What Is the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor?
21st May 2026
Nicholas Kristof’s 11 May New York Times column (“The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians”) and its accompanying video demonstrate the halo effect that protects many non-governmental organisations from the scrutiny they deserve. In addition to the testimony provided by security prisoners (suspected or convicted terrorists) released from Israeli prisons, Kristof’s essay relies upon quotes from unverifiable NGO reports or statements, and from a United Nations committee that recycles the accusations those statements and reports contain.
The NGO at the centre of Kristof’s essay calls itself the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med or EMHRM), which Kristof blandly describes as “often critical of Israel.” Registered in Switzerland in 2015, this Palestinian NGO has a mailing address in Geneva and an unknown number of staffers paid with funds from undisclosed donors. The publication of a 69-page Euro-Med report on 12 April was the source of Kristof’s accusation that Israel “employs systematic sexual violence” that is “widely practiced as part of an organized state policy.” The report was accompanied by an extensive public-relations campaign, which included promotion in Turkish-government-controlled news platform TRT, Qatar-linked propaganda platform Middle East Eye, and many other outlets that routinely promote invented or tendentious stories about Israel.