On May 11, 2026, Nicholas Kristof published “The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians,” an opinion piece in The New York Times that promotes incendiary anti-Israel libels. It describes alleged and unverified sexual assaults by Israeli authorities against Palestinian prisoners, including “police dogs being coached to rape prisoners.” 

In his piece, Kristof relies heavily on reports, quotations, and citations from highly politicized NGOs that, at best, have well-established, documented anti-Israel agendas, and at worst, have direct links to Hamas and other terror groups. 

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor (EMHRM)

First and foremost, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor (EMHRM), a Geneva-based group that is highlighted at the beginning of the article and presented by Kristof as “often critical of Israel.” In reality, EMHRM leadership has a long history of advocating for Hamas in Europe (see section below). 

The group and its leadership has promoted demonizing propaganda for many years, including the medieval antisemitic blood libel of Jews drinking non-Jewish blood (see screenshot below) and conspiracy theories about Israel (“organ theft suspicions”, training police dogs to “rape prisoners and detainees.”), and accuses Israel of “apartheid,” genocide,” and “ethnic cleansing.” 

Just two days after Kristof published his opinion piece, EMHRM’s chairman Ramy Abdu dismissed Hamas’s sexual atrocities of October 7, 2023. Abdu targeted a Civil Commission report that, based on 10,000 photos and videos, 1,800 hours of footage, and 430 victim testimonies, demonstrated that sexual and gender-based violence during the massacre was “systematic, widespread, and a key, calculated component of the brutal terror assault.” Abdu posted, “If you want an example of a shallow and worthless report — this is it. Not a single solid piece of information or credible testimony to build on.” 

EHMRM Leaders’ Links to Hamas

Abdu and Mazen Kahel, EHMRM’s former chairman, appear on a 2013 list, published by Israel, of Hamas’ “main operatives and institutions” in Europe. At the time, Abdu and Kahel served in senior positions at the Council for European Palestinian Relations (CEPR), an organization outlawed by Israel the same year, accused of serving “as Hamas’ representative in Europe.”

  • In 2011, Arafat Shoukri (at the time CEPR’s director, also designated by Israel as Hamas’ representative in Europe.) posted a picture on his Facebook page featuring himself, Abdu and Kahel posing next to the Hamas political bureau leader and former Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh during a parliamentary delegation visit in Gaza. 

In addition to Abdu and Kahel, both EHMRM’s Chief of Programmes and Communications and its Outreach and Advocacy Officer have ties to Hamas.

  • EHMRM’s Chief of Programmes and Communications, Muhammed Shehada, proudly tweeted a picture of himself with Ismail Haniyeh with the caption, “Talking a gently walk and a selfi [sic] with the ex-Prime Minister Of #Gaza and the leader of #Hamas: #Ismail_Haniya” (2014).

  • EHMRM’s Outreach and Advocacy Officer, Ahmed Alnaouq, declared in a 2025 interview with Novara media that his brother Ayman was a “member of the resistance” and was killed in 2014 by the Israeli security forces. Hamas’ Qassam Brigades posted a eulogy of Ayman with a picture of him holding a machine gun and wearing a Hamas head band.

In his opinion piece, Kristof also relied on other highly politicized and one-sided NGOs, including the Norwegian Refugee Council, Save the Children, B’Tselem, and Breaking the Silence.

Norwegian Refugee Council

  • As exposed by NGO Monitor, for years NRC has consistently advocated that the US and other Western donors prioritize humanitarian organizations’ access to conflict areas over anti-terror security considerations. Similarly, the NGO lobbies Federal agencies to reduce anti-terror vetting standards, and helps develop mechanisms to circumvent existing standards. 
  • In addition, declassified Hamas documents analyzed by NGO Monitor shows that International NGOs, including NRC, adopted a policy of silence in response to the humanitarian risks and challenges caused by Hamas’ control of Gaza. For instance, a 2022 report by Hamas itself recounts testimony from the head of the NRC’s Gaza office, following a Hamas-led investigation:

As part of an NRC program to provide cash assistance to families selected by the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Social Development (MoSD), an NRC delegation, including the Gaza head and five other employees, visited a beneficiary’s apartment. During the visit, the beneficiary asked whether “the reason that the floor collapsed was that there was a tunnel” beneath his home. According to the NRC senior official, “neither the foreign delegation nor the association’s employees asked whether there was a tunnel under the civilian’s … apartment which caused the floor to collapse, rather it was the apartment’s owner who asked the researchers … nevertheless the researchers did not reply to him” (emphases added). 

Save the Children

For over a decade, Save the Children has been campaigning with other NGOs for the inclusion of the Israel Defense Forces on the UN list of perpetrators of  “grave violations” against children, a list that includes terror organizations such as ISIS, Boko Haram, the Taliban, and Al-Qaeda. The NGOs regularly erase Palestinian violations of children’s rights and involvement by Palestinian teens in terror activity.

B’Tselem

For years, B’Tselem has been involved in campaigns demonizing and delegitimizing Israel.

  • In July 2025, B’Tselem published a report titled “Our Genocide,” accusing Israel of committing this atrocity. In it, the Israeli NGO stated that “Throughout its existence, the Israeli regime has laid legal, social, and political foundations that are recognized in history and research as preconditions enabling genocide” (emphasis added).
  • In May 2024, B’Tselem published a statement claiming, “It is time we understood that violence and disregard for human life are keystones of the Israeli apartheid regime between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. So long as this regime continues to exist, there will be more violence and more victims — Palestinian and Israeli. The only way to ensure safety for us all is to end the apartheid regime” (emphasis added).

Following the October 7, 2023 Hamas-orchestrated attack, the organization reportedly faced internal turmoil. An investigation by Haaretz found “an ongoing attempt by [B’Tselem] team members to cast doubt on reports about the number of murders and rapes on October 7,” noting that some members allegedly sought to downplay the severity of these crimes, at times approaching outright denial.