Sarah Leah Whitson
 Sarah Leah Whitson    (lawyer, activist) | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | Harvard Law School |
| Member of | Council on Foreign Relations/Members 3 |
"Whitson is a big fan of Norman Finkelstein"[1] | |
Sarah Leah Whitson is an American lawyer and the executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). She was previously director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch.
Whitson was a classmate of Barack Obama at Harvard Law School, and served on the board of the Armenian Bar Association. According to her bio on HRW's website, "before joining Human Rights Watch, Whitson worked as an attorney in New York for Goldman Sachs and Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton."
Views on Palestine
In 2005 Whitson denounced the Palestinian government after Hamas attacked civilians using "Qassam" rockets and mortar attacks. Whitson stated that "Hamas has repeatedly failed to respect a fundamental rule of international humanitarian law" and emphasised that these are unlawful attacks. Human Rights Watch also criticised the Palestinian government in 2007 when Fatah and Hamas, the two rival political factions, were accused of mistreating civilians and executing them. Human Rights Watch stated that these executions are "an extremely grave offence—in fact, a war crime" and urged both Fatah and Hamas to be responsible for civilians in their custody. During the end of 2012, Palestinian militants were accused of launching hundreds of rockets to urban centres in Israel. Whitson condemned these attacks as "unlawful" and stated that there is "no legal justification for launching rockets at populated areas." In 2012, human rights advocates Mahmud Abu Rahma and Yazan Sawafta were brutally beaten. Whitson criticised the Gaza government's inaction: "Hamas and the Palestinian Authority should not sit idly by while human rights defenders are being stabbed and beaten." In 2013, seven Palestinians who were suspected of collaborating with Israel were executed. The public executions sparked an outcry and Whitson criticised the government of Gaza for failing to investigate the executions, stating that "Hamas's inability or unwillingness to investigate the brazen murders of seven men makes a mockery of its claims that it's upholding the rule of law in Gaza."[2] Whitson has persistently urged President Obama to "tackle" prevalent human rights violations by leaders in both the Palestinian Territories and Israel, emphasising that these problems "should not await a comprehensive settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."[3]
References
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