As focus shifts to post-war aid and reconstruction in Gaza, the role played during the conflict by organisations with ostensibly humanitarian objectives is coming under increasing scrutiny. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)—also known as Doctors Without Borders—is a highly problematic example. For decades, MSF was considered a model of universal morality and medical heroism. The NGO’s medical personnel courageously entered dangerous conflict zones to provide desperately needed aid, and in 1999, it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “in recognition of the organisation’s pioneering humanitarian work on several continents.” “Our actions,” the MSF website promises, “are guided by medical ethics and the principles of impartiality, independence and neutrality.”
While MSF still claims to promote these values, in recent years, it has often replaced neutrality with activist spin, turning medicine into another highly politicised sector. In particular, it has become a major source of propaganda against the state of Israel. Earlier this year, the organisation draped a large banner down a building near a Jewish publishing house in Amsterdam falsely accusing Israel of perpetrating a “genocide” in Gaza. In a statement delivered at an informal tribunal organised by civil-society groups in Istanbul, MSF’s international president Dr Javid Abdelmoneim said:
Jury, please note that MSF is an independent medical humanitarian organisation. We deliver care to people affected by conflict, epidemics, and disasters—and we speak out about what we witness.
We have worked in Palestine since 1988. In Gaza today, over 1,000 of my Palestinian colleagues and around 40 international staff support hospitals, clinics, and water provision.
Jury, please consider that we bear witness to Israel’s deliberate mass harm to civilians, use of food as a weapon of war, and destruction of the healthcare system, as three key elements in its genocide in Gaza, which takes place in the historical context of the Israeli occupation, colonisation, blockade, and forced displacement of Palestinians across the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
MSF-UK’s website now includes a dedicated “Gaza Genocide” section that declares: “In short, we are witnessing a genocide. Through deliberate actions—including forced displacement, annexation, and mass killings—Israel is systematically destroying the conditions necessary for Palestinian life.”
