In 2020, the online news organization The Intercept revealed that HRW’s then-Executive Director, Ken Roth, accepted a $470,000 donation from a Saudi billionaire based on the condition that HRW would not use the money to protect the rights of the persecuted LGBTQ-plus community in the Middle East. 

Roth was compelled to return the donation after The Intercept report.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Nation:

    A relatively large group of people organized under a single, usually independent government; a country.

    When has Palestine been organized under a single independent government?

    Also, ‘Arab’ is as much a single ethnic group as ‘European.’ Or even ‘Jewish.’

    Spain didn’t expel, murder and forcibly convert the Ashkenazi Jews. Because there weren’t any in Spain. It expelled, murdered and forcibly converted the Sephardic Jews. It was still genocide. I’m sure you’ll find that most Jews would agree on that point.

    • DarkGamer@kbin.social
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      8 months ago

      Oxford dictionary:

      nation: a large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory.

      Also, ‘Arab’ is as much a single ethnic group as ‘European.’ Or even ‘Jewish.’

      Arab is a specific ethnic group that contains a lot of diversity/tribes. Jewish is a collection of several ethnic groups, and European is a region, not an ethnicity.

      It expelled, murdered and forcibly converted the Sephardic Jews. It was still genocide. I’m sure you’ll find that most Jews would agree on that point.

      I honestly don’t know enough about this part of history to weigh in. Was there intent to destroy Sephardic Jews, or was Spain under attack by them and defending itself?

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I notice you have absolutely nothing to say about what I said about ethnic groups. Is it maybe because that would mean that systematic murder and displacement of the Palestinian people would be a genocide just the same as the expulsion of Sephardic Jews from Spain?

        • DarkGamer@kbin.social
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          8 months ago

          If you’re going to murder thousands of civilians just be a monoethnicity, that way they can’t retaliate with without being genocidal! Modern nations hate this one trick.

            • DarkGamer@kbin.social
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              8 months ago

              Why are Sephardic Jews an ethnicity but Palestinians not an ethnicity?

              That’s how they’re categorized on Wikipedia.

              I presumed that the various Jewish ethnicities had more genetic drift than Arabs due to the diaspora, but upon further reading I’m not sure that’s the case:

              All Jewish groups were found to be genetically closer to each other than to Palestinians and Muslim Kurds.

              It’s a good question. I suspect this ethnic classification is how they classify themselves.

                • DarkGamer@kbin.social
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                  8 months ago

                  On what basis are you making your claim that Palestinians are a distinct ethnic group? Even pro-Palestinian organizations refer to them as Arabs. As far as I’m aware, Palestinians only began existing as a group when local Arab nationalists emerged as a regional group opposing Jews in the levant.

                  I think calling Palestine a nation and not an ethnicity is more accurate, but I will correct my language if you can provide me a source.

                  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                    8 months ago

                    Yes, and Sephardic Jews refer to themselves as Jews. They’re still a distinct ethnic group. The difference according to you is, apparently, ‘Wikipedia says so.’