EU-funded center for human rights in Gaza: Kidnapping Israeli soldiers is necessary to release Palestinian prisoners
Official PA TV program I Call You, hosting Samir Zakout, coordinator of the Field Research Unit at the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza, on legal activity concerning prisoners
Coordinator of the Field Research Unit at Al Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza Samir Zakout: “Serious and real activity of the human rights organizations is taking place, regular activity that is not contingent on special occasions. Therefore I say: The efforts we make are important and necessary, but they alone cannot suffice. Likewise, the political and diplomatic efforts alone cannot suffice; an allocation of roles is required. The activity of the resistance, capturing [Israeli] soldiers and detaining them, that is also necessary.”
Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights – Founded in Gaza in 1999, its stated goals are the promotion and protection of human rights in Palestine, and especially in the Gaza Strip. NGO Monitor has documented that the Al-Mezan Center is active in many campaigns against Israel, delegitimizes Israel’s right to exist, and is a signatory to the Palestinian Civil Society Call for BDS which calls for an end to Israel’s “occupation,” and advocates Palestinians’ right of return to all of Israel. According to NGO Monitor, which relies on the organization’s annual report for 2014, the center receives funding from the following: Human Rights and International Law Secretariat (joint funding from Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark and the Netherlands), Norway, Medico International (Germany), Save the Children International, and the Open Society Foundations.
Coordinator of the Field Research Unit at Al Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza Samir Zakout: “Serious and real activity of the human rights organizations is taking place, regular activity that is not contingent on special occasions. Therefore I say: The efforts we make are important and necessary, but they alone cannot suffice. Likewise, the political and diplomatic efforts alone cannot suffice; an allocation of roles is required. The activity of the resistance, capturing [Israeli] soldiers and detaining them, that is also necessary.”
Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights – Founded in Gaza in 1999, its stated goals are the promotion and protection of human rights in Palestine, and especially in the Gaza Strip. NGO Monitor has documented that the Al-Mezan Center is active in many campaigns against Israel, delegitimizes Israel’s right to exist, and is a signatory to the Palestinian Civil Society Call for BDS which calls for an end to Israel’s “occupation,” and advocates Palestinians’ right of return to all of Israel. According to NGO Monitor, which relies on the organization’s annual report for 2014, the center receives funding from the following: Human Rights and International Law Secretariat (joint funding from Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark and the Netherlands), Norway, Medico International (Germany), Save the Children International, and the Open Society Foundations.