Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) stands accused by staff members of breaching its commitment to “neutrality and impartiality” when concerned with activities related to Israel, a JC investigation reveals.
They warn that a “disproportionate obsession” with the Jewish state fuels political activism over humanitarian aid.
The giant global charity – also known as Doctors Without Borders – has also failed to adequately address antisemitism, according to one former employee who has spoken to this newspaper.
Another long-serving former MSF staffer alleges that after October 7, a statement of sympathy for those who were killed was rejected for fear of “victimising the perpetrators”.
The JC has seen a number of messages from MSF internal discussions revealing that some employees use incendiary terms including “fascism”, “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” in discussing Israel and Zionism.
And one leading figure in the charity has described the situation in Gaza as involving “white supremacist logic”.
It is also alleged that MSF staff in a Gaza hospital knew and accepted Hamas militants were present there too and using the building as a base of operations.
The revelations appear to undermine the pledge by the more than half-century-old charity in its charter to observe “neutrality and impartiality in the name of universal medical ethics”.
Last year, controversial rap group Kneecap – one of whose members was charged with a terror offence over the alleged display of a Hezbollah flag at a concert – donated their fee from a music festival to the UK branch of MSF. While the charge was dismissed months later, the charity’s executive director, Natalie Roberts, celebrated the donation with a LinkedIn post: a heart emoji and a raised fist.
MSF operates in more than 70 countries and employs tens of thousands of staff.
Yet interviews and internal material reviewed by the JC suggest that the organisation’s principle of témoignage, or “bearing witness”, has taken on a political character in relation to Israel.
MSF public statements started using the term “genocide” to describe the Gaza war in November 2024.
One former employee described “pushback” when it was first adopted, citing concerns about the lack of “legal rigour” behind the claim.
MSF leaders have for years made such similar statements about the Jewish state. In January 2025, shortly before becoming international president of MSF, Javid Abdelmoneim reposted a message on X claiming that Israel had “transformed Jewish symbols into symbols of genocide” and was “the greatest threat to Judaism & the Jewish people on planet earth”.
In another repost, Abdelmoneim – who has endorsed a full boycott of the Jewish state – shared a message describing Israel as “a colony of settlers that continue to ethnically cleanse the native Palestinian population”.
Michael Goldfarb spent more than 15 years at MSF US. He claimed anti-Israel sentiment was at times “tolerated” by those at the top.
He said: “European colleagues freely told me, knowing I am Jewish, that Israel doesn’t have a right to exist.”
He recalled one colleague expressing outrage at being mistaken for Israeli while abroad.
At a restaurant with MSF colleagues in northern Italy, in a town’s former Jewish quarter, one colleague told Goldfarb: “There better not be Israeli flags here.”
He said: “Nothing meaningful has been done to address antisemitism, to show solidarity with Jewish staff, or call out this hate. That creates a permissive environment in which it flourishes.”
Goldfarb alleges there is “selective outrage”, giving rise for example to internal messages of solidarity with Asian American staff when the minority group was attacked during the first outbreak of Covid. When violence against Jews in New York surged during the 2021 Gaza conflict, his suggestion of a similar message of support being sent out was rejected.
“The executive director told me, ‘If we do that, we have to do it for every minority,’” he said. “My response was: why wouldn’t we? And I was told, ‘Well you know, because Israel – it’s complicated.”
Goldfarb claims there is a “disproportionate obsession” with Israel in parts of MSF, based on what he saw internally and posts on staff forums.
He said: “You see extreme ideological fervour – Israel as a Nazi state, Jews as the oppressive, colonial, white supremacists, Zionism as Nazism.”
Goldfarb visited numerous MSF field projects across Africa and the Middle East and is proud of his work with the charity.
He said: “My 15-plus years with MSF were among the most meaningful of my professional life. It does essential, life-saving work that few organisations can match, and the world would be worse without it.
“But an internal reckoning is long overdue. For an organisation that prides itself on self-reflection and course correction, it has yet to confront the antisemitism in its midst.”
Dr Estrella Lasry worked at MSF for 14 years. Having sat on its board at the time of the October 7 attacks, she described what she saw as a “the appalling lack of empathy in the organisation towards the victims in Israel”.
She recalled one “explicit request” from an MSF office in the Middle East “not to speak out on behalf of victims in Israel as it would victimise the perpetrators.
“For a humanitarian organisation, that was shocking.”
Lasry later called for internal training on antisemitism and took part in staff discussions, including with the secretary general: “There was some sympathy, but there was also a level of vitriol.”
She claims that Jewish staff concerns about antisemitism that had been raised with the internal Diversity, Equality and Inclusion department (DEI) were “dismissed”.
She said: “I said our communication was biased and for an organisation that claims to be impartial, it was creating a biased, skewed, false narrative around what was actually going on. It was giving a very one-sided view.
“I was told I was part of the ‘Israeli propaganda machine’ in a meeting, and nobody flinched.”
Lasry stayed at the organisation for another two years, “I decided to stay because of October 7 – I thought there needed to be another voice.”
A female Jewish current member of staff, Lisa (not her real name), fears that some of the charity’s activism has impeded its work on the ground. The organisation was recently asked to pull out of Gaza by Israel after claims some members of its staff had links to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
“MSF is now threatened with having to leave Gaza and part of that could be because of its public campaign against Israel,” she said, adding: “Are they a humanitarian aid organisation or an activist organisation?”
The concern over bias was only amplified after the JC saw messages on an internal staff online forum known as the souk and used by employees, volunteers, and former colleagues.
One post claims the Israeli army “ticks every box of crimes imaginable, including the ultimate one: genocide”. Another describes Zionism as “genocide”, “ethnic cleansing” and “fascism”.
Others refer to Israel as a “76-year-old crime scene” and “a textbook example of violent, racist settler colonialism”, while a comment talks of the “absolute evil” of “Zionism”.
In November 2023, Rasha Khoury, now president of the board of MSF US, wrote on the souk: “We must decolonise our minds,” and talked of “white supremacist logic” in reference to Gaza.
MSF public messaging has featured repeated posts about the “genocide”. All the staffers who spoke to the JC pointed to what they claimed was a vastly disproportionate volume of communication about Gaza, at the expense of other crises.
“They’re obsessed,” said one current staffer.
In 2024, MSF UK launched a billboard campaign in London stating: “We’re witnessing a genocide in Gaza,” urging political leaders to act. Lisa wonders if using charitable funds to amplify overtly political messaging breached Charity Commission guidelines. “Has the money of donors given to a charity being used to convince people that this a genocide?” she said.
The charity’s messaging around healthcare has also caused controversy.
On October 17, 2023, after an explosion at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, MSF’s international account posted that it was “horrified by the recent Israeli bombing… This is a massacre”. The blast was later attributed to a misfired Palestinian rocket. The MSF post remains online.
In November 2023, as Israeli forces said they would target Hamas operatives allegedly using Al-Shifa Hospital, MSF staff were present at the facility. The organisation said it had “seen no evidence” that Hamas was using the hospital as a military base. Months later, US intelligence confirmed Hamas had used parts of the complex for storing weapons and holding hostages.
Israel said last month that the charity was banned from working in the Strip after it refused to hand over a list of its workers in the territory, citing staff security. The Israeli High Court has temporarily halted the ban, which was meant to come into force on March 1.
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said Israel “must stop blocking supplies and preventing the work of international non-governmental organisations”. Speaking in the Commons, he called such actions “unconscionable” and “costing Palestinian lives”.
But internal accounts now suggest the organisation was aware of Hamas’s presence in and around hospitals in the Strip and aid workers operate with a clear awareness of the constraints of working alongside the terror group.
Speaking via a trusted third party, Alisha (not her real name) described restricted areas at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and said staff knew which floors they were “not welcome” on.
She described a 2024 debrief in which a colleague who had just left Gaza said: “We know there are doors we can’t go through in the hospital, and we know that Hamas is in the hospital.” Revealing Hamas’s use of the healthcare facilities would likely result in being forced to leave, the colleague said, according to Alisha.
She also raised concerns about hiring practices, claiming that some local workers were not properly vetted, and recalling a senior manager who said “people are becoming militants because of the war and we have to expect it”. Lasry said: “When MSF operates in Gaza they have to play by Hamas rules – there are certain things they can say, and certain things that can limit their security.”
Lisa told the JC it is not uncommon for militants to be involved in humanitarian environments in complex conflict zones.
“That is what happens in all complex crises, it is not unique to Gaza. But MSF’s favourite line is it is a smear campaign [by Israel], rather than owning it.
“Most organisations, where you have a complex crisis with multiple armed actors, state and non-state, the majority of your workforce are part of local population. People wear many hats – by day you might be a nurse, by night a medic in a militant group. That’s what people do to survive, to show resistance, to make money,” she said.
In response to the JC, a spokesperson for MSF said the charity takes allegations related to local staff vetting and links to armed groups “extremely seriously and is deeply concerned by them.
“MSF would never knowingly employ people engaging in military activity. Any employee with links to an armed group would pose a serious risk to our staff and to our patients. MSF’s recruitment and screening processes are thorough and rooted in our principles of neutrality. As part of our recruitment process, we carry out various checks including diplomas, professional skills, reference and background checks, and we ask our employees to undertake a commitment to respect the MSF Charter, which includes respecting humanitarian principles and medical ethics.”
The spokesperson went on: “Like many others, we were horrified by Hamas’ massacre in Israel on October 7, and we are horrified by Israel’s response. While providing extensive humanitarian assistance in Gaza we have witnessed mass killings, indiscriminate attacks, repeated failures to protect civilians, immense destruction by Israeli forces, the near-total dismantling of the healthcare system, and the weaponisation and restriction of lifesaving aid. Israeli officials have made multiple, well-documented dehumanising statements calling for the annihilation or forced transfer of the population.
“The only reasonable conclusion is that the intention is to erase the Palestinian people from Gaza. For this reason, we believe a genocide is taking place.
“Our public statements and calls for action are not driven by any political agenda, but by our commitment to speak out about what we directly witness. We have also expressed our concerns against incidents where we have witnessed the presence of armed men in hospitals where we provide care, and suspended non-critical activities in response. We continue to call on all armed groups, as well as Israeli forces, to respect medical facilities and ensure the protection of staff and patients.
“Hospitals, medical staff, and patients must always be protected.”
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