International humanitarian and human rights groups neglected antisemitism complaints from staffers, exploited suffering in Gaza for fundraising and sought to shape an anti-Israel narrative around the Gaza war, according to a report released this week.

The 63-page report by the new advocacy group EiGHT called for significant changes to the non-governmental organization (NGO) system, arguing that the sector has vast influence but little external oversight.

“They themselves call for transparency and accountability and speak out on behalf of people’s freedoms of expression,” Israeli Danielle Haas, one of EiGHT’s lead organizers, told The Times of Israel. “We consider this to be entirely in line with their own mandate and principles.”

Haas was a senior editor at Human Rights Watch for 14 years, left after the start of the Gaza war, and has been a critic of the NGO sector since.

Haas wrote in Jewish journal Sapir in 2024 about her experience at Human Rights Watch. After the article came out, other Jewish and non-Jewish NGO staffers contacted her to report similar experiences, forming an informal group of around 70 that coalesced into EiGHT, which is in the process of acquiring nonprofit status in Geneva, Haas said.

EiGHT based the report on interviews with around 70 staffers or recent employees of international NGOs, as well as internal documents from the organizations. The employees and documents came from groups including Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International, and Amnesty International Australia. The groups did not respond to requests for comment.

EiGHT compiled the report for the Australian government’s investigation into antisemitism, launched in response to last year’s Bondi Beach massacre.

Many of the names and organizations were kept anonymous due to “fear of retaliation,” the report said.

The report said its key findings included a lack of consequences for antisemitism complaints; inconsistent standards; a lack of transparency; exclusion of Jewish staff; retaliation against staff who raised concerns; and a disregard for Israeli and Jewish victims.

Antisemitism allegations brushed aside

The report said that antisemitism in the sector was “barely acknowledged,” with alleged anti-Jewish discrimination often reframed as political disagreement. The threshold for action on antisemitism complaints was often “effectively impossible to meet,” the report said.

The report contrasted the response to previous movements, like #MeToo and Black Lives Matter, when discrimination complaints led to significant action. Jews who reported antisemitism were instead met with “skepticism and dismissal,” the report said.

A non-Jewish employee of Amnesty International Australia said that after the Bondi Beach massacre last year, there was a tendency in the group “to frame efforts to address antisemitism as attempts to restrict criticism of Israel.”

An Amnesty International Australia staffer reported a “disturbing rise in anti-Zionist ideology,” with the term “Zionist” used as a pejorative. Jewish NGO staffers said their........

© The Times of Israel