Israel’s Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Ministry said Wednesday that a New York Times opinion column by Pulitzer winner Nicholas Kristof accusing the IDF of sexual violence against Palestinians relied in part on information from a Geneva-based rights group headed by a man Israel has linked to Hamas.
The ministry report focused on Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, which describes itself as a regional human rights organization covering the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.
According to the ministry, the group’s founder and chairman, Ramy Abdu, was the subject of an Israeli administrative seizure order in 2020 under counterterrorism legislation over his role in iPalestine, which Israel designated as a Hamas-affiliated terrorist organization. The order expired in 2022.
The report said Euro-Med’s work focuses heavily on the Palestinian arena and criticism of Israeli policy, and that the organization combines field documentation, legal advocacy, international lobbying, media outreach and activist training.
The ministry said Euro-Med provided material used by South Africa’s legal team in its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, including documentation on mass graves and damage to Gaza’s health system.
The report also cited Richard Falk, a Princeton professor emeritus and former U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, who chairs the group’s board of trustees. The ministry said Falk supports the right of people under occupation to resist, while maintaining that such resistance remains bound by the laws of war and cannot justify deliberate attacks on civilians.
According to the ministry, Euro-Med has promoted claims of “systematic sexual violence” by Israel and called for the country to be added to a U.N. blacklist. The report also said the group has criticized other humanitarian organizations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The ministry said Euro-Med operates projects aimed at shaping public narratives, including HuMedia, We Are Not Numbers and WikiRights, which trains editors and promotes content initiatives on Wikipedia. It said those efforts include work on entries related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including “Gaza genocide” and “Nakba.” The report noted that Wikipedia entries are edited by a broad range of contributors and are not controlled by the organization alone.
The report identified three main areas of activity: legal efforts before international bodies including the U.N. Human Rights Council, the International Court of Justice and U.N. human rights mechanisms; digital and media messaging through international outlets and humanitarian platforms; and long-term activist training through programs including human rights fellowships and summer schools.
Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli criticized The New York Times for citing Euro-Med, saying the newspaper had “fallen again and again” for what he called Palestinian falsehoods.
Avi Cohen-Scali, director-general of the ministry, said the newspaper had given a platform to “the ideology of a murderous terrorist organization” and accused Euro-Med of advancing anti-Israel and antisemitic narratives.