From Listening to Silence: NGOs’ Antisemitism Gap
After the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements erupted, Human Rights Watch held internal “listening sessions” to mull its failures and hear the “lived experiences” of colleagues. In 2019, after staff suicides, Amnesty investigated and committed to radical change. In 2020, after staff at Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) claimed institutional racism and “white savior” culture, leadership investigated and promised reforms.
The response of these same organizations to Jewish staff raising documented antisemitism and policy breaches for nearly three years? Absolutely nothing.
I’ve heard dozens of staff from major global rights, humanitarian, development, and environmental NGOs describe shocking experiences and violated practices, which they have dutifully detailed in emails and laid out in multi-page dossiers for managers who have consistently made one thing clear: they don’t give a........
