Hate has corrupted the world’s biggest charities

What prompted this? Why did your group decide, "Okay, we need to come forward and report on groups that many people in Canada, around the world, hold in very high esteem"?

Well, I think it begins with who we are as a group.

Who we are is a group, uh, comprised of and founded by professionals from within these NGOs, so we all worked for these organizations, plus more.

And we are obviously pro rights, and we are obviously pro their principles, but we had experienced over many years, uh, mission drift in various forms.

And, um, particularly after October the 7th, we saw a dramatic decline in principles and standards, and we were mindful, and we were observing that there was actually no interest on the part of these organizations to respond to concerns that were being raised.

And so we felt if we didn't bring these out into the open as people deeply embedded within these organizations, uh, then there was a missed opportunity for some real first-hand research and also first-hand evidence, uh, that's also included in the report.

Okay, so tell me about your background.

Where did you start in the NGO world, and where were you when you decided, "Okay, this, this needs to change, and we need to talk about it"?

Uh, so I had come from a background in journalism, and then I had spent some time in academia.

And from that, I went straight to Human Rights Watch, where I was for 14 years.

And, um, there were definitely signs and problems along the way, uh, that I observed, but there are many problems in organizations.

And so, uh, you know, one absorbs them or tries to deal with them, and I certainly don't think I would have done anything external about it had I not become aware that other people in my organization were experiencing issues.

Uh, the, the report focuses on Middle East work, but really I was hearing problems coming out of other divisions too in terms of ideology that was be- beginning to affect their work, uh, for example, the Africa division.

And, um, and then what really happened was I wrote an article after leaving Human Rights Watch in 2023, uh, partly to send a flare.

I was sure that probably other organizations were problematic, and true enough, people began to respond, and we began to come together unofficially and now officially within, uh, this new initiative called EIGHT.

Yeah, EIGHT, Scrutiny, Accountability, Renewal, and the report is called, um, Insiders Speak NGO Antisemitism Failed Accountability and Their Impact on Social Cohesion.

So I, I think a lot of people are, that haven't been paying attention are going to be shocked.

There are still people that are shocked that UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, is filled with people who are part of Hamas, not just support Hamas, but are part of Hamas.

How bad was it within groups like Human Rights Watch or y- you have heard, I mean, I listed them off at the beginning, um, uh, Amnesty and, and groups like that that we think are there to, uh, to call out abuses.

Were they willing to call out abuses when it came to groups that most Western governments consider terrorists?

Well, I think what we're beginning to see is they'll call out some abuses some of the time in some places, um, according to some politics.

So what we're seeing is the erosion of core principles, essentially, within these organizations that are founded on the ideas of universalism, everyone, the same rights apply to everyone, or neutrality.

And so we're beginning to see some application to the Middle East but not to other areas, settler colonialism to Israel but not to America or Australia or Canada.

We're seeing, uh, sort of, uh, cherry-picking.

And once you do that, it's really the demise of organizations that rest on values because theoretically you can absorb all sorts of changes in a, in an organization, different people, different backgrounds, different politics if your principles hold strong, right? You can contain it all if you keep tight with your principles.