Activities

• Miftah’s publications use highly politicized language, accusing Israel of “massacres,” “apartheid,” “summary executions” of Palestinian youth, and “Judaizing” Jerusalem.
• Hanan Ashrawi, founder and Chair of the MIFTAH Board of Directors, addressed the virulent 2001 UN Durban Conference, claiming to represent the Palestinian people, which she called a “nation in captivity held hostage to an ongoing Nakba, as the most intricate and pervasive expression of persistent colonialism, apartheid, racism, and victimization.”
• Regularly lobbies the United Nations to “end the Israeli occupation and uphold accountability through international mechanisms.” It called for the removal of the separation wall, referring to it as an “Apartheid Wall” that creates “ghettos.”
• Hanan Ashrawi, founder and Chair of the MIFTAH Board of Directors, and Leila Fadi, MIFTAH Executive Director, signed a document asserting that Palestinian negotiators involved in 2013-2014 talks with Israelis should reject any agreement that “includes recognition of Israel as a Jewish state in any form.”
• In August 2019, MIFTAH sponsored a trip to Israel and the West Bank for Members of Congress Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN). The trip was cancelled when Israel barred their entry over their support for BDS.
• In Fall 2017, Hanan Ashrawi was on the Board of Advisors for the North American Nakba Tour sponsored by Al-Awda and the Northern California International Solidarity Movement. The Nakba Tour called for individuals to “Keep up the pressure on Congress.Tell your representatives to stop U.S. aid to Israel now” as well as to “Build the boycott of Israel – including academic, cultural, economic and military boycotts. The Israeli state doesn’t accomplish its ongoing Nakba alone; the support of complicit governments and corporations is critical. By joining boycott campaigns, people of conscience can provide a material boost to Palestinians’ struggle for return and liberation.”
• In July 2017, Miftah published a factsheet titled “International Humanitarian Law: The Siege on the Gaza Strip,” which discussed how Israel is “collectively punishing the Palestinians to ensure political gain” and is “in complete violation of international humanitarian law.”
• In 2016, MIFTAH sponsored a trip for five US Congressmen to visit east Jerusalem and Ramallah. According to the trip’s itinerary, the Congressmen met with Shawan Jabarin, who has alleged ties to the PFLP terrorist organization and as such has been denied exit visas by Israel and Jordan.
  • Following the trip, one of the congressmen, Hank Johnson, made comparisons between Israeli settlers and termites. After significant criticism, Johnson apologized for his “poor choice of words.”

BDS

• 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.”
• Published a list of Israeli products and companies, located both in Israel and abroad, for individuals to boycott in order “to force foreign governments, corporations, and individuals to abandon their support of Israel vis-a-vis threats to the economic interests.” The document compares Israel to Apartheid South Africa.
  • Shared an article about the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (formerly the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation), in which Israel is compared to the Ku Klux Klan and which calls for an end to Israel’s “colonial/apartheid policy.”

Lawfare

• Accuses Israel of being in “continuous violation of international law and international humanitarian law.” Has said that Israel has “no regard whatsoever for…any relevant international law.” Has lobbied the United Nations for foreign government interference in Israel’s actions.
• Published an article by Al-Haq, calling for the prosecution of Israeli officials who allegedly “planned, ordered and executed” attacks “against a civilian population.”

Antisemitism

• In March 2013, published an article written by Nawaf al-Zaru that repeated the antisemitic blood libel that Jews use Christian blood to bake Passover matzah.  After significant public criticism, MIFTAH removed the article, but attacked the blogger who exposed the article for “smearing” the organization and downplayed the centrality of the blood libel in the article.
• On January 22, 2011, MIFTAH published an article by journalist Jonathan Power calling for Jews to abandon Israel as a homeland and posing the question “Were not under-populated Birobidzhan, Uganda or Argentina better opportunities to build an Israel?”
• On February 1, 2010, MIFTAH published an article by Bouthaina Shaaban, Presidential Political and Media Adviser to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in which she claimed that Israel kills children to steal their organs:
  • “After the Swedish journalist Donald Bostrom wrote about the Israeli army killing Palestinian youth in order to harvest their organs, there were other media reports about Israelis stealing Ukrainian children in order to harvest their organs. Once again there are documented reports from Haiti that organs are being stolen by Israelis without international justice intervening to put an end to such criminal practices against innocent vulnerable people.”
• On September 8, 2007, MIFTAH published an article by conspiracy theorist Elias Akleh¹ that claimed that Israeli rabbis instructed their followers “to steal and burn Palestinian crops, to kill their farm animals, and to poison their water wells.”

Terrorism

• In a January 2017 interview for Deutsche Welle, founder and chair of the Miftah board of directors Hanan Ashrawi claimed that Palestinian “attacks and their perpetrators” (as described by the interviewer, Tim Sebastian) “are seen by the people as resistance. And you cannot somehow adopt the language of either the international community or the occupier by describing anybody who resists as terrorist (sic)” (3:20).
• MIFTAH has hosted and cooperated with members of US-designated terror organizations, such as the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).
• • On July 28, 2019, the organization hosted Jamil Hilal to discuss his book, Spotlight on the crisis of the Palestinian political elite, which analyzes “the imposed priorities and obstacles to efforts towards realizing a Palestinian state.” Hilal has been referred to by Arabic news sources as a former member of the DFLP and an editor of the DFLP’s magazine.
  • On May 2, 2018, MIFTAH published an interview with Majida Al-Masri, a member of the DFLP Political Bureau.  In a 2012 op-ed in the Palestinian newspaper Al Hayat al Jadida, Al-Masri called for reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas “so that we will be able to stand against the occupation, to halt its activities against our prisoners, and to turn to the struggle to liberate Palestine – all of Palestine.”
• Following the killing of terrorists responsible for carrying out lethal attacks on Israeli civilians, on December 13, 2018, Ashrawi tweeted, “In the last 24 hrs. Israeli forces carried out 4 summary executions of #Palestinians in the West Bank, raided villages & towns, & detained dozens. Israeli settlers are on the rampage, protected by the Israeli army. This reign of #terror has compounded the pressure cooker effect.”
• On January 26, 2008, MIFTAH published a memorial notice for George Habash, founder of the PFLP.
• In 2006, MIFTAH described Wafa Idrees, one of the first female Palestinian suicide bombers, as “the beginning of a string of Palestinian women dedicated to sacrificing their lives for the cause.” Idrees detonated herself on January 27, 2002, killing 81 year-old Pinhas Takatli and wounding another 150 Israeli civilians. She is described as one of the “several young women” who “decided to join the ranks of the resistance movement.