October 7, 2024 marked the one-year anniversary of the worst attack against the Jewish people since the Holocaust. People of conscience around the world mourned the victims of the Hamas-orchestrated massacre of over 1200 people, the kidnapping of 251 civilians and soldiers, and countless acts of torture and sexual violence.

However, in sharp contrast,  non-governmental organizations (NGOs) – many funded by European governments to promote “human rights” and “international law” – inverted the atrocities committed against Israelis, and continuing the demonization campaign that falsely portrays Israel’s military response to the attacks as “genocide,” “ethnic cleansing,” and “extermination.” 

In addition, a number of NGOs claiming to promote human rights actually justified and celebrated the attacks, hypocritically granting legitimacy to terrorism and Hamas.

Additionally, certain NGOs called for an arms embargo against Israel, in an attempt to hamper its ability to defend against Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Iranian-backed terrorist proxies.

In these statements and social media posts, the NGO human rights industry again highlighted their core contribution to supporting the terror war against Israel through false accusations and highly distorted interpretations of international law (lawfare), and by erasing the Israeli and other victims of the atrocities.   

International NGOs

Amnesty International

  • On October 7, Amnesty published a statement briefly acknowledging “the horrific attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in southern Israel.” However it continued by claiming that “7 October also marks a year since the start of the horrifying Israeli forces’ onslaught in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands, forcibly displaced 90% of the population and triggered an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, placing Palestinians in Gaza at risk of genocide, as stated by the ICJ…This anniversary is a sobering reminder of the urgent need to address the root causes, cut the supply of arms to all parties and end longstanding impunity that have seen Israeli forces, Hamas and other armed groups, flout international law for decades without fearing any consequences.”
  • On October 7, Amnesty-UK tweeted a video clip: “Don’t let anyone tell you this all started on 7th October 2023…The UK government must act. We won’t stop until there’s an immediate ceasefire, a ban on all arms sales to Israel, and the end of apartheid against Palestinians,” and included the hashtags: #CeasefireNow #StopArmingIsrael #EndIsraeliApartheid.

Human Rights Watch (HRW)

  • On October 7, HRW’s “Daily Brief” included the following statement: , “‘Since October 7.’ There was the before times, and there’s now, as if everything started on that day. Atrocities in Israel-Palestine didn’t start that day. And, in fact, it doesn’t matter when it started or ‘who started it’ – atrocities are atrocities and need to end…Since October 7, 2023, the answer to atrocities has only been more atrocities, and one year on, more of the world is burning.”
  • On October 6, HRW published “Israel/Palestine: A Year of Horror,” which repeated the organization’s standard slogans against Israel: , “in Israel and Palestine, the last year has been defined by unlawful attacks on civilians, causing suffering on a horrifying scale…The International Court of Justice in the Hague has ordered Israel three times to prevent genocide against Palestinians and let necessary aid enter Gaza. Yet the Israeli military has maintained its unlawful siege and repeatedly attacked hospitals and humanitarian workers…Victims of rights abuses in Israel and Palestine have faced a wall of impunity for decades. Israel’s policies of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians are worsening, including land grabs and deadly violence in the West Bank.”

International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH)

  • On October 7, FIDH published an interview with B’Tselem International Advocacy Lead Sarit Michaeli titled, “October 7th anniversary: ‘I don’t think anyone considered something so horrific could happen’.” According to FIDH, “The scale of violence against Palestinians in Gaza, including tactics such as orchestrated famine, has led the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) to be among the first international NGOs to denounce the situation in Gaza as an ongoing genocide.”

Oxfam International

  • On October 7, Oxfam tweeted, “It’s now been one year since Israel began its devastating military offensive against Gaza, in response to the horrific attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups. The extreme violence has created an unimaginable nightmare for millions of people. It’s a catastrophic failure from complicit world leaders to demand a ceasefire and stop selling arms to Israel.”

US-Based NGOs

Adalah Justice Project

  • On October 7, Adalah Justice Project published an “October 7th message”: “It’s one year into this genocide…We write this on a day too many will commemorate while we wrestle with our broken hearts and our endless thoughts. How do we honor the dead while the killing continues…It’s impossible to believe that just a year ago, we were campaigning to push the world to end Israel’s apartheid and occupation. Now, we are battling against another depth of evil: stopping the U.S. government from funding Israel’s full-blown genocide against our people.”

American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)

  • On October 7, AFSC published a statement titled, “Against genocide and towards humanity.” According to the statement, “Today marks the anniversary of the #October7th attacks on Israel and the ongoing genocide on Gaza that followed…This is why we call for a cease-fire and an arms embargo.…The U.S. has funded and supported this violence with billions of dollars, provided diplomatic cover for Israel, and delegitimized itself in the international community and with its own people. This must end. But a cease-fire that returns to the status quo that existed before 2023 is not enough. This did not begin on October 7.” 

CODEPINK

  • On October 7, CODEPINK tweeted, “Over the past year, we’ve watched as the officials in the Biden-Harris administration engage in overt genocide denial as they provide the political backing, funding, and weapons Israel is using to indiscriminately attack Gaza, the Occupied West Bank, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran….The occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine has continued for too long. After a year of nonstop resistance, there is no going back. We will not rest until Palestine is free.”
  • On October 7, CODEPINK tweeted, “ For a whole year, we’ve been in Congress pushing back against U.S. support for Israel’s genocide in Palestine. We’ve seen ignorance, silence, lies, propaganda, and outright hate from elected officials on both sides of the aisle, but we’ve also seen people from all walks of life take action in solidarity with Palestine like never before.”

IfNotNow

  • On October 7, IfNotNow tweeted, “Today, October 7, marks one year since the Hamas-led attack in which over 1,100 Israelis were killed and hundreds more were taken hostage. Today also marks a year of the Israeli government’s systematic massacres in Gaza and occupied Palestine, which have killed at least 42,000 Palestinians — and left likely tens of thousands more dead, buried under rubble, or at risk of starvation or disease…October 7 is not where the story begins or ends, and the pain we feel today has spanned generations. We reject the lie that decades of occupation, apartheid, and siege that has subjugated Palestinians will ever keep Jews or Israelis safe.”

Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)

  • On October 7, JVP published a statement: “This has been a year of unspeakable horror, grief and outrage.  And now, after a year of genocide against Palestinians, the Israeli government is waging a campaign of death and destruction that has brought the Middle East to a state of war, with millions fleeing bombs — the vast majority supplied by the U.S. — in terror for their lives…Today, we recommit ourselves to that fight: for an end to U.S. bombs and funding to the Israeli military, for a ceasefire and the release of 100 Israeli and 10,000 Palestinian hostages, and for an end to Israeli genocide and apartheid.”

Palestinian NGOs

Samidoun (PFLP)

  • On October 7, Samidoun tweeted, “October 7, the inception of Al-Aqsa Flood [Hamas’ name for the massacre], the day that made clear to the world that the Palestinian people and their armed Resistance can and will liberate Palestine, and that the entire region will be free of zionism and imperialism…. With their genocide, the enemies of humanity have tried to erase the victory from collective memory with a torrent of blood. And yet, the resistance front holds strong, from Palestine to Lebanon, to Yemen and Iraq, to Syria and Iran and beyond….On October 7, 2023, Mohammed Deif, commander in chief of the Al-Qassam Brigades & the Palestinian Resistance, said: ‘Today, the people reclaim their revolution, correct their path, and return to the march of return.’ This was the moment of rebirth of the Palestinian revolution.The Resistance is the hope of humanity…. Long live October 7! Liberation is coming, for Palestine & the world” (emphasis added).

Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), Al-Haq, Al Mezan

  • On October 7, the three NGOs published a joint statement: “The massive Israeli military assault on the Gaza Strip enters its second year today, and the occupation forces are more determined to continue the crime of genocide, by intensifying their attacks by air, land and sea, targeting homes, shelters, displaced persons’ gatherings and tents without prior warning, committing mass killings, repeating orders for the forced displacement of the population, and carrying out large-scale destruction of homes, buildings and infrastructure.”

Addameer

Al-Haq

  • On October 7, Al-Haq tweeted, “A year has passed since the start of #Israel’s genocide in #Gaza, the peak of Zionist colonial violence. Another year added to 75 years of ongoing Nakba.”

Al Mezan

  • On October 7, Al Mezan tweeted, “Today, Palestinians in Gaza mark a full year under Israel’s genocide—the latest chapter of 76 years of ongoing Nakba….A year of total dehumanization for our people everywhere. A year of the international community’s failure to prevent, stop, or hold Israel accountable for genocide in Gaza—or for any other crime against the Palestinian people.”

Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P)

  • On October 7, DCI-P published an article titled, “A Year of Lost Childhood: Palestinian children in Gaza suffer amid ongoing Israeli genocide.” According to the article, “Today marks one year since the Israeli military unleashed its genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip… The international community must demand an immediate end to the Israeli genocidal campaign on Gaza and challenge systemic impunity by investigating allegations of war crimes and holding the perpetrators accountable.”

MIFTAH

  • On October 7, MIFTAH tweeted, “A full year, 365 days of an ongoing genocide in Gaza, allowed by Israel’s decades-long impunity. Our colleagues in Gaza are still trying to survive a genocide displaced several times in tents. There is no need for more talk, what is needed is real international accountability.”

Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR)

  • On October 7, PCHR tweeted, “One year of ethnic cleansing, massacres, destruction, displacement and starvation. One year of failure by the international community to act to end Israel’s injustice and tyranny against innocent civilians. One year of annihilation of Palestinian life, identity, and existence.… Not a single day has passed where every Gazan is thinking about why has the world left them to face this genocidal machine alone? This genocide is a disgrace on every state that has provided Israel with the political, diplomatic, and legal support, on every country and leader  that could have stopped these massacres and didn’t. As a Palestinian human rights organization working on the ground, we urge governments around the world to abide by their moral and legal obligations and end the suffering of the Palestinian by taking immediate pressure Israel to implement a ceasefire, including by imposing an arms embargo. This genocide must end. #Ceasefirenow.”

Union of Agricultural Works Committee (UAWC)

  • On October 7, UAWC published a report titled, “Marking One Year of the Israeli Genocidal War & Ethnic Cleansing.” According to UAWC, “For over a year, Palestine has endured the relentless onslaught of Israeli genocidal warfare, coupled with 76 years of ongoing settler colonialism, systemic land theft, and deliberate attacks on indigenous food systems. This dark anniversary serves as a stark reminder of the escalating intensity of Israeli settler colonialism across all of Palestine from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank and the areas occupied since 1948.”

Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling (WCLAC)

  • On October 7, WCLAC published a statement, “365 days after the war of extermination.” According to WCLAC, “Today marks a full year, three hundred and sixty-five days, since the war of extermination practiced by the Israeli occupation authorities against our Palestinian people, especially in the Gaza Strip, which began on October 7, 2023. The occupying state did not stop at its various violations and crimes against the Palestinian people over the course of decades. Rather, it doubled these crimes and reached their peak on October 7 of last year.”

Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO)

  • On October 6, PNGO published a factsheet titled, “The Reality of The Health Sector in Gaza Strip And The West Bank On Remark of One Year Of Genocide.” 

Bisan, PNGO, ICHR, PHROC

  • On October 7, the NGOs published a statement: “As the Israeli military aggression enters its second year on the occupied Palestinian territories, targeting mainly the Gaza Strip, the occupying power ‘Israel’ continues to commit the crime of multi-level genocide that affects all aspects of public life, with the aim of turning the Gaza Strip into an uninhabitable area, as part of the policy of ethnic engineering and the implementation of the displacement plan.”

European NGOs

EuroMed Human Rights Monitor

  • On October 7, EuroMed Human Rights Monitor tweeted, “A year of genocidal warfare in Gaza, with war crimes witnessed on the world’s screens… Today, Palestinians in Gaza are marking the first anniversary of the start of the genocide, while facing repeated and escalating phases of it.”
  • On October 6, EuroMed Human Rights Monitor published a report titled, “De-Gaza: A Year of Israel’s Genocide and the Collapse of World Order,”  “trac[ing] the clear elements of genocide perpetrated by the Israeli army, explores the legal frameworks defining the crime of genocide, and scrutinises both the context and ongoing circumstances.” According to EuroMed, “The Israeli authorities have provided figures indicating that over 1,200 Israelis and foreigners, including soldiers and civilians, were killed in this attack. Many Israeli soldiers were among the more than 200 individuals who were arrested and moved to the Gaza Strip, with the other individuals being civilians” (emphasis added).

Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP)

Council for Arab-British Understanding (Caabu)

  • On October 7, Caabu published an infographic titled, “Another year of horror for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank,” and claiming that “One year on from the 7 October Hamas attacks that killed over 1200, the situation for Palestinians across the Occupied Palestinian Territory has become unbearable.

War on Want

  • On October 7, War on Want tweeted, “For over 70 years, Israel has carried out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people. And for the past 1 year, Israel has plausibly been committing genocide. Despite this, the UK government has failed to hold Israel to account.”