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Why BCG’s involvement in Gaza marks an all-time low for consulting firms

Special Why BCG’s involvement in Gaza marks an all-time low for consulting firms
Human rights groups say the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation violates international law by politicizing and militarizing aid. (AFP file)
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Updated 13 July 2025

Why BCG’s involvement in Gaza marks an all-time low for consulting firms

Why BCG’s involvement in Gaza marks an all-time low for consulting firms
  • FT investigation examined Boston Consulting Group’s role in Gaza aid planning, including plans for Palestinian relocation
  • BCG has disavowed the work and fired two senior partners — but the scandal sheds light on the wider industry’s irresponsibility

LONDON: A Financial Times investigation, published on July 4, found that a consulting firm connected to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation secured a multimillion-dollar contract to help shape the initiative and a proposal for the possible “relocation” of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

The Boston Consulting Group was found to have played a central role in designing and managing the US- and Israeli-backed project, which aimed to replace the UN as the primary coordinator of humanitarian aid in Gaza.

Amid growing criticism, BCG denied any ongoing involvement in the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. In a June 7 statement, the firm said it initially provided “pro bono support” in October 2024 to help launch “an aid organization intended to operate alongside other relief efforts.”




BCG has faced heavy scrutiny for its role in Gaza’s postwar reconstruction, mainly through its work with the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. (AFP file)

The firm said two senior US-based partners who led the initiative “failed to disclose the full nature of the work” and later engaged in “unauthorized” activities outside the firm’s oversight.

“Their actions reflected a serious failure of judgment and adherence to our standards,” the firm said. “We are shocked and outraged by the actions of these two partners. They have been exited from the firm.

“BCG disavows the work they undertook. It has been stopped, and BCG has not and will not be paid for any of their work.”

The company emphasized it is strengthening internal controls to prevent future breaches. “We deeply regret that in this situation we did not live up to our standards,” the statement said. “We are committed to accountability for our failures and humility in how we move forward.”

FAST FACTS:

• A Financial Times investigation examined BCG’s role in Gaza aid planning, including controversial proposals for Palestinian relocation.

• BCG disavowed the work and fired two senior partners, but documents suggest deeper involvement and lapses in internal oversight.

• The scandal underscores wider concerns about consulting firms’ ethics, with similar controversies involving PwC, KPMG, EY and McKinsey.

Following the FT story, BCG issued another statement on July 6 disputing aspects of the reporting. “Recent media reporting has misrepresented BCG’s role in post-war Gaza reconstruction,” the firm said.

BCG reiterated that the initiative was not an official company project and was carried out in secret. “Two former partners initiated this work, even though the lead partner was categorically told not to,” the statement read.

“This work was not a BCG project. It was orchestrated and run secretly outside any BCG scope or approvals. We fully disavow this work. BCG was not paid for any of this work.”




Buildings that were destroyed during the Israeli ground and air operations stand in northern of Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel on July 10, 2025. (AP Photo)

However, individuals familiar with “Aurora” told the FT that BCG’s involvement ran deeper. The report revealed that BCG created a financial model for Gaza’s postwar reconstruction that included scenarios for mass displacement.

This revelation intensified scrutiny of the consulting industry’s ethical boundaries.

“Consulting companies… are held to a higher standard of professionalism and ethics than other lines of work,” Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg, the Gulf Cooperation Council assistant secretary-general for political affairs and negotiation, wrote in an April opinion piece for Arab News.

He warned that without corrective action, major firms risk alienating clients.




Displaced Palestinians carrying relief supplies from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) return from aid distribution centers in Rafah to their tents in the southern Gaza Strip on May 29, 2025. (AFP)

ndeed, in recent years, top consulting firms like McKinsey, PwC, KPMG, and EY have faced growing scrutiny for putting profit over ethics, with scandals revealing conduct lapses worldwide.

McKinsey, for instance, faced heavy backlash for its role in the US opioid crisis. The firm was accused of helping Purdue Pharma and other manufacturers to aggressively market addictive painkillers, including OxyContin, The New York Times reported.

Aluwaisheg noted in his op-ed that some of these ethical lapses “are quite common throughout the consulting business.”

However, he added, “big firms are more likely to commit them,” citing sprawling operations that limit senior management oversight.

The industry’s core business model may be the issue: consulting firms adopted law firms’ high-fee model for expert advice — without their legal liability.

Despite this, demand for consulting services remains high. Aluwaisheg believes governments and businesses will continue to need outside expertise.




People walk by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) New York headquarters. (AFP)

Still, accountability concerns have prompted some governments to take action. In February, ֱ’s Public Investment Fund banned PwC from taking on new advisory and consulting contracts for one year.

Some media outlets reported that the decision was related to an ethical violation tied to an alleged recruitment of a senior-level employee from the client’s side. The suspension did not impact PwC’s auditing work.

These events highlight ongoing concerns over consulting firms’ roles in controversial actions. In April 2024, KPMG’s Dutch arm was fined $25 million after over 500 staff cheated on internal training exams, Reuters reported.

Yet the BCG case may represent a new low for the industry.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s model bypassed traditional organizations like the UN, restricted aid distribution to limited sites under Israeli oversight and relied on private security contractors. This move has had deadly consequences.

According to Gaza’s health authority, at least 740 Palestinians have been killed and almost 4,900 injured while attempting to reach aid centers, drawing condemnation from humanitarian organizations and UN officials.




Displaced Palestinians look around on alert in the wake of gunfire shots as they receive food packages from a US-backed foundation pledging to distribute humanitarian aid in western Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 27, 2025. (AFP)

UN aid chief Tom Fletcher called the initiative a “fig leaf for further violence and displacement” of Palestinians in the war-torn enclave.

In a July 10 letter to the FT editor, BCG’s CEO Christoph Schweizer pushed back against the allegations that his firm endorsed or profited from projects related to Gaza.

“None of that is true,” Schweizer wrote, adding that “a few people from BCG were involved in such work. They never should have been.”

Adding another layer to the controversy, FT reported on July 6 that staff from the Tony Blair Institute were also implicated in postwar planning that included scenarios for mass Palestinian displacement — despite being prominent advocates for peace in the Middle East.




Christoph Schweizer, CEO of Boston Consulting Group. (Supplied)

The plan, seen by the FT, imagined Gaza as a regional economic hub, complete with a “Trump Riviera” and “Elon Musk Smart Manufacturing Zone,” based on financial models developed by BCG.

While the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change denied authoring “The Great Trust” blueprint, it acknowledged two staff joined Gaza planning calls and chats. It also denied backing population relocation.

Arab News approached the TBI for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Nevertheless, its involvement has triggered additional concerns about the ethics of postwar reconstruction planning and the role of consulting firms in shaping policies with far-reaching humanitarian consequences.


NGO says starving Gaza children too weak to cry

NGO says starving Gaza children too weak to cry
Updated 54 min 56 sec ago

NGO says starving Gaza children too weak to cry

NGO says starving Gaza children too weak to cry
  • Save the Children president describes to the UN Security Council in horrific detail the impact of famine on children in Gaza

NEW YORK: The head of Save the Children described in horrific detail Wednesday the slow agony of starving children in Gaza, saying they are so weak they do not even cry.
Addressing a Security Council meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the president of the international charity, Inger Ashing, said famine — declared by the UN last week to be happening in Gaza — is not just a dry technical term.
“When there is not enough food, children become acutely malnourished, and then they die slowly and painfully. This, in simple terms, is what famine is,” said Ashing.
She went on to describe what happens when children die of hunger over the course of several weeks, as the body first consumes its own fat to survive and when that is gone, literally consumes itself as it eats muscles and vital organs.
“Yet our clinics are almost silent. Now, children do not have the strength to speak or even cry out in agony. They lie there, emaciated, quite literally wasting away,” said Ashing.
She insisted aid groups have been warning loudly that famine was coming as Israel prevented food and other essentials from entering Gaza over the course of two years of war triggered by the Hamas attack of October 2023.
“Everyone in this room has a legal and moral responsibility to act to stop this atrocity,” said Ashing.
The United Nations officially declared famine in Gaza on Friday, blaming what it called systematic obstruction of aid by Israel during more than 22 months of war.
A UN-backed hunger monitor called the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative said famine was affecting 500,000 people in the Gaza governorate, which covers about a fifth of the Palestinian territory including Gaza City.
The IPC projected that the famine would expand by the end of September to cover around two-thirds of Gaza.


Besieged Sudan city ‘epicenter of child suffering,’ UNICEF warns

Besieged Sudan city ‘epicenter of child suffering,’ UNICEF warns
Updated 31 min 40 sec ago

Besieged Sudan city ‘epicenter of child suffering,’ UNICEF warns

Besieged Sudan city ‘epicenter of child suffering,’ UNICEF warns
  • El-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur faces a 'devastating tragedy with the population besieged by a paramilitary group, UN’s children’s agency says

CAIRO: A city in Sudan’s western region is facing a “devastating tragedy” as the remaining population of about 260,000 people, half of them children, remain trapped after being besieged by a paramilitary group, the United Nations warned on Wednesday.
El-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur province, has been at the epicenter of fighting for over a year between the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support forces, or RSF.
The UN’s children’s agency says least 600,000 people have been displaced from El-Fasher and surrounding camps in recent months, but inside the city there are still 260,000 civilians — including 130,000 children — living in “desperate conditions” after been cut off from aid for more than 16 months. It says an estimated 6,000 children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition are at risk of death.
The paramilitaries have imposed a siege around the city, cutting off supply lines, UNICEF said in a statement. El-Fasher has become “an epicenter of child suffering, with malnutrition, disease, and violence claiming young lives daily,” it said.
“We are witnessing a devastating tragedy – children in El-Fasher are starving while UNICEF’s lifesaving nutrition services are being blocked,” said Catherine Russell, the agency’s executive director.
“Blocking humanitarian access is a grave violation of children’s rights, and the lives of children are hanging in the balance,” Russell said.
UNICEF said it is calling on Sudan’s government “and all other concerned parties” to ensure “sustained, unimpeded, and safe access to reach children wherever they are in Sudan.” It also wants an immediate and sustained humanitarian pause in El-Fasher and across other conflict-affected areas and unimpeded humanitarian access for the delivery of food, medicines, water, and other essentials.
The war broke out in April 2023 when simmering tensions between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital Khartoum and elsewhere across the African country.
El-Fasher is the military’s last stronghold in the sprawling Darfur region. The RSF has been trying to seize the city since April 2024 and has been the focus of a bombing campaign during which more than 1,000 children have been killed or maimed, according to UNICEF.
The Sudan war has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, displacing more than 14 million people and pushing parts of the country into famine, and disease outbreaks. The war has killed tens of thousands, and marked by atrocities including mass killings and rape, which the International Criminal Court is investigating as war crimes and crimes against humanity.


Lebanese politicians file lawsuit against Hezbollah chief for ‘inciting war’

Lebanese politicians file lawsuit against Hezbollah chief for ‘inciting war’
Updated 27 August 2025

Lebanese politicians file lawsuit against Hezbollah chief for ‘inciting war’

Lebanese politicians file lawsuit against Hezbollah chief for ‘inciting war’
  • Plaintiffs accuse Naim Qassem of violating constitution in major public address
  • Protests by Hezbollah supporters prompt US envoy to cut short southern border tour

BEIRUT: A group of prominent Lebanese politicians on Wednesday filed a criminal lawsuit against Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem, accusing him of inciting war and sedition.

The plaintiffs include current and former MPs as well as senior political figures in the country.

The suit is the first of its kind to target a member of Hezbollah’s senior leadership. It cites inflammatory speeches by Qassem, the party’s secretary-general, and accuses him of “inciting war, sedition and the overthrow of constitutional authority.”

MP Ashraf Rifi told Arab News that the lawsuit, which was accepted by the court, targets “anyone the investigation reveals to be a perpetrator, accomplice or instigator.”

He added: “We are aware that Sheikh Qassem’s address is unknown, making it difficult to serve him the legal notice. While the lawsuit may not deter him from continuing his actions, we assert that he has violated the constitution, and the complaints will continue as long as Hezbollah continues to do so.” 

Alongside Rifi, MPs Elias Khoury, Camille Chamoun (head of the National Liberal Party), George Okais, former MP Eddy Abillama and the head of the Change Movement, lawyer Elie Mahfoud, are acting as plaintiffs against Qassem. The lawsuit was submitted before Public Prosecutor Jamal Hajjar at the Palace of Justice in Beirut, amid tight security measures taken by the Lebanese Army.

The plaintiffs said that their personal claim against Qassem followed the Public Prosecution’s “inaction regarding the individual in question.”

They called for “the appointment of the appropriate authority to investigate the complaint, summon Sheikh Naim Qassem for questioning, and take all necessary legal measures against him.”

In the suit, the plaintiffs highlighted comments made by Qassem during a major public address to Hezbollah supporters in mid-August.

Hezbollah represents an “unlicensed organization considered a terrorist organization by a large number of countries around the world,” they said.

During the speech earlier this month, Qassem had repeated Hezbollah’s refusal to surrender its weapons to the state in defiance of a Cabinet decision.

The plaintiffs described Qassem’s speech as “a threat to Lebanon’s internal security and a direct challenge to decisions issued by the Council of Ministers.”

Qassem threatened the Lebanese Army with his comments, and displayed open contempt for the presidency, prime minister and members of the government, they said.

The Hezbollah chief also defied government measures by calling for demonstrations across the country, including outside the US Embassy in Beirut, the plaintiffs added.

“This speech provoked most of the Lebanese who are still living through a bloody war provoked by the military organization headed by the accused person,” the suit said.

The plaintiffs said Qassem’s behavior implicated him in Israel’s occupation of Lebanese regions and the widespread economic damage inflicted on the country as a result of the war.

Qassem’s speech contradicted President Joseph Aoun’s inaugural address to parliament, in which he outlined the general framework of Lebanon’s policy — particularly the principle that only legitimate Lebanese forces may possess arms, the plaintiffs added.

The speech also contradicted a ministerial statement highlighting Lebanon’s commitment to non-involvement in regional or international conflicts, they said.

The secretary-general’s speech was “a clear and explicit admission that the military organization led by Qassem is waging war on behalf of a foreign state and in its defense, a policy that will inevitably lead to devastation and destruction,” the suit said.

Hezbollah’s stance under Qassem contradicts the Lebanese Constitution and the UN Charter that the Lebanese Republic is committed to, the plaintiffs said.

“The Israeli enemy responded to the speech with a direct and public warning to Lebanon against any escalation by the military organization led by Qassem. The speech also triggered a massive wave of reactions, all of which were sectarian in nature; some rejecting and denouncing the statement, while others responded with sectarian counter-comments in support of what the defendant had said,” they added.

The lawsuit highlighted Hezbollah’s call to protest that accompanied the speech, involving the display of threatening banners on public property along the road to Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut. Some banners featured images of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and bore the message: “The hand that reaches for our weapons, we will cut it off. At your command, we are ready and advancing toward Jerusalem.”

The MPs accused Qassem of inciting “sedition and internal strife, overthrowing decisions taken by legitimate constitutional authorities, disrupting Lebanon’s relations with the vast majority of world countries that support the Lebanese government’s decisions regarding the restriction of arms to the Lebanese state, and exposing the Lebanese to hostile acts by an enemy state, Israel.”

Rifi described the government’s decision to restrict arms to the state as a pivotal moment in Lebanon’s political history, leading to the flourishing of sovereignty.

The MP told Arab News he is convinced that “surrendering weapons will happen sooner or later. People do not want to live under the rule of a state within a state. Hezbollah’s role is over.”

Hezbollah’s power and influence within Lebanon had grown substantially over the past decade, in part due to support from Damascus and Tehran. But the fall of the Assad regime in Syria in late 2024 and the election of Lebanon’s newest government earlier this year has led to a dramatic shift in the balance of power.

The party’s military wing was significantly weakened during its latest war with Israel. Key officials were killed, including former chief Hassan Nasrallah, and a substantial portion of its arsenal was destroyed.

Rifi said the party and its military wing “has nothing to do with the defense strategy” of Lebanon.

“It is the state’s responsibility; it is not that of those who seek to be part of the strategy placement according to their whims and desires. It is the responsibility of the Lebanese Army officers and leadership,” he added.

The MP accused Hezbollah of trying to model itself on Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces in order to “legitimize itself as a partner.”

He added: “This will not happen. Hezbollah’s role is over. The role of Iran in the region is over. Assad has been ousted and could now be subject to accountability.”

Wednesday’s lawsuit was filed amid escalating political tensions in Lebanon. Hezbollah has insisted on maintaining control of its arms, while the Lebanese government has tasked the army with developing a plan to limit weapons to the military and government-affiliated security forces.

The plan must be discussed and adopted by the Council of Ministers on Sept. 2 and implemented by the end of the year.

US envoy Tom Barrack, during a press conference at the Presidential Palace on Tuesday, set a condition that requires Hezbollah to surrender its arms.

Hezbollah supporters reacted by forcing Barrack to cancel his tour of Lebanon’s southern border region the following day. They staged protests, held banners condemning the tour and “biased policies,” and prepared tomato pallets to throw at Barrack’s convoy. The envoy was scheduled to visit the village of Khiam and Tyre.

He had arrived at Francois Al-Hajj Army Barracks in Marjayoun aboard a helicopter. The Lebanese Army deployed a heavy presence in the area, including at the northern entrance of Khiam, to accompany Barrack.

However, residents in Khiam gathered at the town’s entrance holding images of slain family members, along with Hezbollah banners, causing the visit to be canceled.


Israel army launches operation in West Bank’s Nablus

Israel army launches operation in West Bank’s Nablus
Updated 27 August 2025

Israel army launches operation in West Bank’s Nablus

Israel army launches operation in West Bank’s Nablus
  • Red Crescent reports at least seven people wounded after Israeli forces raid the city
  • Attack comes day after Israeli forces stormed Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority

NABLUS, West Bank: Dozens of Israeli soldiers stormed the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday, witnesses and Palestinian officials said, with the Red Crescent reporting at least seven people wounded in the raid.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military confirmed that its forces were conducting an operation in the northern West Bank city, without specifying its purpose.
The raid began at around 3:00 am (0000 GMT), residents said, with soldiers in armored vehicles storming several neighborhoods of Nablus’s old city, which has a population of around 30,000 people.
It came a day after Israeli forces carried out a relatively rare raid on Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority, targeting a currency exchange in the city center and leaving dozens of Palestinians wounded, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.
Nablus Governor Ghassan Daghlas told AFP that Wednesday’s “assault... is merely a show of force with no justification.”
One witness, who declined to give his name, reported that soldiers had expelled an elderly couple from their home.
Israeli troops “are storming and searching houses and shops inside the old city, while some houses have been turned into military posts,” said Ghassan Hamdan, head of the Palestinian Medical Relief organization in Nablus.
AFP footage showed Israeli forces and military vehicles deployed on the streets, with some troops taking position on a rooftop.
Daghlas said the army had informed Palestinian authorities that the raid would last until 4:00 pm.
Local sources said clashes broke out at the eastern entrance to the old city, where young people threw stones at Israeli soldiers, who responded with tear gas and live ammunition.
The Red Crescent said its teams treated five people wounded by rubber bullets, one person hit by live bullet shrapnel and another following “physical assault.”
One more person was injured in a “fall” during the raid, the medical organization added, and at least 27 others suffered from tear gas inhalation.
Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh, in a statement carried by official news agency Wafa, slammed “the Israeli escalation in cities and refugee camps,” calling a recent uptick in raids “dangerous, condemned and unacceptable.”
The old city of Nablus has been the focus of several major Israeli raids, including in 2022 and 2023 during large-scale operations targeting a local grouping of armed fighters, as well as in 2002 during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising.
In early June 2025, an Israeli military operation there resulted in two Palestinians killed.
Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, violence has surged in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
Israeli troops or settlers in the West Bank have killed at least 972 Palestinians, including militants and civilians, since the beginning of the Gaza war, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian Authority figures.
In the same period, at least 36 Israelis, both civilians and security forces, have been killed in attacks or during military operations in the territory, according to Israeli figures.


‘Time for EU to act’ on Gaza: humanitarian chief

‘Time for EU to act’ on Gaza: humanitarian chief
Updated 27 August 2025

‘Time for EU to act’ on Gaza: humanitarian chief

‘Time for EU to act’ on Gaza: humanitarian chief
  • Hadja Lahbib says it’s time for the EU to find a collective voice on Gaza
  • EU foreign ministers meet in Denmark this week to discuss proposal to suspend funding to Israeli start-ups

BRUSSELS: The EU’s humanitarian chief Hadja Lahbib on Wednesday urged the bloc to take tougher action over the war in Gaza as divisions among member states stall moves to punish Israel.
“We are at a turning point and now it’s time for the EU to act in a way that matches its international stature,” Lahbib, European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, told journalists.
“Now it’s time for the EU to find a collective voice on Gaza.”
Splits within the 27-nation bloc between countries backing Israel and those favoring the Palestinians have seen the EU often left hamstrung in the face of the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
“We cannot stand by and simply watch innocent civilians, aid workers, journalists being killed and starving to death,” Lahbib said.
“Saving lives takes the political courage to find a strong voice that reflects our values and principles.”
EU foreign ministers meeting in Denmark this week will discuss a proposal to suspend funding to Israeli start-ups as punishment for the situation in Gaza.
But the bloc has so far failed to garner the majority needed to take that step — let alone move ahead with more forceful measures against Israel.
The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas announced a deal in July with Israel to increase the flow of aid into Gaza but so far it has not met expectations.
Lahbib said that the situation had improved “very, very partially” but that the aid getting into the territory remained a “drop in the ocean.”
The United Nations declared a famine in Gaza on Friday, blaming the “systematic obstruction” of aid by Israel during its nearly two-year war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
“My role is to denounce and to say loudly what is happening there. This is a tragedy,” Lahbib said.
“We will be judged by history and by our grandchildren. That’s for sure.”
The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Out of 251 hostages seized during the attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 62,819 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.