis, and between Zionism as a fascist and racist ideology and Judaism as a religion, a pursuit Zionist movements adopted even before Palestine was usurped and the Zionist entity was established. QUINN