New York, New York - The two members of Human Rights Watch's Israel/Palestine team have resigned after the organization's leadership blocked publication of a report accusing Israel of "crimes against humanity" in denying Palestinians' right of return.

Omar Shakir, who has been with HRW for over 10 years, and research assistant Milena Ansari both resigned over the delayed release of the report, which was scheduled for publication on December 4.

The report – entitled "Our Souls Are in the Homes We Left": Israel's Denial of Palestinians' Right to Return and Crimes Against Humanity – documents the trauma and hardships faced by Palestinians recently displaced by Israeli troops in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as refugees forcibly displaced in 1948 and 1967.

"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 wrote in his resignation letter, seen by Jewish Currents. "As such, I am no longer able to represent or work for Human Rights Watch."

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Shakir told the outlet in an interview on Tuesday that he feared HRW wanted to "take the finalized report back to the drawing board" after it had already gone through an extensive review process.

"The one topic," he said, "even at Human Rights Watch, for which there remains an unwillingness to apply the law and the facts in a principled way is the plight of refugees and their right to return to the homes that they were forced to flee."

HRW leadership has said the decision not to publish the report as scheduled had nothing to do with Palestinian refugees' right of return.

HRW's new Executive Director Philippe Bolopion, said in a January 29 email to staff members that an independent review was underway, after which the organization would "take this work forward in a way that is legally sound, aligned with our advocacy goals, and able to achieve meaningful impact."

"HRW remains committed to the right of return for all Palestinians, as has been our policy for many years," he added.

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During the report's review process, several top HRW employees voiced concerns that the findings could be seen as a call to "demographically extinguish the Jewishness of the Israeli state," according to Jewish Currents.

Though HRW has previously declared Israel an apartheid state and backed Palestinians' right of return, the blocked report would have been the first to call the denial of that right a crime against humanity punishable under international law.

Bolopion reportedly demanded the report focus exclusively on Palestinians displaced from Gaza and the West Bank since 2023 – a move Shakir strongly opposed.

"Such a limitation means we would be saying that the suffering caused by the denial of return for a Palestinian displaced for a year from a West Bank refugee camp would meet the threshold of sufficient gravity to be a crime against humanity, but not those denied return for 78 years," Shakir wrote in his resignation letter.

Over 200 HRW employees signed a letter to leadership in December opposing the decision to pause the report.