Michael Goldfarb: Doctors Without Borders must confront its ideological blind spots

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Since the Hamas massacres on Oct. 7, 2023, criticism of Israel within MSF has transcended necessary and legitimate political discourse to open expressions of unhinged anti-Zionism indistinguishable from antisemitism.

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As the EiGHT report documents, MSF’s internal communications — including posts on its “Souk” portal — often feature anti-Israel and anti-Jewish invective.

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After I called out antisemitism on the platform, one respondent warned me not to play the “Jewish card.” Another described Israel as “a racist, Nazi and genocidal state.” Others questioned my humanity and my legitimacy as a humanitarian. One declared that the world must be liberated “from the grip of Zionism.”

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Despite these violations of the Souk’s terms of use, which prohibit bigotry, hate speech and personal attacks, Souk administrators let the remarks stand. Notably, I have not seen a single MSF leader condemn them.

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Indeed, leadership has contributed to the vitriol, deepening a permissive environment for the open expression of anti-Jewish sentiment. The immediate past president of the MSF-USA board of directors wrote on the Souk that Israel is an imperialist state that follows “white supremacist logic,” and that we must all “decolonize our minds.”

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Much of it is unabashedly public.

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Social media posts by current and former MSF officials traffic in anti-Jewish hate, including age-old blood libel tropes. A former international president declared that “Zionists” share the blame for the Tree of Life Synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh in October 2018.

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In May 2025, in a since-deleted X post, the general director of MSF-UK expressed gratitude for a donation from the Irish rap group Kneecap. Months earlier, the band waved Hezbollah’s flag onstage and chanted, “Up Hamas, up Hezbollah” — two designated terrorist groups sworn to Israel’s annihilation and soaked in both Jewish and Palestinian blood. The widely publicized stunts led to a (since dropped) terrorism charge. MSF-UK defends accepting the donation, saying that Kneecap claimed it “did not support Hamas or Hezbollah.”

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Still, quite the company for a humanitarian organization to keep.

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Perhaps nothing better illustrates MSF’s betrayal of Jewish colleagues than the typical double standard.

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After a spate of brutal attacks on Asian-Americans in New York City during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, MSF-USA leadership appropriately circulated an internal message of solidarity, emphasizing emotional support services available to staff affected by the violence.

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Not long after, during the May 2021 conflict between Israel and Hamas, antisemites beat Jews in the streets, including not far from MSF’s Manhattan office. A fellow Jewish colleague and I requested that a supportive message be sent to the staff. Request denied.

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Solidarity, it seems, depends on the victims’ identity. Perhaps because the Jews, after all, had it coming thanks to the actions of a state thousands of miles away. Needless to say, No humanitarian organization committed to impartiality should adopt such reasoning, much less normalize it.

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MSF’s response to EiGHT’s report reveals that the organization has learned little, if anything. Rather than addressing documented examples of ideological capture, it offered stock assurances.

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In its statement to the Post, MSF said it “understands how dangerous antisemitism is” and is “committed to taking it seriously.” It added that antisemitism expressed by staff is “unacceptable and fundamentally incompatible with our humanitarian principles.”

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Please. That’s just gaslighting.

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While MSF commands enormous respect for its humanitarian work, moral authority is not self-sustaining. It’s predicated on genuine introspection, with the honesty and rigour it demands of others. It also requires confronting, accepting and rectifying uncomfortable truths.

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The Al-Ahli post was neither a mere communications failure, nor — as the EiGHT report shows — were my experiences isolated incidents.

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Together, they force a fundamental question: is MSF willing, or even able, to confront its own blind spots? Or will they ultimately have to be held to account by others?

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National Post

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Michael Goldfarb is the founder and principal of Tailwind Communications LLC, a strategic and crisis communications consulting boutique. He worked in communications at Doctors Without Borders-USA from 2005 to 2021 and is a co-founder of EiGHT. 

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