Background to a ‘human rights’ NGO with employees recently featured in BBC content

NGO Monitor recently published a new profile of the Geneva-based NGO ‘Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor’ which includes the following:

“Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor’s current and former Board Chairs appear on a 2013 list, published by Israel, of Hamas’ “main operatives and institutions” in Europe. […]

Ramy Abdu, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor Founder and Chairman

In November 2020, Israel Minister of Defense Benjamin Gantz signed an administrative seizure order against Ramy Abdu under Israel’s anti-terrorism law. The order was issued “in relation to his work with the [Israeli]-designated terrorist organization ‘IPalestine- International Platform of NGOs Working for Palestine…that belongs to and acts on behalf of…Hamas” Abdu served as a Board member.

The order was in effect until August 1, 2022.

Ramy Abdu appeared on a 2013 list, published by Israel, of Hamas’ “main operatives and institutions” in Europe. The institutions included The European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza (ECESG), European NGOs Empowerment Services (ENES), and the Council for European Palestinian Relations (CEPR).

A 2011 publication by Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center described Ramy Abdu as ECESG’s coordinator.”

Credit: NGO Monitor

As documented by CAMERA UK in 2012, Abdu was involved with both the ECESG and the CEPR:

“Assistant to the Director at CEPR is Ramy Abdu (aka Rami Salah Ismail Abdo) who at least until 2011 was (and may still be) also the ECESG spokesman. In 2009 Abdu left his native Gaza (where he acted as spokesman for the pro-Hamas ‘Popular Committee Against the Siege’) and moved to Manchester to study at MMU. He also became an ECESG co-ordinator.”

Since October 7th the NGO founded and chaired by Ramy Abdu has made several extreme allegations against Israel which have been amplified by UN bodies and media outlets.

UN Watch reports:

“On Monday, December 20th, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a now-viral statement echoing extreme allegations made by the NGO Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. The only problem? The claims are unverified and the NGO’s officials are notoriously biased and antisemitic.

The news release accuses the IDF of committing atrocities against Palestinians similar to those documented as having been perpetrated by Hamas against Israelis on October 7th. It claims that the IDF allegedly “separated a group of men from the women and children, and then shot and killed at least 11 of the men in front of their family members. The IDF then allegedly ordered the women and children into a room, and either shot at them or threw a grenade into the room, reportedly seriously injuring some of them, including an infant and a child.”

The IDF investigated these claims and found no record of any such incident. Nevertheless, Euro Med-Monitor published a video by the shady Islamist news agency Middle East Eye purporting to present testimonies of these events by unidentified individuals making the claims impossible to verify.”

In relation to this recent story, the Jerusalem Post reports:

“The bodies that the IDF returned to Gaza on Wednesday were missing vital organs, according to foreign media outlets citing the Hamas-run Gaza Government Media Office.

The Palestinian Health Ministry on Wednesday confirmed the receipt of 80 bodies of Palestinians killed in Gaza and taken to Israel.

Gaza’s GMO said the bodies were “mutilated” and that Israel had removed “vital organs from them,” according to Al Jazeera. […]

NGOs Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor and the Qatari-run Middle East Monitor claimed that this is not the first time Israel has wrongfully taken parts from Palestinian bodies in Israeli custody.

Euro-Med further stated that, in recent years, Israel has exhumed bodies from cemeteries designated for “enemy casualties” (this often refers to terrorists shot and killed during terror attacks) for the purpose of organ theft.”

While it may come as no surprise to find an NGO founded and chaired by a person listed as a Hamas operative amplifying blatant disinformation put out by that terrorist organisation, it is worth noting that between October 31st and November 11th, the BBC News website published three English language items featuring the ‘outreach and advocacy officer’ at that NGO while two additional items were published by the BBC’s foreign language services:

BBC JOURNALISTS CONTINUE TO IGNORE IMPARTIALITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA GUIDELINES

Another employee of Euro-Med was quoted in a BBC News website report published in early December.

“He was “full of energy, life & humour. He loved Chicago Pizza, cats, history, classic music, theatre, poetry & Harry Potter,” said Muhammad Shehada, a Gazan writer and communications chief at Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.”

Particularly in light of the fact that Hamas is a proscribed organisation in the UK, one would expect the BBC to exercise due diligence before soliciting contributions from employees of a clearly partial and politically motivated NGO which – although it may have ‘human rights’ branding in its title – was founded and is headed by a person who publicly lauded Hamas’ October 7th atrocities.

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1 Comment

  1. says: Neil C

    Well the sort of garbage produced by these morons just highlights their total lack of intellect. Even an eleven year old child after their first biology lesson knows that an organ that no longer has a blood supply becomes necrotic and can no longer function, so why would an intelligent adult believe such nonsense, but an antisemite will. The BBC being pro Iranian Islamists and thus antisemites therefore provided a platform for them #defundthebbc

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