GENEVA, April 30, 2024 — The International Committee of the Red Cross must immediately terminate their Head of Office Haythem “Ethan” Abid for openly participating in anti-Israel protests, publicly supporting Hamas videos while accusing Israel of “terrorism,” all in violation of the ICRC’s strict neutrality obligations.
“Humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality” are the fundamental principles listed prominently on the website of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In its code of conduct the very first rule is that “the conduct of ICRC employees must be consistent with the Fundamental Principles…” and there are separate provisions that “employees must refrain from taking a public stance on situations or events and from referring to political or military situations in their communications with third parties.”
Yet recently leaked Facebook posts show Haythem Abid, ICRC head of office in Algeria and director of the Libya sub-delegation, promoting and engaging in anti-Israel protests, calling Israel’s fight against Hamas “terrorism,” and provocatively stating online that he is no longer neutral, writing “Fuck neutral shit.”
In real life, he works as Haythem Abid:
On social media, he goes as Ethan Abid, but without hiding his face — and in fact openly showing his ICRC identity such as his cover photo next to an ICRC plane.
Haythem Abid (aka “Ethan Abid”) was hired at the ICRC in August 2018 as a Field Protection Delegate, and has since climbed the ranks to become an ICRC Head of Office.
In flagrant violation of the ICRC code of conduct, Abid has taken a public anti-Israel stance, posting online, attending political rallies, and explicitly renouncing his neutrality.
In this Facebook post from October 24th, 2023 — with the ICRC on his Facebook profile cover photo — Abid shows himself holding a large Palestinian flag at the giant “Free Palestine” rally of Sunday, October 22nd, which was co-organized by “Montreal4Palestine,” an antisemitic group that handed out candies on October 7th to celebrate the Hamas massacre, and which was subject to judicial sanction after its protesters hurled abuse at Jews in front of the Montreal Jewish community center.
Another Facebook post from October 27th, 2023 shows Abid circulating a flyer for another pro-Palestine rally co-sponsored by the “Palestinian Youth Movement,” which openly calls for the destruction of Israel and glorifies terrorist “martyrs.”
On December 2nd, Abid went live on Facebook attending another pro-Palestine rally:
In other Facebook posts shared on October 25th, Abid calls the current conflict in Gaza a “genocide.” He subsequently says that what Israel is doing in Gaza “is not fighting terrorism, it is terrorism.”
In another Facebook post that he published on October 8th, the day after the October 7th massacre, Abid posted a photo of the alleged killing in 2000 of Muhammad al-Durrah. In fact, that alleged incident was found to be staged and no one was killed or even hurt. But Abid’s intention was clear: he was attempting to justify the killing, maiming, raping, and torture of innocent civilians that took place in Israel on October 7th, as merited retribution.
On November 14, 2023, Abid posted a Hamas propaganda video on Facebook that praises the fact that Israel has been unable to defeat Hamas, claims Hamas treats hostages well, shows scenes of October 7th, and claims that God is on Hamas’ side so Israel will always fail.
Finally, if there was any doubt of Haythem’s contempt for the ICRC’s fundamental principle of neutrality, Haythem made his position exceedingly clear with a Facebook post on October 18th, 2023, where he said: “Fuck neutral shit, today being neutral is taking a side.”
Haythem Abid should be fired from the ICRC immediately for breaching the ICRC code of conduct and values.
But a larger questions remain: How many other Haythem Abids exist within the ranks of the ICRC?
