Aiding Israel’s genocide has been ‘reputationally damaging’, admits US consultancy BCG

US firm involved in modelling plans for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, strips executives of leadership roles lamenting the affair as “reputationally very damaging”.

Two top executives at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), one of the world’s most powerful management consultancies, have been stripped of their leadership roles following revelations that the company helped model the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, a scheme widely condemned as a blueprint for ethnic cleansing. 

The move comes amid widespread condemnation of BCG’s participation in a controversial Israeli-backed “reconstruction” project which is widely seen as an Israeli plan to forcibly expel Palestinians from the territory.

Adam Farber, BCG’s chief risk officer, and Rich Hutchinson, head of the firm’s social impact practice, will step down from those roles but remain in client-facing positions, the company confirmed to staff. The decision follows a Financial Times exposé revealing the firm’s deep involvement in a scheme that envisioned rebuilding Gaza as a regional economic hub, minus its Palestinian population.

Internal emails and planning documents obtained by The Financial Times (FT) show that BCG staff helped estimate the cost of forcibly relocating Palestinians from Gaza, a project supported by Israeli and US figures and carried out under the guise of humanitarian reconstruction. BCG also played a larger role than previously admitted in the formation of the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a new aid body intended to replace UN-administered support and seen by many as a tool to sideline international law and institutions.

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In a message to staff, BCG CEO Christoph Schweizer stated that Farber had no intent to mislead but was “himself misled.” Nevertheless, he acknowledged that the fallout from the project had been “reputationally very damaging,” attributing the scandal to “deliberate individual misconduct,” failed oversight and “missed warning signs.”

Schweizer admitted that BCG’s processes had failed and pledged to make internal reforms. Many within and outside BCG have questioned how top management could have been unaware of the project’s scope and implications. Hutchinson, who headed BCG’s social impact practice, reportedly authorised and funded the early phases of the project that led to the creation of GHF.

The scandal reached the UK Parliament, where a committee is probing whether BCG and other Western firms facilitated policies amounting to ethnic cleansing in violation of international law.

Further revelations have implicated the Tony Blair Institute (TBI), which the FT reported participated in the same reconstruction planning under the banner of “Gaza Riviera.” TBI officials reportedly joined Israeli and US officials in drafting plans for Gaza’s future that presumed the removal of the Palestinians.

Human rights experts have condemned such initiatives as part of a broader strategy to permanently depopulate Gaza. The death toll from Israel’s military campaign in the enclave has now surpassed 57,000, the majority women and children. Multiple legal scholars and genocide experts have concluded that Israel’s actions meet the threshold for genocide under international law.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, central to BCG’s involvement, has come under sharp criticism. While marketed as a new aid vehicle, GHF’s launch coincided with the mass killing of Palestinians and the dismantling of existing humanitarian infrastructure. Its backers include Israeli and US officials, with reported aims to shift control of aid from UN institutions to handpicked “friendly” local partners.

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