“It just occurred to me, I’m gonna boycott them. Any hearing I have on human rights, Amnesty is not invited, nor is Human Rights Watch, because of their smear, their horrible smear,” Rep. Chris Smith stated.

By Andrew Bernard, The Algemeiner

The chairman of the Congressional subcommittee responsible for human rights announced on Thursday that he would boycott representatives from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch from testifying before his committee because of their position that Israel is an “apartheid” state.

Speaking at a hearing on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias in the UN, the Palestinian Authority and NGOs, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations, said he was “disgusted” by the two human rights organizations.

“It used to be that Amnesty International was all about political prisoners, and they had a very sterling reputation,” Smith said. “They have reneged on all of that…Apartheid is an abomination… To sit there and take that type of language and smear Israel with it is appalling and Human Rights Watch is doing the exact same thing…I’ve had representatives of those groups come and testify on other issues.

“But you know, it just occurred to me, I’m gonna boycott them. Any hearing I have on human rights, Amnesty is not invited, nor is Human Rights Watch, because of their smear, their horrible smear.”

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch did not immediately respond to The Algemeiner’s request for comment.

In a 2021 report titled “A Threshold Crossed,” Human Rights Watch declared that Israel was now an apartheid state. Amnesty International released a similar report in 2022. Those findings have been widely condemned by Israel, US elected officials and Jewish groups, but have been increasingly normalized among international human rights organizations.

Thursday’s hearing also heard extensive testimony from expert witnesses that track antisemitism and anti-Israel bias in international fora.

“Antisemitism is the elephant in the room that the international community has ignored, looking for all sorts of other reasons to blame the conflict on.” said Itamar Marcus, director of Palestinian Media Watch. “It’s now embedded in Palestinian Authority worldview and is being echoed at CUNY University and around the world.”

Noted refusenik and former head of the Jewish Agency Natan Sharansky, in his testimony, urged the Biden administration to focus on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism following the administration’s release of a strategy to combat antisemitism that also recognized alternative definitions.

“I call on the American administration, which has done such a wonderful job in building a comprehensive plan, to stick to this definition of antisemitism,” Sharansky said.

“We will not be able to win if people of the left will be attacking antisemitism on the right, and people on the right will be attacking antisemitism on the left. There should be no left and right. Demonization of Jewish people, demonization of the State of Israel, the double standard on Jews, the double standard towards Israel, the delegitimization of Jews and Israel is one and the same phenomenon.”

Rep. Smith said he intends to hold further hearings on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias, including within the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

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In what continuously proves to be a sloppy deal over Iran’s nuclear program, Ambassador Stephen Mull, the lead US official overseeing the deal’s implementation, admitted to the House Foreign Affairs Committee that he has no idea where tons of low-enriched uranium shipped from Iran to Russia are actually located.

By: AP

A US State Department official told lawmakers Thursday he was unsure of the precise location of tons of low-enriched uranium shipped out of Iran on a Russian vessel as part of the controversial nuclear agreement.

Ambassador Stephen Mull, the lead US official overseeing the deal’s implementation, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the stockpile is a Russian custody issue. He said the US is confident the material will be controlled properly.

“We obviously have had many differences for many years with Russia,” Mull said. “But one of the features of our relationship is pretty close cooperation and protection of nuclear material.”

Following the hearing, a senior administration official said the Iranian stockpile is in Russia, where it will be stored in a secure location. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.

‘Outrageous and Unbelievable’ Conduct

Critics of the nuclear deal seized on the shipment’s status as an example of the agreement’s flaws. Rep. Chris Smith said in a statement that it’s “outrageous and unbelievable” that Russia is being trusted to be the repository for such sensitive material.

Russia is a close ally of Iran, said Smith, who added that he is unaware of a requirement in the nuclear agreement that requires Russia to declare where the material will be stored and how it will be safeguarded.

The low-enriched uranium is suitable mainly for generating nuclear power and needs substantial further enrichment for use in the core of a nuclear warhead. In late December, more than 12 tons of the material was loaded onto a Russian ship for transport out of Iran.

“We do not have concerns about Russian custody of this material,” Mull said. What’s important, he said, is that it not be returned to Iran. Mull said there are sufficient monitoring systems in place to know if even “one piece of dust of that material goes back.”

Unable to prevent the nuclear deal from moving forward, congressional Republicans are stepping up their scrutiny of the pact to ensure Tehran is held accountable for any violations and also is punished for hostile behavior ranging from ballistic missile tests to human rights abuses.

The heightened scrutiny reflects a longstanding antipathy toward Iran and also fuels an election-year issue for the Republicans. They believe President Barack Obama’s failure to adequately confront Iran is emblematic of a feckless foreign policy — a position Republican presidential candidates have hammered relentlessly.

In recent weeks, Iran has flown a surveillance drone over a US aircraft carrier and captured 10 US Navy sailors who entered Iranian territorial waters near Farsi Island, an outpost in the middle of the Persian Gulf. The sailors were released in less than a day, though Iranian state media aired footage of the sailors’ capture, angering lawmakers in Washington.

140 Iranian Violations of UN Resolutions

Director of the National Intelligence James Clapper. (AP/Alex Brandon)

Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper told lawmakers during testimony on Tuesday that since 2010 Iran has fired about 140 missiles in violation of a UN resolution. About half of the launches occurred during negotiations over the nuclear deal. The two most recent firings took place last fall, according to Clapper, who said Iranian officials were sending a message “that they are still going to continue to develop what is already a very robust missile force.”

The Obama administration imposed new sanctions against 11 individuals and entities involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program last month, a day after implementation of the nuclear deal. But Republicans derided the new sanctions as weak and have urged a more forceful response.

“It appears the (Obama) administration is determined to protect this deal at all costs,” said the committee’s chairman, Rep. Ed Royce.

The administration wasn’t without its defenders. Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Democrat, walked Mull through a series of questions aimed at demonstrating the importance of the deal. Critics of the agreement, he said, were certain Iran would cheat and it would end up enabling Tehran’s development of nuclear weapons. That’s not what has happened, Connolly said.

“It sounds to me like, despite predictions to the contrary notwithstanding, they’re further away from a nuclear weapon today than they were before the agreement. Is that correct?” Connolly asked.

“That is undeniably true,” Mull said.

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