Established in 1999 and based in Jerusalem, MIFTAH (the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy) describes itself as an "independent institution committed to fostering the principles of democracy and effective dialogue based on the free and candid exchange of information and ideas … to ensure democratic practice, the rule of law, and respect for human rights."

The organization's stated objectives include:

• Reinforcing the Palestinian state-building process through ensuring democratic practices, the rule of law, and respect for human rights
  
   
• Providing a forum for innovative public discourse and free debate on issues of Palestinian concern
  
  
• Increasing global awareness and knowledge of Palestinian realities by providing reliable, accurate and comprehensive information, policy analysis, strategic briefings and position papers

In practice, MIFTAH seeks, through its press releases and reports, to undermine Israel's legitimacy while making virtually no reference to Palestinian terrorism. Producing biased reports wrapped in human rights terminology, MIFTAH regularly condemns Israeli efforts to imprison or kill Palestinian "activists." For example, on May 6, 2006, MIFTAH reported: "The Israeli army shelled a training camp in Gaza City belonging to the Popular Resistance Committees [PRCs], killing [five]." It did not mention that the PRCs are classified as terrorist organizations by the U.S. and Israel; that they consist of ex-Fatah members and current members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades; or that the PRCs' modus operandi is to plant roadside bombs and vehicle explosives targeting Israeli military and civilian convoys in the Gaza Strip. 

MIFTAH also "cautions" the international community "against Israel's clear attempt to provoke the Palestinian resistance movement to retaliate and further inflame an already volatile situation in the occupied Palestinian territories." It expresses "alarm" over "Israel's clear adoption of a 'preventive strikes' policy, which justifies the extra-judicial killing of any Palestinian activist with impunity." And it "re-asserts the need for international protection to the Palestinian people, particularly at a time in which the Israeli government is clearly bent on inflicting the maximum amount of pain on the Palestinians."

MIFTAH refers to the 1948 creation of Israel as "al Nakba," or "the Catastrophe," lamenting "the dispossession, displacement, and uprooting of almost 1 million Palestinians … from their original homes in what is [now] Israel."

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and a frequent spokesperson for the Palestinian cause, founded MIFTAH and served as its Secretary General from its inception through January 2006. Lily Feidy, who also serves as a Board member of the Ramallah-based human rights organization Al-Haq, assumed the role of MIFTAH Secretary General in May 2006.

MIFTAH's Board of Trustees includes, among others: Khalil Jahshan, who is the President of the Washington, DC-based National Association of the Arab Americans; Rashid Khalidi, a prominent Columbia University Middle East Studies professor; Mustafa Bargouthi, President of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees and Director of the Health Development Information and Policy Institute;  Ziad Abu-Amr, President of the Palestinian Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council; and Azmi Bishara, a professor at the University of Haifa and a former Prime Ministerial candidate in Israel. Bishara, who describes himself as a human-rights campaigner, first drew public attention when he lionized Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a notorious human-rights abuser who has called for the intensification of violence against Israel.

Until his death in 2003, MIFTAH's Board also included Columbia University professor Edward Said.

Because of the international prominence of its leaders, MIFTAH's name has become well known in human-rights circles, and its reports have been widely circulated. MIFTAH engages in heavy networking with diplomats, international agencies, institutions of civil society, and the media. Its website points out that "currently, an international Advisory Board is being established to include global personalities whose lives and work embody these shared goals."

MIFTAH has received considerable funding from the Ford Foundation, which gave the organization $550,000 in grants between 2001 and 2005.


Portions of this profile are adapted, with permission, from NGO Monitor.