• Founded 1999.
  • Website: http://www.miftah.org/
  • Founded 1998 in Jerusalem by Hanan Ashrawi, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
  • Funders in 2011 include Anna Lindh Foundation (EU), NGO Development Center (joint funding from Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands), Italy, Austria, Heinrich Boell Stiftung (German government funding), Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (German government funding), Ireland, Norway, indirect US government funding via National Endowment for Democracy and International Republican Institute.
  • The financial support from Anna Lindh and Ford Foundation, as well as previous funding from the EU, is for a joint project with Israeli NGO “Keshev,” “which aims to improve media discourse in both Palestinian and Israeli media through monitoring, research, advocacy and lobbying activities.”
  • Mission: “MIFTAH seeks to promote the principles of democracy and good governance within various components of Palestinian society; it further seeks to engage local and international public opinion and official circles on the Palestinian cause.” The first Strategic Objectives is “to disseminate the Palestinian narrative and discourse globally to both official and popular bodies and decision-makers.”
  • Described the first female Palestinian suicide bombers as “the beginning of a string of Palestinian women dedicated to sacrificing their lives for the cause.” Miftah also uses the term “resistance” in relation with terror groups.
  • Miftah participated in the virulent 2001 UN Durban Conference NGO Forum, and Hanan Ashrawi addressed the conference, claiming to “represent a narrative of exclusion, denial, racism, and national
    victimization… I come to you today with a heavy heart leaving behind a nation in captivity held hostage to an ongoing Nakba, as the most intricate and pervasive expression of persistent colonialism, apartheid, racism, and victimization.”
  • Miftah’s publications accuse Israel of “massacre,” “cultural genocide,” “war crimes,” and “apartheid.”
  • Promotes the prosecution of Israelis in international forums, asserting that “it is time that Israel is held accountable in international courts for the crimes it commits against Palestinians.”
  • Miftah publishes articles that advocate for BDS (boycotts, divestment, and sanctions) against Israel, alleging that “the BDS campaign calls for justice first, framing the conflict in terms of colonization, oppression and denial of the basic human rights of the Palestinian people.”