Reporting on Human Rights
Regarding the editorial "Amnesty's 1991 Report," July 14: I believe the Amnesty International annual report on human rights serves a very worthwhile purpose. This report would be much more effective if Americans (those with more heart than greed) were reminded of how their taxes contribute much to the abuses we supposedly abhor.
In reporting on some of the horrible human rights violations listed in the Amnesty International report, the editorial failed to mention the many thousands of Palestinian men imprisoned in Israel without charge or trial, mistreated mentally as well as physically. Amnesty International reports on the oppression of the Palestinians but plays it down for United States consumers.
The US government cannot do much to alleviate human rights violations in most countries, but in the case of Israel, it has unused leverage in the form of the annual and ad infinitum dole of more than $3 billion. William V. Kelly, Austin, Texas
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