Al-Shabaka Logo
Al-Shabaka Logo
Al-Shabaka Logo
Al-Shabaka Logo
Al-Shabaka Logo
Al-Shabaka Logo
Donate Sign Up
  • العربية
  • English
  • Policy Analysis
    • Civil Society
    • Economics
    • Politics
    • Refugees
    • Scenario Matrix
  • Policy Insights
    • Policy Focus
    • Policy Labs
    • Podcasts
  • Policy Network
    • Members
    • Contributors
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Who We Are
    • Internship Program
    • Contact
    • Donate
    • Privacy & Terms of Use
  • Media & Outreach
    • Op-Eds & Articles
    • In the Media
    • Events
    • Press Releases
    • Press Contacts
Al-Shabaka Logo
Al-Shabaka Logo

Who We Are

  • Staff
  • Program Advisors
  • Board
  • Editorial Committee

Staff

Nadim Bawalsa

Nadim Bawalsa is Al-Shabaka’s Commissioning Editor. He is a historian of modern Palestine, and author of Transnational Palestine: Migration and the Right of Return before 1948 (Stanford University Press, 2022). His other work has appeared in the Jerusalem Quarterly, the Journal of Palestine Studies, NACLA Report on the Americas, and as well as in edited volumes. He earned a joint doctorate in History and Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies from New York University in 2017, and a Master’s in Arab Studies from Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies in 2010. In 2019-2020, he was awarded a PARC-NEH fellowship in Palestine.  

Megan Driscoll

Megan Driscoll is Al-Shabaka’s Managing Director. She previously served as Knowledge & Development Manager, and has worked with the organization since 2015. Megan holds a master’s degree in Participation, Power, and Social Change from the University of Sussex’s Institute of Development Studies, where her research focused on the construction of Palestinian counter-discourses and decolonized research practices. From 2012 - 2016, she worked in the Occupied West Bank with various Palestinian NGOs in the fields of development and advocacy.

Mohammed Hamarsha

Mohammed Hamarsha is Al-Shabaka’s Communications Specialist. He is a journalist with extensive experience working for international news outlets and media organizations in various capacities, covering geopolitics across the Middle East and Latin America. His work and commentaries have appeared in Al-Jazeera, The BBC, Middle East Eye, teleSUR, and North American Congress in Latin America (NACLA) among others.

Yara Hawari

Yara Hawari is the Senior Analyst of Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network. She completed her PhD in Middle East Politics at the University of Exeter, where she taught various undergraduate courses and continues to be an honorary research fellow. In addition to her academic work, which focused on indigenous studies and oral history, she is a frequent political commentator writing for various media outlets including The Guardian, Foreign Policy, and Al Jazeera English.

Tariq Kenney-Shawa

Tariq Kenney-Shawa is Al-Shabaka's US Policy Fellow. He holds a Masters degree in International Affairs from Columbia University and a Bachelors degree in Political Science and Middle East Studies from Rutgers University. Tariq's research has focused on a range of topics, from the role of narrative in both perpetuating and resisting occupation to analysis of Palestinian liberation strategies. His work has appeared in +972 Magazine, Newlines Magazine, the Carnegie Council, and the New Politics Journal, among others. Follow Tariq on Twitter @tksshawa and visit his website at https://www.tkshawa.com/ for more of his writing and photography. 

Laura Thomas

Laura Thomas is Al-Shabaka’s Development Manager. She is a development professional with a decade of experience working with Palestinian civil society. She has served as a fundraiser and grant manager, as well as a planning, monitoring and evaluation specialist. Laura holds a master’s degree in International Cooperation and Development from Bethlehem University in the West Bank and an undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago. 

Program Advisors

Alaa Tartir

Alaa Tartir is Program and Policy Advisor to Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network. Tartir is also a Senior Researcher and Academic Coordinator at the Geneva Graduate Institute (GGI), a Research Associate at the GGI’s Centre on Conflict, Development, and Peacebuilding (CCDP), and a Global Fellow at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). Tartir earned his PhD degree in International Development studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Tartir is co-editor of Resisting Domination in Palestine: New Techniques of Control, Coloniality and Settler Colonialism (I. B. Tauris/Bloomsbury, 2023), Political Economy of Palestine: Critical, Interdisciplinary, and Decolonial Perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021) and Palestine and Rule of Power: Local Dissent vs. International Governance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). Tartir can be followed on Twitter (@alaatartir), and his publications can be accessed at www.alaatartir.com

Board

Refqa Abu-Remaileh

Refqa Abu-Remaileh is professor of Modern Arabic Literature and Film at the Freie Universität Berlin’s Arabic Department, specializing in Palestinian literature and film. She is the Principal Investigator of the European Research Council (ERC) project “PalREAD – Country of Words: Reading and Reception of Palestinian Literature from 1948 to the Present” (2018-2023). She received her MSt in modern Middle Eastern Studies and DPhil in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford (2004, 2010).

Tareq Baconi

Tareq Baconi serves as the president of the board of Al-Shabaka. He was Al-Shabaka's US Policy Fellow from 2016 - 2017. Tareq is the former senior analyst for Israel/Palestine and Economics of Conflict at the International Crisis Group, based in Ramallah, and the author of Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance (Stanford University Press, 2018). Tareq’s writing has appeared in the London Review of Books, the New York Review of Books, the Washington Post, among others, and he is a frequent commentator in regional and international media. He is the book review editor for the Journal of Palestine Studies.

Aline Batarseh

Aline Batarseh is a community organizer and development professional. She has extensive fundraising experience working with international and Palestinian non-profits aimed at advancing human rights, and approaches her work from an intersectional perspective. She has close ties with many civil society organizations in Palestine as well as in the United States, and frequently provides advice and support to help nurture their efforts.  Aline has a master’s degree in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She has long supported Al-Shabaka’s work and its commitment to bringing Palestinian voices, knowledge, and experience to policy analysis and strategy development. 

Diana Buttu

Diana Buttu is a lawyer who previously served as a legal advisor to the Palestinian negotiating team and was part of the team that assisted in the successful litigation of the Wall before the International Court of Justice.  She frequently comments on Palestine for international news media outlets such as CNN and BBC; is a political analyst for Al Jazeera International and is a regular contributor to The Middle East magazine.  She maintains a law practice in Palestine, focusing on international human rights law.

Zaha Hassan

Al-Shabaka Policy Member Zaha Hassan is a human rights lawyer and visiting fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Her research focuses on Palestine-Israel peace, the use of international legal mechanisms by political movements, and U.S. foreign policy in the region. She previously served as coordinator and senior legal advisor to the Palestinian negotiating team during Palestine’s bid for UN membership from 2010-2012. She received her J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and an LLM in Transnational & International Law from Willamette University.


Honorary Board President

Nadia Hijab

Nadia Hijab is co-founder and honorary president of Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network. She served as Board President from 2010-2021 and as Executive Director between 2011 and March 2018. A writer, public speaker and media commentator, Hijab’s first book, Womanpower: The Arab Debate on Women at Work was published by Cambridge University Press and she co-authored Citizens Apart: A Portrait of Palestinians in Israel (I. B. Tauris). She was Editor-in-Chief of the London-based Middle East Magazine before serving at the United Nations in New York. She is a co-founder and former co-chair of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights and now serves on its advisory board. She continues to serve Al-Shabaka in an advisory capacity and support its mission.


Editorial Committee

Photo of Amal Ahmad
Amal Ahmad

Amal Ahmad is a Palestinian economic researcher.

Nur Arafeh

Nur is pursuing her PhD in economic development at the University of Oxford.

Tareq Baconi

Tareq is the Israel/Palestine and Economics of Conflict Analyst at the International Crisis Group.

Muna Dajani

Muna is a Palestinian environmental researcher and activist from Jerusalem.

Tariq Dana

Tariq Dana is an assistant professor at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies at the Doha Institute of Graduate Studies.

Mimi Kirk

Mimi Kirk is Editorial Consultant at Al-Shabaka. She served as the organization’s commissioning editor and managing director from 2016 to 2020.

Halla Shoaibi

Halla is Chairperson of the Law Department, Birzeit University.

Alaa Tartir

Alaa, a Program Advisor to Al-Shabaka, is a research associate and visiting fellow at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.

  • Policy Analysis
    • Civil Society
    • Economics
    • Politics
    • Refugees
    • Scenario Matrix
  • Policy Insights
    • Policy Focus
    • Policy Labs
    • Podcasts
  • Policy Network
    • Members
    • Contributors
  • About Us
    • Who We Are
    • Internship Program
    • Contact
    • Donate
    • Privacy & Terms of Use
  • Media & Outreach
    • Op-Eds & Articles
    • In the Media
    • Events
    • Press Releases
    • Press Contacts
  • Contact
    • Contact al-Shabaka by email at:
      [email protected]
    • Or by mail:
      Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network
      P.O. Box 8533
      New York, NY 10150

© 2010-2023 Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network. All rights reserved.

Stay Informed

Join Al-Shabaka’s mailing list and find the latest Palestinian policy analysis in your inbox:

I agree to Al-Shabaka's Privacy Policy

×