EI was founded in February 2001 by
Ali Abunimah,
Arjan El Fassed, Laurie King, and Nigel Parry. In April 2008,
The Electronic Intifada published an article containing e-mails exchanged by members of the
Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA). The stated purpose of the group was "help[ing] us keep Israel-related entries on Wikipedia from becoming tainted by anti-Israel editors". Five Wikipedia editors involved in a CAMERA campaign were sanctioned by
Wikipedia administrators, who wrote that the project's open nature "is fundamentally incompatible with the creation of a private group to surreptitiously coordinate editing by ideologically like-minded individuals".
The Electronic Intifada published a leaked version online in 2018.
Conflict with NGO Monitor over Dutch funding In 2010, the Jerusalem-based pro-Israel organization
NGO Monitor criticized the Dutch Interchurch Organisation for Development Cooperation (ICCO) for providing financial support to
The Electronic Intifada, which it said was
antisemitic and
compared Israeli policies with those of the Nazi regime.
Gerald M. Steinberg, head of the organization, described
The Electronic Intifada as "an explicitly pro-Palestinian political and ideological Web site" that hosts "anti-Israel propaganda." Marinus Verweij, chairman of ICCO's executive board said "The
EI reports frequently about the violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by the State of Israel. In no way is the
EI anti-Israel or anti-Semitic."
EI co-founder MP Arjan El-Fassed, who also wrote for the website Al-Awda, told the Dutch newspaper
De Volkskrant that the complaint by NGO Monitor was related to one quote from an interview with Jewish
Holocaust survivor and anti-Zionist
Hajo Meyer in June 2009. Meyer told
EI: "I can write up an endless list of similarities between Nazi Germany and Israel." In the same article, the Director of the Centre for Information and Documentation Israel (CIDI),
Ronnie Naftaniel, said that
The Electronic Intifada is not an anti-Semitic website. He stated that, while everybody should be free to express their opinion, the Dutch government should not indirectly fund a website that regularly calls for a boycott of Israel. On 14 January 2011, ICCO decided not to change its policy after a discussion held with the Dutch foreign minister. In response to ICCO's decision,
The Jerusalem Post reported that Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal "will monitor ICCO's activities. He will consider this as a minus when he makes up the balance when ICCO applies again in a new subsidies round," as said by Ward Bezemer, a spokesman for Rosenthal." Partos, a national umbrella for more than a hundred Dutch civil society organizations in the international development cooperation sector, strongly condemned Rosenthal's threats to ICCO's funding. "Rosenthal's position vis-à-vis ICCO creates a dangerous precedent for the future. Development organisations will have to continue to fight for an independent voice in the debate. Partos will ... stand up for that." In April 2011, Professor of International Cooperation Studies Paul Hoebink argued that Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal has no say in Dutch government funding to ICCO because Minister
Ben Knapen holds the portfolio. In addition, ICCO's contribution to
The Electronic Intifada is paid with ICCO's own funds. Professor of International Law and Dutch politicians for the
Labour Party,
Nico Schrijver considered Rosenthal's threat to cut government funding if ICCO continues its financial support to
The Electronic Intifada as very worrying. ==Reception==