News Desk
WASHINGTON: The Biden administration has withdrawn the nomination of a leading human rights activist for an human rights slot for calling Israel an “apartheid state”, and criticising a top House Democrat as being “bought, purchased and controlled” by pro-Israel groups.
On Friday, the US announced James Cavallaro as a candidate for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (ACHR), a watchdog monitoring the Americas, describing him as a “leading scholar and practitioner of international law” with signifcant expertise in the region.
But the State Department said on Tuesday that Cavallaro was no more a candidate for the position in the wake of an article by a New York-based Jewish publication, the Algemeiner that highlighted his previous posts critical of Israel and US support for the Jewish state.
In a December 2022 tweet, which was later deleted as the Algemeiner article was being prepared for publication, Cavallaro used language viewed by many Jews consisting of anti-Semitic tropes to accuse House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York, of being in the pocket of pro-Israel lobbyists.
“Bought. Purchased. Controlled,” he wrote alongside a link to an article about Jeffries’ donations from AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Tuesday that the Biden administration was unaware of Cavallaro’s past comments on Israel before announcing his candidacy.
“They are not a reflection of what we believe and they are inappropriate, to say the least,” Price said.
Cavallaro pushes back stance portraying his remarks as insensitive
Cavallaro, who previously remained part of the commission from 2014 to 2017, turned down the notion that he was being insensitive. He said his views on Israel are entirely consistent with international bodies and human rights organizations and would not have any impact on his work advancing human rights in the Americas.
““It is clear I hit a raw nerve,” he said in an interview on Tuesday after a meeting with the State Department.
He also noted that elected commissioners served in a personal capacity and were not supposed to represent the foreign policy stance of the governments backing their candidacy. He said that he had discussed with the State Department his active social media presence, if not specific tweets, prior to the announcement of his candidacy, and committed cleaning up his timeline and rigorously refraining from speaking out if elected as a member of the commission.
In a similar previous occurrence, Harvard University rescinded a fellowship that it had offered another human rights activist for criticising Israel over its war crimes against Palestinians. However, Harvard reversed its decision and reinstated the offer amid a public outcry over infringement on academic freedom.
