Activities

See also NGO Monitor’s reports on Oxfam Australia, Oxfam Novib (Netherlands), and Oxfam-Solidarité (Belgium).

• In addition to Oxfam International, affiliates involved in politicized advocacy on the Arab-Israeli conflict include Oxfam Novib (Netherlands) and Oxfam Great Britain. Oxfam Novib has “taken the lead in campaigning on Palestinian issues” within the Oxfam International network. In contrast, these issues are less central to Oxfam USA.

Anti-Israel Activity

• Oxfam consistently paints a highly misleading picture of the Arab-Israeli conflict, departing from its humanitarian mission focused on poverty. Most Oxfam statements erase all complexity and blame Israel exclusively for the situation, and these distortions and their impacts contribute significantly to the conflict.
• Oxfam also distorts economic analyses of the West Bank and Gaza, repeatedly arguing that that the sole impediment to Palestinian development is Israeli policy, ignoring intra-Palestinian limitations and factors.
• In July 2024, Oxfam published a report, “Water War Crimes,” alleging that “Israel has weaponised water in its military campaign in Gaza.” According to Oxfam, “We’ve already seen Israel’s use of collective punishment and its use of starvation as a weapon of war. Now we are witnessing its weaponizing of water, which is already having deadly consequences.”
• In July 2024, following the International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion on the “legal consequences arising from Israel’s Policies and Practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” Oxfam claimed, “The Court confirmed that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which is one of the most serious international crimes…This is an historic ruling that lays bare Israel’s criminal actions that have denied rights, marginalised and subjugated Palestinians for decades.”
• In May 2024, in response to Spain, Ireland, and Norway recognizing the State of Palestine, Oxfam Regional MENA Director Saly Abi Khalil stated, “This recognition is a landmark decision and other countries must follow suit. It is a crucial step in affirming the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination, but it must transcend beyond symbolism into concrete steps towards ending the Israeli occupation and achieving full sovereignty for the Palestinian State.”
• In November 2023, Oxfam published a statement completely ignoring Hamas operations in hospitals and misrepresenting the relevant provisions of international law: “Attacks on hospitals packed with civilians in need of urgent treatment and seeking shelter are abhorrent and can never be justified….Indiscriminately firing on civilians in hospitals is not just a war crime, it’s an assault on humanity” (emphases added).
• In November 2022, Oxfam participated in an olive harvest organized by the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC).
  • UAWC is identified by Fatah as an official “affiliate,” and by USAID-engaged audit as the “agricultural arm” of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a designated terrorist organization by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel. According to academic scholar Glenn E. Robinson, UAWC was founded in 1986 by “agronomists loosely affiliated with the PFLP.” For more information on UAWC’s PFLP ties, read NGO Monitor’s report “Union of Agricultural Work Committees Ties to the PFLP Terror Group.”
  • On October 22, 2021, the Israeli Ministry of Defense declared UAWC a “terror organization” because it is part of “a network of organizations” that operates “on behalf of the ‘Popular Front’.”
• In September 2022, Oxfam was a signatory on a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemning the decision by the Israeli Ministry to designate six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations. According to the letter, “Sadly, for more than a decade, we have witnessed the erosion of civic space as Israeli authorities target and repress individuals and organizations that support Palestinian civil society. These actions run counter to the democratic values the Israeli government purports to support…[we] call on the U.S. to publicly reject these unsubstantiated designations and to not restrict the ability of these CSOs to continue their operations.”
• In March 2022, Oxfam alleged that “Israel denies access to Palestinian water resources by extracting 80% of the shared water resources from the West Bank and allocates only 20% for Palestinian use.” Oxfam called “upon donors and the international community to challenge the inequality of water allocation and press the Israeli authorities to have equal access to transboundary water resources by lifting its military control in accordance with international water law.” Oxfam ignored evidence that Israel provides Palestinians in the West Bank with more water than required under the Oslo framework and that poor management by the PA of infrastructure, waste, and theft of up to 50 percent of supplies in some Palestinian areas.
• In April 2021, Oxfam falsely claimed that Israel has “legal obligations” to deliver vaccines to the Palestinians, as well as “ensure all Palestinians have access to adequate, basic services including healthcare,” 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 March 2020, following criticism, Oxfam apologized for raising funds by selling copies of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” a fabricated text that proclaimed an international Jewish conspiracy bent on world domination and accuses the Jews of controlling government, the economy, media and public institutions.
• In November 2019, Oxfam published a report titled “From Failed to Fair,” alleging “the entrenchment of the now 52- year military occupation of the Palestinian Territory, with breaches of international law continuing with impunity, human rights violations by both Palestinians and Israelis, shrinking civil space in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), and dire costs for both Israeli and Palestinian civilians.”
  • The report was based on research by Director of the Association of International Development Agencies Thomas Dallal and Diana Buttu. Buttu is the former spokesperson for the Negotiations Support Unit for the Palestinian Liberation Organization and was also involved in promoting the discredited advisory opinion against Israel’s security barrier at the International Court of Justice. Buttu has accused Israel of “war crimes,” “ethnically cleans[ing] 75% of the Palestinian population, ” and “a massacre against Palestinian civilians,” and promotes BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns.
• In August 2019, the Zionist Advocacy Center filed a lawsuit against Oxfam’s Great Britain branch, stating that Oxfam has used USAID funds to “provide[] material support or resources to Hamas.” As of December 2, 2019, the case is still pending.
• On April 7, 2018, Oxfam, as a member of Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA), released a statement “condemning Israel’s unlawful killing of civilians in Gaza” and called for an “independent and transparent investigation into the killing and injuring of civilians in the context of peaceful demonstrations, and for those responsible to be held to account.” The statement ignores the violent nature of the protests, which included Molotov cocktails, arson, and attempts to breach the border fence with Israel
• Oxfam produced a “web documentary” titled “Enclosure” (June 2017) purporting to show the “impact of more than 50 years of occupation on Bedouin communities living in Area C of the West Bank,” as well as “how international action is urgently needed to protect them.” The video series makes false and distorted claims regarding Palestinian access to water.
  • The “documentary” was funded by Canada and Belgium.
• Oxfam releases publications regarding the “illegality” of the Gaza blockade, ignoring the necessity behind the construction of the blockade and its role in stopping Hamas’ smuggling of weapons and rockets used to target Israeli citizens.
  • In January 2017, Oxfam released a publication on the “dairy sector in the Gaza Strip” claiming “Gaza’s dairy sector has been severely damaged by Israel’s separation policy, blockade and three rounds of hostilities,” and called on the Government of Israel and the international community to “pressure Israel to adhere to its responsibilities under International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law, including by lifting the blockade, opening all crossings into and out of Gaza and allowing for the unimpeded entry and exit of goods and people, and allow for the free movement of Palestinians within the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
  • In June 2016, Oxfam released a video titled “Time to End the Gaza Blockade – 9 Years On,” calling on the “international community to press the Government of Israel to immediately end this stifling blockade and to ease access into and out of Gaza,” as this “collective punishment keeps people poor, denies them their rights and fails to make Israel safer.”
• Signatory to the 2015 Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA) “joint agency briefing paper titled, “Charting a New Course: Overcoming the Stalemate in Gaza,” misrepresenting international law and distorting legal terminology to place primary blame for the 2014 Gaza war on Israel. The paper omits Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli civilians, as well as terror tunnels running beneath the border into Israel. The paper further encourages contact with Hamas, stating: “Restricted contact can undermine humanitarian access and implementation of humanitarian programmes…”
• Funded Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling’s (WCLAC) September 2014 report, “Jerusalem: A City Divided,” promoting the Palestinian narrative of the “Nakba” (“catastrophe”) and accusing “Israeli settlements [of] forming a concrete and human shield.”
  • WCLAC is highly active in BDS and lawfare campaigns against Israel and utilizes its membership in a number of Palestinian organizations and networks to lobby international forums and disseminate demonizing statements against Israel.
  • Manal Tamimi, a WCLAC fieldworker, has endorsed terrorism and violence several times on her Twitter account. In August 2015, Tamimi tweeted, “I do hate Israel ,i (sic) wish a thrid Intefada (sic) coming soon and people rais (sic) up and kills all these zionist settlers everywhere.” In September 2015, on Yom Kippur (a fast day and the holiest day of the year in the Jewish calendar), Tamimi tweeted: “Vampire zionist celebrating their Kebore day by drinking Palestinian bloods, yes our blood is pure & delicious but it will kill u at the end.”

BDS Activities

• While Oxfam states that it does not “support a boycott of Israel,” it states that it “oppose[s] trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank because they are illegally built on occupied land, increase poverty among Palestinians, and threaten the chances of a two-state solution.”
• In March 2024, Oxfam published a report calling for countries to “take all diplomatic, economic and political actions or measures within the state’s power to prevent genocide in Gaza, including by appealing to the UN Security Council” and “discontinuing any military assistance,including arms sales, that would enable or facilitate genocide, and other crimes under international law.”
• In December 2023, Oxfam Policy Lead Bushra Khalidi was a panelist at a press briefing calling to “take UK government to High Court over arms exports to Israel.”
• In October 2022, Oxfam was a signatory on a joint statement against the renewal of the EU-Israel Association Council. The statement called for the EU to “revise its approach from simple statements of concern to the adoption of substantive steps to address the violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the oPt” and “Make clear that all upgrades in EU-Israel relations will take place only in case of upholding of respect for human rights and international humanitarian law.”
• In February 2022, Oxfam participated in a campaign titled “#StopTradeWithSettlements” calling “for an EU law that will end trade with illegal settlements once and for all.”
• In May 2021, during the 2021 Gaza conflict, Oxfam published a press release endorsing pro-BDS legislation introduced by US Congresswoman Betty McCollum, claiming that “With $3.8 billion in unconditional military support to Israel every year, the US cannot claim to be a passive observer to the systemic injustices that Palestinians face every day.”
  • The entirety of the proposed bill is premised on factually inaccurate claims from anti-Israel advocacy NGOs, including direct quotes from Defense for Children International -Palestine’s“No Way to Treat a Child” 2016 report and website.
• In May 2020, Oxfam released a “briefing note” on “Violence and impunity in the West Bank during the COVID-19 pandemic” calling for the international community to impose an arms embargo against Israel Similarly, the organization called for “third states” to apply “differentiation,” a code word for targeting Israelis and Israeli companies with BDS tactics.
• In November 2019, Oxfam “applaud[ed]” the decision of the European Court of Justice to apply a discriminatory labelling regime on products originating in the Israeli settlements. According to Oxfam Country Director for the Occupied Palestinian Territory Shane Stevenson, settlements “are violating the rights and freedoms of Palestinians and further entrench poverty in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Consumers have a right to know the origin of the products they purchase, and the impact these purchases have on people’s lives.”
• In 2019, Oxfam lobbied in support of the discriminatory UN database of businesses operating across the 1949 Armistice line, aimed at bolstering BDS campaigns against Israel. According to Oxfam, “the absence of accountability has enabled the Occupying Power, Israel, to engage in activity in violation of international law in the occupied territory with near total impunity. This has allowed many private actors, including businesses, to contribute to and benefit from, sometimes unwittingly, gross human rights violations.”
• In 2014, actress Scarlett Johannsen was forced to resign as an “Oxfam Ambassador” over her role in promoting SodaStream. Oxfam responded, stating that “businesses, such as SodaStream, that operate in settlements further the ongoing poverty and denial of rights of the Palestinian communities that we work to support. Oxfam is opposed to all trade from Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law.” In response, Johannson released a statement that she and “Oxfam have a fundamental difference of opinion in regards to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.”
  • In December 2016, chief executive of Oxfam Mark Goldring admitted that the conflict with Johansson cost Oxfam America “literally thousands” of donors.
• Goldring also took credit for helping to persuade large UK supermarkets to label, and then withdraw, products from Israeli settlements.
• In response to increased (mutually beneficial) cooperation between the EU and Israel, in July 2012, Oxfam called on the EU to sanction Israel with “urgent and concrete measures to push for an immediate end to settlement construction and the unlawful demolition of Palestinian civilian infrastructure.” In March 2010, Oxfam also called on the EU to sanction Israel regarding the blockade of Gaza. Oxfam lobbying in 2009 led the British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to recommend that retailers label goods produced in the West Bank as “Israeli settlement produce” or “Palestinian produce.”
• In August 2009, Oxfam severed ties with actress Kristin Davis – an “ambassador” (supporter and spokesperson) for the NGO – due to her work endorsing the Israeli Ahava cosmetics company. Oxfam was prompted by the radical American group CODEPINK.

Oxfam Sex Scandal

• On February 9, 2018, The Times of London revealed that employees of Oxfam procured prostitutes, some of whom were children, while doing relief work in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.
• In the aftermath of the revelations, Oxfam released an internal memo from 2011 on the investigation into the allegations. The report describes a concerted effort at the highest levels to deal quietly with the abuse, as well as incompetence and mismanagement in human resource policies.
• According to the report, Oxfam executives were primarily concerned about “potentially serious implications for the programme [and] affiliate relationships” if they were to fire the senior official responsible for the scandalous behavior.