Activities

• Médecins du Monde (MdM), headquartered in France, works in 64 countries worldwide. MdM has been active in the West Bank and Gaza since 1996.
• In July 2023, as a member of AIDA, published a statement that 12 people were killed during the July 2023 Jenin Operation. AIDA neglects to mention that 10 of those were members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Fatah, and al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. During the funeral procession, the bodies were wrapped in Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas flags. Following the withdrawal of Israeli troops, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh published a statement that “Palestinian resistance had taught a hard lesson to the enemy, and had made him suffer heavy losses.”
• In March 2023, MdM was a signatory on a statement calling on the European Union and France to “act against [] illegal demolitions in the West Bank, especially since these destructions of property financed by the EU have a price (more than 2 million euros since 2016) , and it is therefore essential that States individually or collectively seek reparation and compensation for the humanitarian goods destroyed.”
• In June 2022, MdM and the Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA) published a report calling on Third States to “Take effective diplomatic measures, including restrictive measures,” as well as “substantive and collective action, including diplomatic measures.” The NGOs demanded “Support [for] genuine investigations into, and legal accountability for, violations of international law that undermine Palestinians’ rights, including the International Criminal Court’s investigation on the situation in Palestine, and supporting Palestinians’ access to international forums and mechanisms to pursue international action to uphold their rights.”
• In November 2021, MdM was a signatory on a statement condemning the decision by the Israeli Ministry to designate six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations. According to the statement, “many of us work very regularly with these organizations. Our organizations strongly deplore this decision and express their full solidarity with the six Palestinian NGOs targeted, which denounce human rights violations in Palestine, and which the Israeli government is trying to silence.”
• In 2020, Medecins du Monde worked with Burj al Laqlaq on a number of projects, including a “Hotline providing MHPSS services to people under lockdown and victims of domestic violence and abuse,” “Remote sport activities through recorded/live videos in E Jerusalem. Including for 20 children with special needs,” and the dissemination of materials.
  • According to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), an NGO that reports on incitement, Burj al Laqlaq has a long history of promoting violent messages. For instance, “[in 2012] the Burj Luq-Luq Social Center Society organization performed a puppet show for children in East Jerusalem to promote non-smoking. The educational message delivered by the puppets instructed children to replace cigarettes with machine guns.” According to PMW, Burj Luq-Luq hosted a 2014 soccer tournament named for PLO terrorist Abu Jihad and organized a tournament named for Ibrahim Al-Akari, who murdered two Israeli civilians in a November 2014 attack in Jerusalem.
• In December 2020, MdM, alongside a number of Israeli, Palestinian, and international organizations, issued a declaration headlined “Israel must provide necessary vaccines to Palestinian health care systems.” The NGOs falsely claim that Israel has “legal obligations” to “ensure that quality vaccines be provided to Palestinians living under Israeli occupation and control,” while altogether ignoring that Palestinians residing in Jerusalem are part of the Israeli health care system; that under the Oslo Accords the PA is responsible for health care of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza; and that the PA has adopted its own vaccine policyfor its population.
• In December 2019, MdM published a report titled “The Labyrinths to Health in Gaza,” which “contextualises the health system within the 12 years of blockade and the current de-development of the Gaza economy.” The report called for Third States to “ensure that Israel lifts the blockade and ends the occupation,” as well as for the Government of Israel to “follow the recommendations of the Commission of inquiry on the protests in the oPt.”
  • The report thanked “Al-Haq for providing an immense pool of cases, [and] PCHR for providing great insight to the work done throughout.” Both Al-Haq and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) have been linked to the  Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a designated terrorist organization by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel.
• In May 2018, during the violence on the Gaza border, MdM published a statement condemning “Israel’s violent response against Palestinian civilians” as the “excessive use of force against Palestinians demonstrating in Gaza is a violation of the right to life, health and freedom of assembly.” The statement ignored the violent nature of the protests, which included Molotov cocktails, arson, and attempts to breach the border fence with Israel.
• In April 2018, MdM published a report by Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA) titled “50 Years of Occupation: Dispossession, Deprivation and De-development” that accused Israel of “systemic, decades-long squeeze of Palestinian economic prospects and human rights.”
• In November 2017, MdM published a factsheet titled “Mental Health and Psychosocial Impacts of Occupation-Related Violence in Palestine” discussing how the “occupation policies” create a “coercive environment which takes a toll on health of Palestinians.” The factsheet also places sole blame on Israel for the conflict stating that “MdM witnesses daily that the occupation and related practices are structurally at the core of humanitarian and development needs, having notably a tremendous impact on the health of Palestinians. No sustainable change could therefore be achieved while this system prevails” (emphasis added).
• In June 2017, MdM published a report titled “Surviving under the Occupation” that claimed that the security barrier is “above all else a wall of shame, that divides rather than unifies” and that is used to “isolate them [the Palestinians] and to remind them of the supremacy of Israel on their territory” (emphasis added). The report ignored that the security barrier was built to protect Israelis against Palestinian terrorist attacks.
  • Referring to the permits granted by Israel to ill women in Gaza in order to be treated Israeli hospitals, the report states that “these permits are less and less granted, especially when the family of the women is involved in political activism.” The report furthers that women are “pressured by Israel to be informants, which they refuse” and therefore are not granted travel permits.
• In March 2017, MdM published a report titled “Survive the Occupation,” which stated that “As the Israeli government wants to legalize settlements in the West Bank, attacks against Palestinians are multiplying. An increase in violence seems to echo the political will to rid the territory of its inhabitants by fear and humiliation.”
  • NGO Monitor inquired with MdM regarding the sources of information for the various claims made against IDF soldiers and settlers in the report. MdM did not respond to our request.
• In February 2017, MdM held a meeting in France with the French Green Party (EELV) and the Israeli NGO Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, aimed at “alarming and raising awareness of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, parliamentarians, political parties, NGOs ,and representatives of the civil society…it is about convincing them to act to put an end to hardships, restrictions and violations of humanitarian rights in the occupied territories.”
• Co-signed an July 2016  campaign, calling on world leaders “to press the Israeli government to lift the blockade on Gaza,” while altogether omitting that the blockade was implemented in an effort to stop Palestinian terrorists from smuggling of weapons and rockets into Gaza that would later be used to target Israeli civilians.
  • Co-signatories include a number of other highly biased and politicized NGOs active in the Arab-Israeli conflict: Broederlijk Delen, Christian Aid, CCFD, Diakonia, French Platform of NGOs for Palestine, Heinrich Boll Foundation Palestine, Medico International, Norwegian Church Aid, Norwegian People’s Aid, Oxfam, Pax Christi, Physicians for Human Rights, Trocaire, Lutheran World Federation, World Vision, and others.
• In May 2016, MdM published a report with Première Urgence Internationale (PUI) titled “Settler Violence: An Armed Wing of Settlement Expansion in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” The report cites the politicized Israeli NGO Yesh Din as a source regarding the “policy of de facto annexaton of the West Bank.” The report claims that there is a “troubling correlation between official plans of colonial expansion and violence against the villagers.”
• In 2016, MdM and Première Urgence Internationale (PUI) addressed the French National Assembly, accusing the IDF of “not hesitating to shoot farmers and fishermen” that cross the Access Restricted Areas (zone within Gaza and the Gaza territorial waters under the control of the Israeli army). Omitting the context of violence and terrorism under which the blockade on Gaza was established, the NGOs advocated for conditioning the European Union’s aid to Israel in order to “exercise pressures on the Israeli government to remove the illegal blockade.”
• Signed the 2015 Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA) document titled “Charting a New Course: Overcoming the Stalemate in Gaza,” which misrepresents international law and distorts legal terminology in order to place primary blame for the 2014 Gaza war on Israel. The paper fails to mention Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli civilians, as well as terror tunnels running beneath the border into Israel. It further encourages contact with Hamas, stating that, “Restricted contact can undermine humanitarian access and implementation of humanitarian programmes…”
• In 2014, MdM and PUI participated in a roundtable discussion with a group of French Parliamentarians on the “impact and the dramatic consequences of settler violence.”
  • Politicized Israeli and Palestinian NGOs such as B’Tselem, Al-Haq, Yesh Din, and EWASH also participated in the roundtable.

BDS

• In May 2024, MdM was a signatory on a statement claiming, “As the main weapon provider for Israel’s military effort, the United States bears a significant responsibility for Israel’s IHL violations. In addition to halting the transfer of high payload bombs, the US should also use all its leverage to halt the ongoing military operation in Rafah. In fact, All suppliers of arms have to respect the Human Rights Council resolution voted on April 5 calling on them to cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel.”
• In April 2024, MdM was a signatory on a statement calling to “Halt the arms transfer and suspend the Association Agreement with Israel to ensure it complies with international humanitarian law and human rights standards.”
• In February 2024, MdM launched a petition demanding that “Canada suspends arms transfers to Israel.”
• In January 2024, MdM signed an open call to UN Member States calling to “immediately halt the transfer of weapons, parts, and ammunition.”