Of the two other local organizations, one, B'Tselem,(75) was Israeli, which at least implied serious political tensions, relations of paternalism, and funding competition, while the other, the Palestine Human Rights Information Center (PHRIC) based in East Jerusalem, was a more activist organization whose outlook could easily clash with al-Haq's more reticent approach.

Al-Haq's predictable refusal to comment on events in the Gaza Strip during 1987-1988 because it did not have its own sources of information, despite overwhelming evidence that the situation there was significantly worse than that in the West Bank, aroused the understandable ire of the PHRIC. Other occasions, where al-Haq was slow to respond for similar reasons but the circumstances arguably warranted a less painstaking approach, provoked similar difficulties.

In an admirable show of common purpose, the three organizations have developed a functional division of labor which is working smoothly: al-Haq's comparative advantage is in its legal knowledge, fieldwork, and its excellent contacts with the diplomatic corps and foreign elites; the PHRIC's in comprehensive documentation and reporting, rapid intervention, and an extremely professional international distribution network; and B'Tselem's - in addition to the quality of its own research - in its access to the media and official sources, and the crucial contribution of an Israeli Jewish certificate of authenticity to reports of Israeli human rights abuses.