The resignations followed internal disputes over the handling of a 33-page report that documented the experiences of Palestinians displaced from Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and refugee communities in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, linking decades of denied return to prosecutable crimes under international law.
According to a report by Jewish Currents, which said it obtained their resignation letters, Shakir wrote that Human Rights Watch leadership departed from standard review procedures and acted out of concern over political backlash rather than legal or factual issues.
“I have lost my faith in the integrity of how we do our work and our commitment to principled reporting on the facts and application of the law,” Shakir said, according to the report.
By contrast, Human Rights Watch leadership said the unpublished report raised “complex and consequential issues” and required further analysis before publication.
However, Shakir said on the US social media company X’s platform that “the report was finalized after 7 months in review & signed off on by the MENA division, five different specialists, the Program Office & the Law & Policy Office.”
“It was coded to the website & translated, a press release & Q/A were drafted & vetted & partners briefed. Hardly a rush,” he said.
Turning to the substance of the dispute, Shakir and Ansari said efforts to narrow the report’s scope to more recent displacements weakened its legal case and effectively silenced the voices of generations of Palestinian refugees.
In response to the delay, more than 200 Human Rights Watch staff members protested internally, warning that blocking the report risked undermining the organization’s credibility.
The resignations come as the organization’s new executive director, Philippe Bolopion, begins his tenure amid intensified scrutiny of Human Rights Watch’s work on Israel-Palestine.