Past and current staffers from major global human rights and humanitarian NGOs described recurring contextual asymmetries: Palestinian militant violence framed through “root causes” such as “Israeli apartheid,” “structural violence,” or “Israeli colonialism,” while omitting factors including the religious ideology and explicit calls for Holy War in the charters of Hamas and Hezbollah, and legitimate security contexts for Israeli military operations, such as stopping rocket attacks on civilians and rescuing hostages in Gaza.

The framing was evident from the first hours after October 7, 2023. In her initial email to staff that day, then-Human Rights Watch Program Director Sari Bashi did not lead with the massacre itself, but with Israeli actions that framed them:

“Following a long period of escalation, primarily in the West Bank, with significant violence by Israeli soldiers and settlers and sporadic attacks by Palestinian gunmen, this morning armed groups in Gaza launched an attack on Israel…”