Background

On June 13, 2026, The Lancet medical journal (UK) published an article headlined “Petition calls for boycott of Israeli Medical Association,” thereby greatly amplifying the blatantly political campaign led by a group of fringe activist NGOs – the People’s Health Movement (PHM), in partnership with the Dutch-based Artsen voor Gaza (Doctors for Gaza) and the Health Advisory Council of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).1 

As documented below, the head of PHM is linked to and has expressed consistent support for terror groups and their actions. In addition, the three NGOs promoted by The Lancet and leading this demonization campaign are fringe anti-Israel advocacy groups with marginal credibility and impact. 

People’s Health Movement (PHM)

PHM was founded in Bangladesh in 2000, has since been based in different areas of the world, and in February 2026 was “transition[ing] to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.” 

PHM describes itself as a global network of grassroots health activists, civil society organizations and academic institutions from developing countries. A document summarizing a February 2025 steering committee meeting states:

“More concretely, we encourage social movements and people around the world to prioritize the following strategic action points: … Continue and Strengthen the Stop the Wars Campaign with focus on Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) while recognizing and supporting all forms of resistance against occupation and armed violence.” (emphasis added)

PHM does not publish detailed financial information, reflecting a lack of transparency and accountability. The NGO was endorsed by and received at least $300,000 from Fergie Chambers’ fund, the Babochki Collective, which consists of Chambers’ “collective of communists… who help []make grant decisions.” 

  • On February 28, 2026, Chambers posted a photo of the Iranian flag to Instagram with the caption, “Let Yankee blood stain the seas the world over[.] Victory to the resistance everywhere[.] Death to Amerikkka[.]”
  • On January 10, 2026, Chambers stated “We support Hamas here.”
  • On September 17, 2025, Chambers wrote, “I really can’t even imagine how people exist in countries with Zionists walking around freely without catching a dozen assault charges per day.”

On March 24, 2026, PHM announced the conclusion of its “campaign to support the Palestinian healthcare system,” having raised €263,000 for 3 NGOs with documented direct ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist organization: AWDA Health and Community Association (Gaza), Health Work Committees (West Bank), and Palestinian Medical Relief Society (Gaza).

Aziz Rhali

PHM’s global coordinator is Morocco-based Aziz Rhali, appointed in March 2026. According to PHM’s announcement, “Pharmacist Aziz Rhali is to lead PHM with a vision of Palestine as a global resistance symbol, advancing the health movement’s strategic vision.”

Rhali’s documented support for terror:

  • On December 20, 2015, Rhali posted a photo to Facebook (see below) of himself with terrorist Samir Kuntar and wrote a eulogy for Kuntar, who had been killed the day before:

“Samir Kuntar: the dean of the prisoners and the pride of the martyrs. The long years of captivity in the prisons of the Zionist enemy did not break his determination. He emerged from three decades of imprisonment into the joy of struggle, and attained martyrdom. You are great, Samir.”

The same day, Rhali published (see below) an additional eulogy post of Kuntar:

“With deep sorrow and grief, I received the news of the death of my friend and comrade Samir Kuntar, the dean of the Arab prisoners held by the Zionist enemy. O dean, you fulfilled your role and departed at a time when we are in greatest need of you. May your soul rest in peace, O leader and comrade.”

    • On April 22, 1979, Samir Kuntar brutally murdered a family, among them a four-year-old girl, and an Israeli police officer. After his release, Kuntar became a Hezbollah operative. The US Treasury Department designated Samir Kuntar as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) in September 2015.
    • According to a since-deleted Facebook post by Rhali (see below), he met Kuntar in Beirut in 2011 (on file with NGO Monitor).

Rhali’s two since-deleted December 20, 2015 Facebook posts, which accompanied a photo of Rhali with Kuntar (see below).

Rhali (L) posted the same photo of himself with Kuntar (R) in
April 2011with the caption, “beyrouth 07/04/2011”.

  • On October 7, 2023, as Hamas was committing atrocities in Israel, Rhali posted a photo of himself in a group of people smiling and holding a sign stating, “the Moroccan Front for the Support of Palestine and Against Normalization: Permanent and Unconditional Support for the Palestinian Resistance, Battle of the Al Aqsa Flood” (emphasis added). Alongside this photo, Rhali added the caption: “Victory Day” (emphasis added).
    • On October 8, Rhali posted a series of photos of himself at a demonstration of “support for the Palestinian resistance” (emphasis added).
  • On August 14, 2020, Rhali posted an image with the text, “Death to the Jews who killed the kids” (emphasis added).

Rhali’s August 14, 2020 Facebook post.

  • On May 12, 2021, Rhali uploaded a photo to Facebook with the text “Bridge of Return” accompanying an image of human figures holding a Palestinian flag and walking over a gun, as though it is a bridge.

Image posted by Rhali on May 12, 2021.

In addition to his role at PHM, Rhali is also one of fifteen vice-presidents of the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), an NGO centrally involved in anti-Israel political advocacy.

On May 14, 2026, the French weekly magazine Le Point published an article on NGO Monitor’s exposure of Rhali’s posts and images espousing support for terrorists and terror entities (see below). According to Le Point, in its FIDH’s response, FIDH:

  • Admits that “‘We were aware of the existence of Facebook posts which were obviously contrary to the positions and values ​​of the FIDH,’ whose line remains ‘respect for international law and the protection of human rights…” (emphasis added)
  • Claims that “Aziz Rhali had told them that ‘these posts no longer reflected his current positions and that he was going to delete them…’” (emphasis added)
  • Asserts that “some [posts] ‘escaped [Rhali’s] vigilance and were not deleted. We urged him to do so without delay’” (emphasis added). Le Point notes that “There were therefore other posts in the same vein.”

According to the French publication Le 1, “A few days later, on May 17, Aziz Rhali made all of his social media accounts (primarily Facebook) inaccessible, deleting or privatizing his old posts.” However, on May 21, 2026, Rhali posted a “Statement of Clarification” to his Facebook, affirming:

“my positions regarding the Palestinian cause… are principled positions to which I have remained committed in both word and deed, stemming from a fundamental belief in the right of the Palestinian people and the peoples of the region to… resistance against occupation and settlement expansion… I categorically inform public opinion that if I were ever forced to choose between my principles and positions supporting the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people’s right to resist, on the one hand, and any position or privilege of whatever nature on the other, I would choose without hesitation to stand on the side of principle, justice, and what is right… [The] current campaign… will not deter me from continuing to defend my convictions with the same determination and clarity for which I have always been known. Nor will it ever force me to retreat from participating in all civil and human rights initiatives opposing normalization and supporting the struggle of the Palestinian people…” (emphases added)

In June 2026, FIDH asked Rhali “to step back and no longer speak on behalf of the organization” pending the conclusion of an internal investigation (emphasis added).

Artsen voor Gaza (Doctors for Gaza)

Artsen voor Gaza (Doctors for Gaza) is a Dutch health worker collective that claims to be guided by the Hippocratic oath and by humanitarian solidarity, and calls on the Dutch government and health institutions to help protect healthcare in Gaza. The group is pro-Palestinian and active in anti-Israel demonization. It alleges that “the safety of Palestinian healthcare workers has been structurally threatened since the escalation of violence by Israel in the Gaza Strip in 2023.” The Artsen Voor Gaza Mission & Vision page explains: 

  • The group describes its purpose as supporting “safe and accessible care in Palestine.”
  • “We endorse, among other things, the strategy of ‘boycott, divestment, and sanctions’. This entails, for instance, calling upon (academic) health institutions to sever their ties with Israeli institutions and to refrain from purchasing Israeli products. We also ask the Netherlands to hold the Israeli government accountable to international treaties.”
  • “It is of great importance that, in addition to providing direct assistance to the Palestinians, the Israeli occupation is dismantled.”

The organization’s messaging reinforces that framing:

  • On its instagram page (10.6K followers), the bio writes, “as health workers we stand in solidarity with our colleagues in Palestine. We call on everyone to act against our complicity in the violence.” 
  • On Instagram and LinkedIn, the profile pictures feature the hashtag “#FreePalHostages” referring to Palestinian terrorists in Israeli jails, exploiting the description of civilians kidnapped and tortured by Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups.

The group is clearly an advocacy network mobilized against Israel.

Health Advisory Council of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP-HAC)

The Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council (JVP-HAC) describes itself as a network of JVP members working in health, including physicians, nurses, mental health workers, social workers, and public health professionals. Information on the number of members and other details are not available. 

JVP-HAC frames its work around the health consequences of the “occupation,” “siege,” and “military force.” On its homepage, JVP-HAC refers to “de-healthification” and “settler colonialism”: “De-Healthification: Israel’s Engineered Collapse of Palestinian Life… This policy brief introduces de-healthification as the governing logic of health under settler colonialism: the systematic degradation, obstruction, and weaponization of the very conditions that make health of the Indigenous population possible.”

More broadly, JVP is known as a fringe NGO financed and enabled primarily by non-Jewish sources in order to claim support for anti-Israel demonization:

  • In a May 2025 post, JVP described a “Massive JVP member meeting” that “vow[ed] to fight Zionism, fascism, and the weaponization of antisemitism” explicitly linking Zionism with the same political category as fascism. 
  • Alice Rothchild, of the JVP Health Advisory Council, claimed that “Zionism, the privileging of Jews over other folks in historic Palestine requires harm to Palestinians” (emphasis added).
  • The Council says it “fully endorses the recent report by Amnesty International (AI), Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians: A Cruel System of Domination and a Crime Against Humanity’.”