Joe Stork is an American political activist and Deputy Director for Middle East and North Africa at

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

. He holds an M.A. in International Affairs/Middle East Studies from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

Joe Stork
/ref>

Career

Before joining Human Rights Watch in 1996, Stork co-founded the Middle East Research & Information Project (MERIP) in 1971 and was chief editor of its flagship publication, the ''

Middle East Report The ''Middle East Report'' is a magazine published by the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP). The headquarters is in Tacoma, Washington. History and profile MERIP began in 1971 by releasing an irregularly scheduled six-page new ...

'', until 1995.American Expressions of Relief over Iran-Iraq Peace, AMERICAN EXPRESSIONS OF RELIEF OVER IRAN-IRAQ PEACE, St. Paul Pioneer Press, August 22, 1988. Stork served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Turkey. "He presently serves as chair of the

Middle East Studies Association Middle East Studies Association (often referred to as MESA) is a learned society, and according to its website, "a non-profit association that fosters the study of the Middle East, promotes high standards of scholarship and teaching, and encoura ...

's Committee on Academic Freedom and sits on the advisory committees of the American Friends Service Committee, Foreign Policy in Focus and the Iraq Revenue Watch project of the

Open Society Institute Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is a grantmaking network founded and chaired by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with a st ...

."''

Gulf Daily News The ''Gulf Daily News'' (''GDN'') is an English-language local newspaper published in the Kingdom of Bahrain by Al Hilal Group. The paper, which is one of six daily newspapers in Bahrain, calls itself "The Voice of Bahrain". Al Hilal Group publi ...

'', 1 March 2004
Turkey RPCV Joe Stork is top American human rights expert
/ref> Stork's involvement with MERIP and anti-Israel activism before joining HRW have made him the object of criticism. ''

Maariv ''Maariv'' or ''Maʿariv'' (, ), also known as ''Arvit'' (, ), is a Jewish prayer service held in the evening or night. It consists primarily of the evening ''Shema'' and '' Amidah''. The service will often begin with two verses from Psalms ...

'' reported that Stork was a "radical leftist" in the 1970s. According to ''Maarivs report, Stork wrote an article praising the

Munich massacre The Munich massacre was a terrorist attack carried out during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, by eight members of the Palestinian militant organization Black September, who infiltrated the Olympic Village, killed two member ...

and attended an anti-Zionist conference hosted by

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...

in 1976.

Kenneth Roth Kenneth Roth (born September 23, 1955) is an American attorney, human rights activist, writer. He was the executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) from 1993 to 2022. Early life Kenneth Roth was born on September 23, 1955 in Elmhurst, Illino ...

, executive director of HRW, has defended Stork by saying that these events took place thirty years ago, and he later became a staunch critic of Hussein.

Books and other publications

*
Erased in a Moment: Suicide Bombing Attacks Against Israeli Civilians
', Human Rights Watch, 2002. * (with

Joel Beinin Joel Beinin (born 1948) is Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History and professor of Middle East history at Stanford University. From 2006 to 2008 he served as director of Middle East studies and professor of history at the American Universit ...

, eds.) ''Political Islam: A Reader'',

I.B. Tauris I.B. Tauris is an educational publishing house and imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing. It was an independent publishing house with offices in London and New York City until its purchase in May 2018 by Bloomsbury Publishing. It specialises in non ...

, 1996. * (with

, eds.) ''Political Islam: Essays from "Middle East Report"'',

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by facult ...

, 1996. * ''Middle East Oil and the Energy Crisis'',

Monthly Review Press The ''Monthly Review'', established in 1949, is an independent socialist magazine published monthly in New York City. The publication is the longest continuously published socialist magazine in the United States. History Establishment Following ...

, 1975

References

Year of birth missing (living people) American human rights activists Human Rights Watch people Peace Corps volunteers Living people School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University alumni Anti-Zionism in the United States {{US-activist-stub