WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – The former head of Human Rights Watch has been denied a fellowship at Harvard Kennedy School allegedly over what university officials said was his bias against the Zionist regime.
According to an article published by U.S. magazine The Nation, Kenneth Roth - who retired as executive director of HRW in April after three decades running the organization - had been offered to become a senior fellow at Harvard by the university’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.
However, Harvard Kennedy School dean Douglas Elmendorf reportedly vetoed the appointment over Roth’s criticism of the Zionist regime during his work at HRW and in social media posts.
Elmendorf reportedly told Kathryn Sikkink, a professor of human rights policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, in July that the appointment was being withdrawn due to HRW’s “anti-Israel bias” and Roth’s social media posts.
The decision came two weeks after Roth was interviewed by Elmendorf over the position, during which he was asked if he had any “enemies”.
Roth described the decision as “crazy.”
“You have this human rights center. Who is better qualified than me?” he told The Nation, adding that Elmendorf had “no backbone whatsoever”.
In response to The Nation, a Kennedy School spokesman said: “We have internal procedures in place to consider fellowships and other appointments, and we do not discuss our deliberations about individuals who may be under consideration.”
Although no public details have been released as to who may have objected to Roth’s presence, The Nation article’s author Michael Massing pointed out the Kennedy School’s proximity to the defence and security establishment in the U.S., which has close links with the occupying regime.
Massing noted that in 2017, Elmendorf had bowed to pressure from former CIA officials at the school in rescinding a visiting fellowship to whistleblower Chelsea Manning.
HRW has regularly been attacked by pro-Zionist organizations over its reporting on rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territories.
In April 2021, the organization provoked fury from the regime after it officially accused it of practicing apartheid in a 217-page report.
“Prominent voices have warned for years that apartheid lurks just around the corner if the trajectory of the regime’s rule over Palestinians does not change - this detailed study shows that Israeli authorities have already turned that corner and today are committing the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution,” Roth said at the time of report’s release.