Activities

• MAP is a UK based charity claiming to work “for the health and dignity of Palestinians living under occupation and as refugees.” Promotes distorted and false narratives and demonizing rhetoric under the guise of medical expertise and scientific fact.
• Presents political analysis, legal declarations, and speculations regarding Israel’s military operations and weaponry, far beyond the scope of any medical expertise it might possess.
• In March 2019, the Charity Commission for England and Wales warned MAP that it must “take care” in heeding regulatory guidelines, following a complaint that portions of the money raised by the Palestinian organization are being used “towards political propaganda rather than for its stated purpose of providing medical aid.”
  • In 2018, the UK Charity Commission criticized MAP for directing its resources “towards political propaganda rather than for its stated purpose of providing medical aid.” Complaints that led to the Charity Commission inquiry include inaccurate and misleading content on MAP’s website, such as material promoting racist hatred, false claims regarding the medical situation in the West Bank and Gaza, and the promotion of the antisemitic play “Seven Jewish Children.”
• In 2019-2021, MAP granted $300,000 to the Abdel Shafi Community Health Association (ACHA), formerly known as the Red Crescent Society for the Gaza Strip (RCS4GS), as part of the program, “Enhancing prevention and protection responses to acutely vulnerable women and girls survivors of GBV in north Gaza.”
  • ACHA was founded and is directed by senior members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Other employees have demonstrated support for Palestinian terror groups and their actions. On multiple occasions, the PFLP  held events at ACHA facilities.

Anti-Israeli Biases

• In October 2025, MAP partnered on the production of the film “I Know,” which claims to “Spotlight[] Brutal Truth of Healthcare Under Fire in Gaza.” According to MAP, “At MAP, we know how important it is that these stories are told truthfully and with dignity, because they reflect not just statistics, but real people enduring unimaginable hardship amid Israel’s ongoing genocide.”
• In October 2025, following the announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, MAP claimed, “World leaders must ensure that the ceasefire becomes permanent, ending Israel’s genocide in Gaza…Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians, including extermination, collective punishment and genocide, must be permanently brought to an end. Those responsible for violating international law must be held fully accountable. A comprehensive arms embargo must be imposed on Israel.”
• In October 2025, MAP alleged, “What remains of Gaza’s dismantled healthcare system must be protected before it is entirely annihilated, and perpetrators of violations of international law must be held accountable.”
• In February 2025, MAP published an article alleging, “Palestinians are living an ongoing Nakba, uprooted again and again…States, including the UK, must therefore suspend all arms transfers to Israel, and take urgent measures to bring an end to Israel’s illegal occupation, settlement project, and policies of racial segregation and apartheid.” 
• In September 2024, MAP interim CEO Steve Cutts was a signatory on a statement to the UK Business and Trade Secretary calling for an “review of trade relations with Israel, to ensure full compliance with the UK’s international legal obligations and uphold respect for human rights.”
• In October 2023, in response to an explosion outside the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, MAP tweeted, “Medical Aid for Palestinians is horrified by a reported Israeli airstrike on Al Ahli Hospital in #Gaza, and the death and destruction to hundreds of innocent lives that it has caused… and demand justice for the victims. The bombing of a hospital is an unconscionable, cruel and illegal act for which there must be accountability…MAP has warned over many years that the blanket impunity that exists for attacks on Palestinian healthcare would lead only to more and deadlier violations against health facilities and workers. Today we witness the cost of the world’s inaction. Enough is enough.” MAP ignored the videos, images, and intelligence materials demonstrating that an Islamic Jihad rocket had “misfired” (i.e. detonated in Gaza instead of Israel) and hit the hospital parking lot.
• In August 2022, MAP 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, “These Palestinian civil society organisations provide vital services to Palestinians living under occupation…We call on the UK government to uphold its legal and moral duties to the Palestinian people and support Palestinian civil society as its institutions are targeted by Israel’s repressive measures.”
• In April 2021, MAP signed a joint statement welcoming the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to launch of a formal investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Israel in the “State of Palestine.” The statement condemned the UK’s opposition to the ICC investigation, stating that “The investigation is the first genuine hope that alleged perpetrators of the most serious crimes will be held to account for their actions…”
• In January 2021, MAP, 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 claimed 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 policy for its population.
• In June 2020, to mark “13 years since the start of the Gaza closure,” MAP, alongside Al-Haq, Al Mezan, and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), launched “an online resource and campaign for the lifting of the Gaza closure” calling for a “genuine solidarity movement that will allow us to create the political will and address the root causes of Palestinians’ rights deprivations in Gaza.” The campaign omitted 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.
• In March 2020, MAP, Al Mezan, and Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR) published a report titled “Chronic Impunity: Gaza’s Health Sector Under Repeated Attack.” The report dealt with 2018 protests along the Israel-Gaza border, yet ignored and whitewashed the context of Hamas terrorism, repeated assaults on Israeli civilian communities, and attempts to sabotage the border fence and infiltrate into Israel to commit violence.
  • The report refers to Sajed Mizher, a “first aid volunteer” for Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) who was killed by the Israeli security forces “during confrontations…in the southern West Bank district of Bethlehem.” The report neglected to mention that Mizher was a “comrade“ of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine(PFLP), a terrorist organization designated as such by the S., EU, Canada, and Israel). Mizher’s funeral procession featured many individuals wearing military gear, PFLP paraphernalia, and PFLP banners. Mizher’s body was also adorned in PFLP paraphernalia, as well as a PMRS orange reflective vest.  (For more details, see NGO Monitor’s blog “Palestinian NGO Medic Killed in Bethlehem Clashes Had Ties to PFLP Terror Group.”)
• In October 2019, MAP Advocacy and Campaigns Manager Rohan Talbot spoke at a conference on “Standing up for Palestinian rights under increasing Israeli and US attacks.” According to Talbot, “Governments must stop treating the Palestinian people as though they are the victims of some inevitable natural disaster.”
• In July 2019, MAP Founder Swee Ang participated in a panel at the Palestine Expo conference and exhibition titled “Gaza: The Siege.” The expo served as a platform for organizers and participants to espouse anti-Israel rhetoric, antisemitism, and promote BDS, as well as demonization and delegitimization campaigns.
• In May 2019, during the violence on the Gaza border, MAP posted about the “staggering loss of life and bloodshed,” stating that “Not a single perpetrator has been held to account for any of these attacks, meanwhile the rights demanded by protesters in Gaza continue to be denied.” MAP ignored the violent nature of the protests, which have consisted of an organized armed attack on the Israeli border and IDF positions, attempts to destroy and breach the border fence, and sustained arson, rocket, and mortar attacks on Israeli civilian communities.
• In October 2017, MAP called on the UK government to “save lives by increasing DFID support for Gaza, both through the UN’s US$25 million humanitarian funding appeal and long-term investment in healthcare” and “Us[e] all diplomatic opportunities – including multilateral forums and bilateral relations with Israel – to bring an end to the closure of Gaza.”
• In September 2017, MAP participated in a panel titled “Prisoners’ Health in Israel and Palestine” at Medact’s conference, “Health Through Peace.” The panel, which included PHR-I and Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR), discussed “the issue of Palestinian prisoners in Israel and their frequent subjection to unethical treatment.”
• In March 2017, MAP and Al Mezan held a side event at the UNHRC titled “Health Under Occupation,” discussing how “50 years of occupation of Palestinian territory and 10 years of blockade and closure of Gaza have detrimentally impacted the right to health of Palestinians” and “explore action the international community should take to ensure accountability for attacks on healthcare and protect the right to health for Palestinians.”
• In February 2017, MAP co-published a “briefing paper” together with Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, the “first in a series of briefings exploring how Israel’s occupation affects the health and dignity of Palestinians.” The groups call upon the UK to “place pressure on the Government of Israel to remove obstacles to the right to movement which undermine healthcare.” The paper condemns Israeli security measures while completely ignoring the context of violence and terrorism under which these types of policies are enforced.

MAP and Terrorism

• According to a December 2022 internal memo of the Hamas Ministry of Interior and National Security (MoINS) regarding Hamas-approved NGO liaisons,² MAP-UK’s “administrative director” in Gaza works in “the positive” – a known term for Hamas’ Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades – and “is affiliated with Hamas and has pledged allegiance to its rule.” Moreover, the documents detail that “he is employed in the [Hamas-affiliated] Islamic University [of Gaza],” and that  “his circle of friends is from the Hamas movement.”
• During a wave of terrorism that began in the end of 2015, MAP’s publications repeatedly criticized Israeli policy and actions, without even mentioning the attacks on Israeli civilians.
• MAP’s “2014 Gaza relief partners” included the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health (MoH) and IDEALS, an NGO funded by Interpal, which the United States has designated a terrorist entity.
• From 2013 to 2014, Dr. Majed Nassar served as Director of Programs in the West Bank for MAP. Nassar has reported ties to the PFLP. According to a 2007 document, Israel has prevented Majed Nassar from traveling “since 2001,” a decision upheld by the HCJ.
  • Dr. Majed Nassar is also Deputy Director of the Union of Health Work Committees (UHWC) and has been cited as a PFLP member. UHWC itself is a PFLP affiliated health committee active in Gaza, as identified by USAID and in Palestinian documents. Nassar also served as an official with Defense for Children International- Palestine (DCI-P) and is a member of the board of directors at the Alternative Information Center (AIC), two groups with alleged ties to the PFLP. On October 22, 2021, the Israeli Ministry of Defense declared UHWC and DCI-P as “terror organizations” because they are part of “a network of organizations” that operates “on behalf of the ‘Popular Front’.”

BDS Activities

• In November 2025, MAP claimed that the “UK Government is legally and morally obligated to act. It must take all possible legal, diplomatic, and economic measures to hold perpetrators accountable and finally end Israel’s impunity, including by…Suspending all arms transfers to Israel, including parts for F-35 fighter jets…[and] Imposing sanctions on individuals responsible for attacks on healthcare and personnel.”
• In April 2025, MAP called on states to “Cease military and security support and suspend all arms sales to Israel” and “Halt trade or business with illegal settlements or enabling Israel’s illegal occupation.”
• In January 2025, MAP called on the UK to “suspend all arms sales to Israel including parts for F-35 fighter jets.”
• In September 2024, MAP was a signatory on a statement “urg[ing] the UK Government to immediately suspend all UK arms exports to Israel, which risk fuelling violations of international law and atrocity crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
• In September 2024, following the UK government’s decision to suspend some arms licenses to Israel, MAP was a signatory on a statement claiming, “it is insufficient that the Government has failed to end ALL arms transfers to Israel.”
• In September 2024, MAP was meant to host an event with British political and cultural news magazine, The New Statesman. MAP canceled the event because of “the New Statesman’s partnership with companies reported to have supplied military technologies to Israel, and therefore incompatibility with MAP’s values and advocacy priorities.”
• In June 2024, MAP launched a petition to “Suspend arms transfers to Israel.”

Staff Members

• In October 2025, MAP appointed Steve Cutts as CEO.
  • In May 2025, Cutts explicitly referred to Israel’s actions as part of “what international human rights groups have concluded is a campaign of genocide against Palestinians.” According to Cutts, “The international community must see this plan for what it plainly is: another tool of oppression and violence.”
• In April 2025-October 2025, Tim Holmes served as CEO. Previously, Holmes served as the Country Director for the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel at Oxfam GB.
  • In May 2018, during a period of violence on the Gaza border, Holmes condemned “the deaths and injuries of unarmed Palestinian protesters in Gaza. Unarmed Palestinians have the right to make their voices heard and the right to freedom of assembly and expression. ” Holmes ignored the violent nature of the protests, which included rockets, mortars, sniper fire, Molotov cocktails, balloon bombs, and attempts to breach the border fence in order to launch attacks on IDF positions and Israeli civilian communities.
• In 2022-2024, Melanie Ward served as CEO. Previously, Ward served as the Senior UK Political Adviser for Christian Aid and a Human Rights Observer for the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).
  • The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) was founded by the World Council of Churches (WCC). EAPPI sends volunteers to the West Bank to “witness life under occupation.” Upon completion of the program, the volunteers return to their home countries and churches where many engage in anti-Israel advocacy, including advocating for BDS campaigns in churches, comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany, and other delegitimization strategies.
• Swee Ang
  • Founder and Honorary Patron Dr. Swee Ang was one of the main authors of the “Open Letter for the People of Gaza,” published in The Lancet medical journal (July 23, 2014), which accused Israel of “war crimes” and  carrying out a propaganda campaign that “justifies the creation of an emergency to masquerade a massacre.” The letter made numerous unsubstantiated allegations, including accusing Israel of utilizing illegal weaponry to deliberately kill civilians and engaging in a “military onslaught on civilians in Gaza under the guise of punishing terrorists.” The letter also denies Israel’s right to self-defense and fails to mention Hamas rocket fire and terror tunnels from Gaza into Israeli territory.
  • According to NGO Monitor research, Swee Ang promoted a video made by American white supremacist David Duke, who was expelled from Italy for “allegedly trying to establish a pan-European neo-Nazi group.” The video is described on Duke’s YouTube page as “reveal[ing] how the Zionist Matrix of Power controls Media, Politics and Banking and how each Part of this Tribalist matrix supports and protects each other!”
    • In February 2017, when asked about the antisemitic video at the University College of London Union, Swee Ang responded that she doesn’t “think it’s entirely anti-Jewish.”
  • In a 2011 interview with the BBC (part 1 & 2), MAP founder Dr. Swee Ang discussed wearing a “Hezbollah scarf…to get better treatment” in Lebanon, and revealed her support for colleagues from “Medical Aid” who were “defending their camp” through suicide bombings. She then tried to claim that MAP staff’s Palestinian political inclinations have “nothing to do with the charity.”
  • On February 2, 2009, Dr. Swee Ang published the introduction “The Wounds of Gaza” from her book From Beirut to Jerusalem on The Lancet’s “Global Health Network” website. The article remained posted for twenty-eight days until it was removed due to factual inaccuracies.
• Shabby Amini
  • Before joining MAP as Director of Fundraising and Marketing, Amini served as Executive Director of Fundraising, Partnerships & Communications at CARE International.
• Rohan Talbot
  • Talbot serves as MAP’s Director of Advocacy and Campaigns.
  • In December 2025, Talbot referred to the “blood of the genocide in Gaza still flowing as Israel continues to kill with impunity.”
  • In November 2025, Talbot tweeted, “The genocide isn’t constrained to Gaza. Fuelled by impunity, it is advancing across different areas at different rates and with different tactics but with the same ideological aim: the elimination of Palestinian life across the whole land of Palestine.”
  • In November 2025, Talbot tweeted, “The genocide isn’t over until…there is no more impunity for the school bombers, the baby killers, the ethnic cleansers and family destroyers. A psuedo-ceasefire didn’t end the genocide.”
  • In October 2025, Talbot tweeted, “Israel has a right to defend itself. At the Hague.”
  • In September 2025, Talbot shared an article on X (formerly Twitter) titled “Israel is waging a holocaust in Gaza. Denazification is our only remedy.”
• Aimee Shalan
  • Shalan, former Chief Executive of MAP, is an Al-Shabaka Policy member and formerly served as the Head of Education at the Council for Arab British Understanding (Caabu).
  • On October 28, 2017, Shalan spoke at the “Annual Fundraising Day for Scottish Medical Aid for Palestinians.” Allison Waugh, an Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) participant, also spoke at the event about “Daily life in the West Bank.”
    • EAPPI consistently demonizes Israel, making accusations of “apartheid,” “war crimes,” and “Bantustans”; calls the security barrier, which has saved countless lives from suicide bombings, “evil.”
  • In October 2016, Shalan published an article titled “One Hundred Years and Counting: Britain, Balfour, and the Cultural Repression of Palestinians” calling for people to “Use the media, public forums, and other outreach to increase understanding of the Balfour Declaration’s devastating impact on the Palestinian people through its negation of Palestinian culture and identity,” as well as “Coordinate a creative public communications campaign focusing on Israel’s attacks on Palestinian culture and history and on the legitimacy of Palestinian civil society’s call for the cultural and academic boycott of Israel until it complies with international law.”
  • In May 2016, Shalan participated in a Palestine Solidarity Campaign conference titled “Nakba: then and now – Palestine from 1948 to today” to “mark the 68th anniversary of the Palestinians’ loss of their homes and land when the state of Israel was created in 1948. Learn about what that means to Palestians [sic] then and now, and how that dispossession continues today.”
• Nabila Ramdani
  • Ramdani, a trustee for MAP and a French-Algerian journalist, has accused Israel of “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing,” and “genocide.”
  • In November 2017, Ramdani published an article called “The rise and fall of Priti Patel,” in which Ramdani asserts that “Israel hones in on morally weak but well-connected figures to try to control British policy.” Ramdani furthers that “agents of Israeli hegemony operate at the heart of sovereign governments.”
• Neil Sammonds
  • Sammonds, formerly MAP’s Director of Advocacy and Campaigns, serves as Senior Campaigner for War on Want, a leader and mobilizer of anti-Israel BDS campaigns in the UK.
  • In August 2017, Sammonds gave a presentation on “How the Israeli Occupation Obstructs the Development of Palestinian Healthcare” at the “Right to Health: Palestine 2030” conference.
  • In July 2017, marking 50 years of “Israel’s military occupation,” Sammonds called upon the international community to take “urgent and decisive action to uphold international law” as “it is not enough for governments to pay lip-service to human rights. Without effective accountability, further attacks on Palestinian civilians, health facilities and personnel are likely and the occupation will devastate many more lives.”
  • In April 2017, Sammonds participated in a panel organized by Amnesty International –UK called “In Pursuit of Accountability” discussing “settlement expansion, longstanding and systemic impunity for violations of international law and the mounting restrictions placed on civil society organisations.” The panel featured Nada Kiswanson (Al-Haq), Rachel Stroumsa (Public Committee against Torture in Israel), and Rina Rosenberg (Adalah).