Jewish billionaire philanthropist George Soros is donating $100 million to an organization described as being unfair to Israel — by its own former chairman.
Soros is making his gift to Human Rights Watch to help it court more international support. The organization documents abuses and advocates for human rights in about 90 countries.
However, Robert L. Bernstein, who helped found Human Rights Watch and was its chairman for 20 years, has accused the organization of being unfairly harsh toward Israel and favoring Palestinian viewpoints.
Writing in the New York Times in October 2009, he said that “Human Rights Watch has lost critical perspective on [the Mideast] conflict.”
He also wrote: “It has been issuing reports on the Israeli-Arab conflict that are helping those who wish to turn Israel into a pariah state.”
Soros, who is of Jewish descent but an atheist, said he sees the group’s work on Israel as proof of objectivity, not bias.
“I think the important thing about human rights, if it is to be a universal principle, that it should apply to ‘us’ as well as ‘them,’ ” Soros said. “And that is why I’ve been stressing my concern with the behavior of the United States, and the same applies to Israel. One needs to apply the same standards to Israel as one does to others.”
Human Rights Watch claims it looks at Israel through the same lens — and with the same intensity — as it does other countries. Only one of its nearly 300 staffers around the world is dedicated full-time to Israel, executive director Kenneth Roth said.
Earlier this year, the group said both Israel and Hamas had failed to conduct credible investigations of alleged war crimes during last year’s Gaza war; both have denied committing them.
Soros, a supporter of the Democratic Party, has become a lightning rod for conservative critics.
Born in Hungary, Soros immigrated to Britain as a youth after surviving the Nazi occupation of his country and later moved to the United States. He runs a hedge fund and is known for his high-profile success in currency trades.
His gift, one of the largest donations of its kind, is to be distributed over 10 years.
Soros’ donation is meant to help Human Rights Watch volunteers around the world entice other donors to give enough additional money to boost the organization’s budget from $48 million a year to $80 million within five years. The organization envisions hiring about 120 more staffers — primarily researchers and advocates — and setting up new offices to encourage such emerging powers as India and Brazil to make human rights a keystone of their foreign policies.
But the money also is meant to make its donor base as international as its outlook. Plans call for Human Rights Watch to draw at least half its income and most of its board members from outside the United States within five years. Now, about 70 percent of the money and 80 percent of the board members are U.S.-based.
Soros has donated more than $8 billion during his lifetime. His Open Societies Foundations are on pace to give away about $800 million this year on causes ranging from education to helping Pakistan recover from its recent floods.
Soros has been involved with the 32-year-old Human Rights Watch for decades. He says he cut his teeth as a philanthropist by attending weekly meetings there in its early years.