NGO Monitor News Alert: Background Information on Al-Mezan
According to news reports, Kate Burton was working for the extremist Palestinian NGO known as al-Mezan, based in Gaza, when she was kidnapped with her parents by gunmen on December 28.
NGO Monitor’s profile of al-Mezan provides the following information:
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Located in Jabalia Refugee Camp, near Rafah in Gaza
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Claimed mission: "To protect, respect and promote the internationally accepted standards of human rights…and to encourage the adoption of Palestinian laws in harmony with these international standards… To promote the democracy building process, …the rule of law, …accountability and the role of NGOs in the Palestinian society."
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Actual activities reflect centrality of radical anti-Israel agenda, including promoting claims of "Israeli war crimes"; inflammatory pictures, and incitement justifying terrorism.
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In these activities, Al Mezan erases Palestinian terrorism, including missile attacks launched from densely populated civilian centers in Gaza; also ignores Palestinian corruption, and internal violence.
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Funded by the Ford Foundation ($100,000), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Netherlands Representative Office, International Human Rights Funders Group/co Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Kerkinactie/ Global Ministries.
NGO Monitor Links:
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Correspondence, July 2004: Special Edition: Al Mezan (Madison/Rafah"Sister City" Proposal)
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Special Edition: 04 July 2004 Al Mezan (Madison/Rafah "Sister City" Proposal)
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Madison debates linkage to Rafah (Al Mazen), Leon Cohen Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, June 9 2004
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The Ford Foundation’s NGO-Related Middle East Activities (Vol. 1, No.10)
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See also Ghada Karmi, “With no Palestinian state in sight, aid becomes an adjunct to occupation”, The Guardian, December 31, 2005
”The kidnapping of aid worker Kate Burton and her parents in Gaza this week is a sharp reminder of the political context of aid.”