UK parliamentary committee seeks answers over BCG Gaza work
A parliamentary committee has written to Boston Consulting Group, demanding that the firm clarifies its role in establishing an aid group which accused of facilitating war crimes. The management consulting firm has already withdrawn its project team from Tel Aviv, fired two senior partners, issued a public apology, and launched an internal investigation following the furore around its involvement with the Gaza Humanitarian Fund.
Between October 2024 and June 2025, Boston Consulting Group provided support to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – which proponents claim was established to create a new mechanism for delivering aid to Gaza, bypassing traditional channels such as the United Nations.
BCG professionals reportedly played a pivotal role in the creation and operation of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, among others contributing to the logistics, business strategy, and operational framework of the foundation. But the GHF quickly drew criticism for its activities, with Gaza health authorities reporting that more than 800 Palestinians have been killed trying to access aid at distribution centres run by the GHF.
Branding the GHF as a “privatised, militarised aid delivery model”, a letter from 15 prominent human rights lawyers called for a return to internationally recognised humanitarian channels through the United Nations across the occupied Gaza Strip – while also warning that individuals and entities involved, including state actors, private security contractors, consulting firms, and donors, could face potential legal liability for complicity in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possibly genocide. The fund has also been disavowed by the United Nations and numerous aid organisations.
Now, the UK’s parliament has written to BCG, asking for an explanation for its reported connections to the GHF. Chairs the House of Commons Business and Trade Select Committee, Labour Party MP Liam Byrne, demanded “clarification and information” about its work in Gaza – where estimates of civilians killed since October 7th 2023 now stand at over 50,000 – adding that the query was part of the committee’s “scrutiny of the UK’s commercial, political and humanitarian links to the conflict”.
“When and how”
The letter to BCG CEO Christoph Schweizer comes after The Financial Times reported that BCG had helped to draw up an estimate of the costs of relocating Palestinians from Gaza – something former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently said would be “ethnic cleansing” – while the paper also reported BCG had signed a multimillion-dollar contract to help create the Israel and US-backed GHF in the first place.
In a contrary statement issued earlier this week, BCG said that “recent media reporting has misrepresented” the firm’s potential role in the post-war reconstruction of Gaza, adding that two of its partners “failed to disclose the full nature of the work” they carried out without payment in helping to establish the GHF. The firm claimed the individuals then carried out “subsequent unauthorised work” which reflected “a serious failure of judgment and adherence to our standards”, and led to the partners being fired.
The statement does not seem to have passed muster with Byrne, though. While noting that BCG had ended its involvement with the GHF, and that some of the associated work had been “unauthorised”, his letter noted the firm should provide specific details on what activities were not authorised, “when and how” the work was undertaken, and what actions were made to correct those activities.
UK organisations
Byrne also called for more information about BCG’s work on proposals to relocate the population of Gaza, which have been condemned by Palestinians in the enclave, rights groups and the UN – including whether “any such work” was “ongoing or active in any form”, and if “any UK-based organisations” had been involved.
Byrne directed BCG to respond by July 22, “given the seriousness of these issues and the high level of public interest”. In the meantime, pressure is also mounting on the Tony Blair Institute (TBI), a think-tank and consulting label run by the former British prime minister, which has also been reported by The Financial Times as participating in message groups and calls for a post-war development plan for Gaza that relied on BCG modelling.
Pressure has also been mounting on BCG senior staff from within the firm. As the links between some employees and the GHF became public, other staff wrote to leadership demanding accountability and transparency; warning that the consulting firm risked complicity in grave human rights abuses.
