A new NGO Monitor report alleges that anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias are deeply embedded within the organizational culture of Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), expanding on findings published by the organization in April on MSF’s public messaging on the war in Gaza.
The report draws on statements by current and former MSF officials, staff members, and board members, as well as internal discussions and public interviews, to argue that the organization has departed from its stated principles of neutrality and impartiality.
The report, titled “Documenting the Antisemitic Organizational Culture of Doctors without Borders (MSF),” builds on NGO Monitor’s April 2026 publication, “NGO Malpractice: MSF (Doctors Without Borders) and the Gaza ‘Genocide’ Campaign,” which argued that MSF’s messaging about Israel relied on false testimonies and violated medical ethics and neutrality. The new report contends that these issues reflect a broader organizational culture characterized by anti-Semitism, anti-Israel bias, and repeated support for Hamas.
Among those cited is Alain Destexhe, a former MSF secretary-general who accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on the organization’s behalf in 1999. In an October 2025 interview, Destexhe said, “MSF is lying, MSF is partial, MSF is biased and MSF are accomplices of Hamas.” He also said it would have been impossible during his tenure for the organization to operate with what he described as its current level of bias, adding that MSF “has become a biased, partial and militant organization.” The report also cites his earlier analysis asserting that MSF had failed to condemn Hamas’ October 7 attacks or the use of hospitals by Hamas while repeatedly denouncing Israel.
The report also quotes Richard Rossin, a former MSF secretary-general, who said, “Anti-Semitism within MSF began under the cover of anti-Zionism.” Rossin recalled an incident during a 2010 mission to Uganda in which an MSF team from the Netherlands refused to work with an Israeli medical organization, describing it as an example of “one-way empathy.”
Michael Goldfarb, who spent more than 15 years with Doctors Without Borders USA, said Jewish staff encountered hostility within the organization. “European colleagues freely told me, knowing I am Jewish, that Israel doesn’t have a right to exist,” he said. Goldfarb also alleged that complaints about anti-Semitism were not meaningfully addressed and described what he called “extreme ideological fervor” among some colleagues.
The report includes statements attributed to current and former MSF employees describing discussions on the organization’s internal staff forum, known as the Souk. It cites posts referring to Israel as a “76-year-old crime scene” and a “textbook example of violent, racist settler colonialism,” while another employee said MSF’s public messaging on the conflict was “one-sided, divisive, and inflammatory.” A doctor quoted anonymously said, “I have never seen this level of polarization within the organization.”
The report also cites Dr. Estrella Lasry, a former consultant and board member at MSF’s Geneva headquarters, who criticized what she described as “the appalling lack of empathy in the organization towards the victims in Israel.” She said an MSF office in the Middle East made an “‘explicit request’ … ‘not to speak out on behalf of victims in Israel as it would victimize the perpetrators.’” The report further quotes current employees identified by pseudonyms who questioned MSF’s operations in Gaza, its public campaign accusing Israel of genocide, and its internal handling of concerns over Hamas’ presence in hospitals.
In its concluding section, NGO Monitor calls for sweeping structural changes within MSF, including replacing current leadership, establishing independent oversight mechanisms, and removing staff members responsible for what it describes as discrimination and anti-Semitism. The report argues such reforms are necessary to restore the organization’s credibility as a neutral humanitarian and medical aid provider.
