If Even Ken Roth Can’t Criticize Israel, No One Can
Ken Roth, the ex-head of Human Rights Watch, recently had his hiring at Harvard vetoed by administrators. Because when it comes to criticism of Israeli apartheid, even a notorious friend of the powerful like Roth can’t get a pass from the establishment.
Human Rights Watch executive director Ken Roth speaks during a press conference in Hong Kong on April 23, 2018.(Anthony Wallace / AFP via Getty Images)
In American politics, elections come and go, but some things stay the same: criticizing Israel remains the ultimate taboo.
As yet further evidence, take what recently happened to former Human Rights Watch head Kenneth Roth. After resigning from the organization last April, the Nation reported last week, Roth was offered a fellowship at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Someone with a nearly three-decade-long tenure leading a prestigious human rights organization joining an Ivy League human rights research center — what could possibly be controversial about that?
The fact that Roth and his organization had the temerity to treat Israel like every other repressive, rights-violating government they scrutinized, it turned out.
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