ICRC hypocrisy revealed

During WW2, the International Committee of the Red Cross - ICRC 's big concern was the fate of the Nazis. Those guys continued business as usual, as if the Shoah was not taking place. Their awful behavior has been extensively studied.

In the aftermath of the war, as the atrocities they had been long aware of came to light publically, the ICRC refused to condemn the Nazis. Its President Burckhardt opposed the Nuremberg trials. During those times, instead of helping victims of the worst crimes against humanity, the ICRC devoted its energies to assisting perpetrators of those crimes: it provided documents that helped many high-level Nazis, including Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele, escape Europe and evade justice for their crimes.

Those antisemites had a more than ambiguous role when Arab armies attacked the just-born State of Israel.

Since then, they just chose their side. When criticized for remaining silent when Jewish blood is shed, they usually argued that they acted secretly and that publicizing their efforts would compromise them. But, indeed, they did almost nothing apart from protecting attackers.

ICRC cynicism has reached a new moral abyss with the ongoing war launched by Hamas on the Israeli population.

During the 7th October 2023 onslaught on civilians, ambulances were attacked, and medical staff executed. Its President, Mirjana Spoljaric Egger was too busy with other issues to react.

Israeli hostages, including babies and elderly, were taken by Hamas into the Gaza Strip. ICRC remains silent, undoubtedly busy with its secret diplomatic efforts.

Hamas is targeting Israeli hospitals, including Barzilai Medical Center at Ashkelon and Assuta at Ashdod. Not even one word from ICRC.

People in Gaza are killed by rockets shot by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, sometimes when seeking refuge in medical premises. ICRC is silent.

Hamas hides in and below medical centers, placing its HQ at Al-Shifa Hospital. ICRC is watching elsewhere.

During that time, every single day, ICRC issues a one-sided declaration, the purpose of which is to protect Hamas without even mentioning its massive crimes against humanitarian rules.

One day, books shall be written on the hypocrisy of this institution. By acting in such an evil way, they disqualify themselves and harm the suffering populations worldwide they are supposed to help.

Indeed, yesterday, like today, those people's blatant betrayal of Henry Dunant's ideals only proves how far this rotten institution has disfigured humanitarianism.

Zakhor! You shall remember!

We shall not forget…

Please share.

J. Hanhart, Jerusalem, October 29, 2023

A short bibliography :

BEN-TOV, Arieh, Facing the Holocaust in Budapest, The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Jews in Hungary, 1943-1945, Geneva, Henry Dunant Institute, et Dordrecht, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1988, XVII & 492 pages.

FAVEZ, Jean-Claude, avec la collaboration de Geneviève BILLETER, Une mission impossible ? Le CICR, les déportations et les camps de concentration nazis, Lausanne, Editions Payot, 1988, 429 pages

JUNOD, Dominique-Debora. La Croix-Rouge en péril, 1945-1952, la stratégie du CICR, de la Seconde Guerre mondiale au conflict de Palestine - Eretz Isra?l, Lausanne, Editions Payot, 1997, 269 pages.

KLARSFELD, Serge (éditeur) : Recueil de documents des archives du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge sur le sort des Juifs de France internés et déportés, 1939-1945, édité par Serge Klarsfeld avec la coopération de Jean Levy, The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 3 volumes, vol. I et II, documents, décembre 1999, 1014 pages (pagination continue), vol. III, Table des documents et index, par Ruth Fivaz-Silbermann, décembre 2005, 105 pages.