Omar Yousef Shehabi
Al-Shabaka Policy Member Omar Yousef Shehabi is the founder of Palestine Works, a nonprofit organization which produces alternative and effective advocacy for Palestinian rights. He has served as a legal officer with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), a legal advisor to the Palestinian negotiating team, and an adjunct lecturer in international law at Birzeit University. Previously, he worked as a labor lawyer in the United States, representing labor unions and employees. His current research interests include historical and contemporary Palestinian diplomatic and consular practice.
Noura Erakat
Noura Erakat is an assistant professor at George Mason University where she teaches in the legal studies, international studies, and human rights/social justice studies concentrations. An attorney and human rights advocate, she previously served as Legal Counsel for a Congressional Subcommittee in the House of Representatives and as an advisor on Middle East affairs for Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Noura comments regularly on US foreign policy and international law matters. She has appeared on Al Jazeera International, NBC’s “Politically Incorrect,” and Fox’s “The O’Reilly Factor.” Her writings have appeared in The Huffington Post, Berkeley Law School’s Journal for Middle East and Islamic Law, Counterpunch, Al-Majdal, and the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP).
Noura Mansour
Al-Shabaka Policy Member Noura Mansour is a Palestinian educator, writer, activist and community organizer, from Acre city. She studied Political Science and Education and received masters in International Relations from Haifa University. Noura has been involved in development and community work with NGOs in Jerusalem, West Bank and Palestine 48. She has worked with international NGOs and solidarity movements in Korea and Australia where she is now based and works in the Education sector. Noura is also a debate trainer and has taught and trained in many international forums in Asia, Middle East, Europe and Australia.
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.
Mousa Jiryis
Al-Shabaka Policy Member Mousa Jiryis is a Palestinian from Galilee. He holds a Masters in International Relations from the University of Westminster (with Merit), part of which consisted of a research grant from the Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue. He also holds a Bachelors degree in Economics and Economic History from the London School of Economics. He is a skilled proposal writer, researcher and documentation specialist. His varied career has included donor fundraising, documentation quality assurance and business development for organizations in Palestine, Israel and the UK.
Mjriam Abu Samra
Mjriam Abu Samra is a doctoral researcher in International Relations at the University of Oxford, UK. Her work focuses on Palestinian Transnational Student Movements and their contribution to the broader Liberation Movement through different political periods. She had previously completed her Masters in Middle East Politics at SOAS in London. Recently, Mjriam has been based in Amman, Jordan, where she is completing her research. She has lectured at the University of Jordan Faculty of Politics and International Studies. Mjriam has been a co-founder of the Palestinian Youth Association “Wael Zuaiter” in Rome, Italy, and of the transnational Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM).
Leila Farsakh
Al-Shabaka policy analyst, Leila Farsakh, is Associate Professor and Chair of the political science department at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She is the author of Palestinian Labor Migration to Israel: Labour, Land and Occupation (Routledge, 2012), and of Rethinking Statehood in Palestine: Self-determination beyond Partition (California University Press, 2022). She has worked with a number of organizations, including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris and MAS in Ramallah, and she has been a senior research fellow at Birzeit University since 2008. In 2001, she won the Peace and Justice Award from the Cambridge Peace Commission.
Loubna Qutami
Al-Shabaka Policy Member Loubna Qutami is a Presidents Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. She has a PhD from the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Riverside. Qutami is also the former Executive Director of the Arab Cultural and Community Center (ACCC) in San Francisco as well as a founder, member, and the former International General Coordinator for the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM).
M. Muhannad Ayyash
M. Muhannad Ayyash was born and raised in Silwan, Al-Quds, before immigrating to Canada, where he is now Professor of Sociology at Mount Royal University. He is the author of A Hermeneutics of Violence (UTP, 2019). He has published several articles in journals such as Interventions, the European Journal of International Relations, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and the European Journal of Social Theory. He has written opinion pieces for Al-Jazeera, The Baffler, Middle East Eye, Mondoweiss, The Breach, and Middle East Monitor. He is currently writing a book on settler colonial sovereignty in Palestine/Israel.
