Grappling with the Gray #79: Some victims are more equal than others?

Grappling with the Gray

Is doing something half-right better than not doing it at all?
Or can selectively excluding good not only negate but overpower the benefit of what's included?
That's the dilemma the ethics panel takes up when Christopher Bauer, Catherine Fitzgerald, and Scott Mason join me to Grapple with the Gray.
Here is our topic:
The following is taken from the About page on the Hostage Aid Worldwide website:
“Hostage Aid is a non-profit NGO established by a group of former hostages from around the world, families of hostages and subject matter experts, all of whom, based on their different personal experiences as well as suffering, have banded together to fight for the release of hostages globally while aiming to prevent this inhumane act of hostage taking from occurring against other innocent people.”
Bravo! Who could argue with that? What follows next is from the same organization’s Global Hostage Report 2023:
“Year 2023 was the most drastically eventful year for hostages and unlawfully detained persons globally since 1979, the most significant event being the Hamas attack on Israel. On October 7, Hamas militants and other Palestinian militant factions abducted around 125 foreigners and dual nationals from more than 20 different countries, to the Gaza Strip.”
You may remember that the number of hostages taken by Hamas was over 240. So how did Hostage Aid arrive at their count of 125? By excluding Israeli captives, most of whom were civilians, many of whom were women, children, and the elderly.
Even if the leaders of Hostage Aid agree with South Africa’s assertion that the Hamas attack of October 7 was justified as an act of resistance, how are we to explain the thinking that allows an organization devoted to “to providing humanitarian relief and support to current and former hostages” to ignore the largest group of hostages currently being held against their will?
https://hostageaid.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Hostage-Aid-Global-Hostage-Report-2023-January-16-Update.pdf
Meet this week’s panelists:
Christopher Bauer is a Speaker, Author, and Consultant on Ethics, Compliance, and Accountability.
Catherine Fitzgerald is a speaker, writer, certified coach, and founder of BrassTacksWithHeart - Executive Coaching. She works with C-level leaders and their teams as they navigate the choppy waters of aligning people, performance, and profits.
Scott Mason, aka the Myth Slayer, is a speaker, podcast host, and coach working with executives and entrepreneurs to Magnetize & Monetize Professional Freedom by Dislodging Toxic Myths to Ignite the Charisma Within.