Said Zeedani

Summary

Birzeit University academic who became program director of Al-Haq in late 1990, was then appointed executive director by the board after Mona Rishmawi’s departure, and remained involved for many years, most notably as a board member (Al-Haq: A Global History of the First Palestinian Human Rights Organization, PDF p.118, p.120).

He focused on equipping Palestinian staff for research and writing work, including press releases in English; Zeedani calls this an ownership issue, saying you can’t keep relying on people coming from outside (PDF p.118). A number of Palestinian staffers took LLMs in quick succession under these arrangements, which he considers a “turning point” (PDF p.118).
On organizational democracy: “this whole issue of democracy in the organization—meetings deciding policy issues or financial issues—this was a lousy idea … It didn’t work here, and I don’t think it could work anywhere, as a model. If there is no hierarchy, you can’t lead” (PDF p.120).
In Welchman part 6 he became chair of the new board after the 1997 crisis, finding a “disastrous situation”, fought initially in a minority to keep al-Haq alive, and led the reconstruction under which all staff contracts were terminated in autumn 1997 (Al-Haq: A Global History of the First Palestinian Human Rights Organization, PDF p.224-225).
He stressed that al-Haq’s financial systems had remained tight and transparent throughout, with no issues of financial mismanagement or corruption (Al-Haq: A Global History of the First Palestinian Human Rights Organization, PDF p.226).

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