Last week The Atlantic published an article by Michael Powell titled “The Double Standard in the Human-Rights World”.
One of the NGOs featured in that report is ‘Doctors Without Borders’ (also known as Medecins Sans Frontiers or MSF).
“The leaders of the world’s most prominent human-rights groups have displayed little appetite for acknowledging the uncertainty and moral murk of the Gaza war. On October 17, 2023, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry reported that Israel had bombed the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital and killed close to 500 Palestinians. Amnesty and Doctors Without Borders immediately picked up on that claim: The leaders of the latter group posted about the Israeli “massacre” on their social-media feeds. […]
To this day, Doctors Without Borders has not removed its debunked claims of Israeli malfeasance from its social-media feed.”
Another story involving MSF appears later in the article:
“Last June, Doctors Without Borders accused Israel of killing one of its staff physiotherapists, Fadi Al-Wadiya, as he biked to work. Organization officials portrayed this as a war crime, an innocent family man slaughtered. An official statement said, “There is no justification for this; it is unacceptable.”
Doctors Without Borders posted a photo of Al-Wadiya’s fractured bicycle. Word circulated that he had been a fighter with Islamic Jihad, a radical group that allied with Hamas on October 7. The organization vigorously denied this. Then the Israeli army released photos of Al-Wadiya, who it said was a rocket specialist, wearing an Islamic Jihad uniform. Doctors Without Borders ultimately conceded that it was “deeply concerned by these allegations” and said it would “never knowingly employ” a fighter.
A staffer involved in hiring for Doctors Without Borders spoke of great organizational pressure to expand hiring in Gaza. “We were told not to check backgrounds,” this employee told me, adding that one office in Gaza had two known Hamas militants. “Our Arab staff was greatly concerned because to be in the same room with operatives put all at risk.””
As readers may recall, a BBC News website report published on June 25th 2024 included a mention of that incident, together with a link to a MSF social media post:
“Médecins Sans Frontières meanwhile expressed outrage at the “horrific and cynical” killing of one of its staff members in an attack in Gaza City on Tuesday morning.
Physiotherapist Fadi al-Wadiya was killed along with five other people, including three children, as he cycled to the MSF clinic where he worked, the charity said, without blaming any party.
The Israeli military later announced that it had killed Fadi al-Wadiya in an air strike, accusing him of being a “significant [Palestinian] Islamic Jihad terrorist” who had developed the group’s rockets array.”
As was noted here at the time:
“At the time of writing, Gritten’s report has not been amended to inform BBC audiences that the IDF did not merely ‘accuse’ al-Wadiya of being a “significant [Palestinian] Islamic Jihad terrorist” who had developed the group’s rockets array” but also provided evidence.”
BBC NEWS IGNORES FOLLOW-UP ON PROMOTED MSF CLAIM
Nine months later, that observation still stands, with BBC audiences not having been informed that ‘Doctors Without Borders’ was employing a Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist.
Powell’s article also mentions a report put out by Amnesty International:
“Amid the terrible losses and savage fighting that have marked the war in Gaza, human-rights groups have demonstrated far greater urgency in documenting and denouncing Israel’s conduct than that of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. In December, Amnesty International released its much anticipated and publicized report accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. Amnesty, however, has yet to complete a long-promised report examining the Hamas-driven murder and rape of Israeli civilians on October 7. O’Brien said the staff is hard at work on this. “The documentation has been extraordinarily difficult,” he told me. “Investigating sexual violence in an ethical and sensitive manner can take many months.””
Predictably, that Amnesty International report enjoyed uncritical amplification from the BBC:
BBC’S KNELL IGNORES EDITORIAL GUIDELINES TO PROMOTE AMNESTY PROPAGANDA
For years the BBC has uncritically promoted political NGOs and their assorted campaigns while failing to meet its own editorial guidelines concerning contributors’ affiliations. Since October 7th 2023, that editorial policy has served the interests of BBC audiences even less. However, the corporation continues to show no interest whatsoever in informing its audiences about the terror connections of some of the NGOs it quotes and promotes or the political biases of others.
MSF have always been antisemitic and it is no surprise that they are in bed with Amnesty International – another anti-Israel outfit that accused Israel of genocide when zero such evidence exists. These biased so-called charities should announce that were Hamas to release all their disgustingly captured hostages, killings in Gaza would cease.