DaysofPal- Two Human Rights Watch (HRW) researchers, Omar Shakir and Melina Ansari, have resigned in protest after the organization decided to suspend a report they authored on the denial of Palestinian refugees’ right of return, a policy the report concluded amounts to a crime against humanity under international law.
Shakir and Ansari formed HRW’s entire team covering the Israeli occupation and Palestine, making their departures a major development for one of the world’s leading human rights organizations.
In their resignation letters, the researchers argued that halting the report violated HRW’s established internal review and approval procedures.
They claimed that political considerations and fears of backlash were prioritized over legal assessment and factual evidence.
Shakir said he no longer had confidence in the integrity of HRW’s internal processes and could not continue to represent the organization.
He emphasized that Palestinian victims deserve their experiences to be fully documented and that the legal basis for their suffering must be clearly articulated.
The report, drafted in August 2025, underwent a thorough internal review involving eight departments.
The researchers expressed surprise that it was suspended at such a late stage. According to internal leaks, some senior officials were reportedly concerned about the report’s scope, especially its coverage of Palestinian refugees living in the diaspora.
Sources suggest that HRW leadership feared the findings could be politically misinterpreted, potentially challenging Israeli identity as a Jewish state or undermining HRW’s reputation as an impartial human rights organization.
Shakir and Ansari maintain that the true reason for the suspension was the report’s explicit connection between the long-standing Israeli policy preventing Palestinian return and crimes prosecutable by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
They noted that such a conclusion would be unprecedented for HRW and could expose the organization to political pressure, particularly from states such as the United States, which have applied pressure on the ICC.
The unpublished report, titled “Our Lives Are in the Homes We Left Behind,” expanded on a prior HRW study of internal displacement in Gaza, including Palestinians displaced in 1948 and 1967 living in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan.
It drew on testimonies describing severe humanitarian and economic hardships and linked present-day suffering to historical displacement and ongoing denial of the right to return.
The suspension has triggered internal dissent, with over 200 HRW staff reportedly signing a protest letter, warning that the decision undermines the organization’s credibility and invites undue interference in its research.
Palestinian groups also expressed concern, suggesting that HRW’s impartiality could be called into question and warning that civil society organizations may rethink partnerships with HRW if its reporting is shaped by political considerations rather than human rights principles.
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