Harry and Meghan Mess Up (Again)
Prince Harry and Meghan’s Jordan visit faces backlash after reports link staff at their partner NGO, QuestScope, to social media posts praising Hamas. Is this a humanitarian oversight or a major vetting failure?
Prince Harry and Meghan wrapped the first day of their surprise two-day trip to Jordan yesterday, with a visit to a youth center for Syrian refugees, a stop that looked picture-perfect on the surface but is now raising serious questions behind the scenes.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, in partnership with the World Health Organization, kicked things off in Amman with a roundtable alongside WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and UN partners.
From there they headed north to the sprawling Za’atari Refugee Camp, the world’s largest for displaced Syrians and spent time at the QuestScope Youth Center.
They kicked footballs with kids, clapped along to live music, checked out artwork, chatted with parents and children about life in the camp, and heard directly about challenges around education, healthcare, and long-term displacement. Later that day they stopped at Amman Specialty Hospital to meet children medically evacuated from Gaza, including burn victims receiving treatment.
Day two (today) includes a visit to the regional office of World Central Kitchen to spotlight food aid efforts. All standard humanitarian fare for the Sussexes, until you zoom in on the host organization.
Scope AngleQuestScope is a longstanding Jordanian NGO focused on youth empowerment, trauma recovery, non-formal education, and mental health support for refugees and communities hit by conflict. It runs programs across Jordan, including the exact youth center Harry and Meghan visited, and has also carried out emergency work in Gaza.
Mainstream coverage from People, BBC, Times of Israel, and others framed the entire trip as straightforward support for vulnerable kids and families caught in regional crises.
But an exclusive published yesterday by media watchdog HonestReporting points out something the Sussexes’ team (and the WHO) appear to have missed or at least didn’t flag publicly.
Several individuals listed as QuestScope staff have public Facebook posts that include:
Images of masked militants wearing Hamas headbandsPraise for “armed resistance”Graphics celebrating rockets launched from GazaRepeated claims that “Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine”Messaging closely aligned with Hamas narratives during flare-ups
One October 2024 post: “And in October, we came to have a deep-seated love” (in a context where “October” has become shorthand in some circles for the October 7 attacks)
HonestReporting says it verified the accounts belong to the named staff members. These are not official QuestScope organizational statements, they’re personal posts by people the NGO lists as staff.
Hamas remains a fully designated terrorist organization by the UK (Harry’s home country), the United States, the EU, Canada, and others, responsible for the October 7, 2023 massacre that killed over 1,200 people, took hostages, and involved documented systematic sexual violence.No public response has come from Harry, Meghan, QuestScope, or the WHO so far.
A source close to the Sussexes told British media the visit was “not political” and shouldn’t be seen as taking sides.
Sky News Australia’s Rita Panahi was less charitable, calling it a “major misstep.”
For Harry and Meghan, this isn't just a bad news cycle; it’s a brand risk. They have positioned themselves as leaders in the fight against online hate and misinformation via their Archewell Foundation. Being linked to an organization where staff allegedly post extremist content on social media creates a "hypocrisy gap" that critics are quick to exploit.