Two Human Rights Watch [HRW] employees in charge of its "Israel"-Palestine work have resigned after HRW leadership blocked a report exposing "Israel’s" denial of the Palestinian right of return as a crime against humanity.
Omar Shakir, who directed the team for nearly a decade, and Milena Ansari, an assistant researcher, resigned after HRW blocked their fully cleared report exposing "Israel’s" denial of the Palestinian right of return over political fears.
“I have lost my faith in the integrity of how we do our work and our commitment to principled reporting on the facts and application of the law,” Shakir wrote in his resignation letter.
The resignations come just as HRW’s new executive director, Philippe Bolopion, begins his term.
HRW said the report raised complex legal questions and needed more research, pausing publication to strengthen its factual and legal analysis.
Shakir said HRW’s refusal to publish shows reluctance to address refugees’ right of return, "The one topic… is the plight of refugees and their right to return to the homes that they were forced to flee."
Internal emails show HRW staff worried the report’s broad scope on all diaspora Palestinians might be seen as rejecting "Israel’s" statehood.
The 33-page unpublished report, "Our Souls Are in the Homes We Left", began in January 2025 and examined Palestinian refugees displaced in 1948, 1967, and recent displacements from Gaza and the West Bank across Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan.
The authors said denying Palestinians the right of return amounts to a crime against humanity, citing a 2018 ICC ruling on the Rohingya in Myanmar.
Shakir said the report offered a new legal argument for future Palestinian claims, while Bolopion called HRW’s internal dispute a "good-faith disagreement" and said an independent review had been commissioned.
Former HRW head Kenneth Roth defended pausing the report, calling Shakir’s approach an "extreme interpretation of the law" and saying it was about legal rigor, not politics, "This had to do with preventing publication of a report that was indefensible…"
Shakir said the report was fully cleared for publication and his offer to narrow its focus was rejected. Over 200 HRW staff protested, warning shelving it could harm credibility.
He further criticized limiting the report to recent Gaza and West Bank displacements, stressing that Palestinian refugees "deserve to know why their stories aren’t being told", reaffirming HRW’s duty to represent those in protracted exile.
No comments:
Post a Comment