EI was founded in February 2001[2] by Ali Abunimah, an American citizen of Palestinian descent; Arjan El Fassed, human rights activist based in the Netherlands; Laurie King, an anthropologist and former coordinator of the International Campaign for Justice for the Victims of Sabra and Shatila and the managing editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies in Washington; and Nigel Parry, currently an eclectic Internet consultant, writer and musician based in Pittsburgh.

[7] 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.

"[10] 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.

The Electronic Intifada wrote: "NGO Monitor is an extreme right-wing group with close ties to the Israeli government, military, West Bank settlers, a man convicted of misleading the US Congress, and to notoriously Islamophobic individuals and organizations in the United States.

"[12] EI co-founder MP Arjan El-Fassed, who also wrote for the website Al-Awda, told the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant that the fuss created by NGO Monitor was related to one quote from an interview with Jewish Holocaust survivor and anti-Zionist Hajo Meyer in June 2009.

"[16] 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.

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.

[19] According to Foreign Policy, EI was a site that encouraged media activism and was part of the pro-Palestine camp of the Middle East conflict's cyberfront, opposite the pro-Israel Israel Support Group.

"[22] Political journalist Alexander Cockburn stated in The Nation in 2000: "there are a number of excellent news outlets for those who want unjaundiced reporting" describing The Electronic Intifada, and Middle East Research and Information Project, as "trustworthy".