Samah Sabawi
Samah Sabawi is a political commentator, author and playwright. She is a member of the board of directors for the National Council on Canada Arab Relations (NCCAR). Sabawi wrote and produced Cries from the Land (Canada 2003), Three Wishes (Canada 2008) andTales of a City by the Sea (Palestine & Australia 2014). Her past work includes being public advocate for Australians for Palestine, Executive Director for the National Council on Canada Arab Relations (NCCAR) and Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the Canadian Foreign Service Institute’s Centre for Intercultural Learning.
Samar Batrawi
Samar Batrawi is a writer, editor and policy analyst. She is interested in identity politics and social movements, specifically those that interact with the question of Palestine. She has a PhD in Critical Security Studies from the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. She has previously worked for the Clingendael Institute in The Hague and King’s College London. Her work has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Middle East Eye, Guernica, and Fikra Magazine.
Samer Abdelnour
Samer Abdelnour is an academic and activist. He co-founded Al-Shabaka in 2009 and served as a founding board member until 2016.
Rena Zuabi
Al-Shabaka Policy Member Rena Zuabi previously designed and managed development programs throughout historic Palestine focused on sustainable agriculture, rural livelihoods, and inclusive market systems for a range of community organizations, as well as international agencies and charities. Bridging her experiences in the private, public, and civil society sectors around the world, she now advocates for the researching and prototyping of social enterprise models and advocacy initiatives that create new trajectories towards durable community self-sufficiency and self-determination in local development. Rena holds an MBA, Cambridge University and a BA, UC San Diego.
Sabrien Amrov
Al-Shabaka Policy Member Sabrien Amrov is pursuing her Ph.D. in Human Geography at the University of Toronto. In 2013, she earned her master’s degree in International Relations, with Honours, from the University of Ottawa. Her MA thesis on the Security Sector Reform in the West Bank was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. In 2011, she earned her Honours Bachelors in Conflict Studies and Human Rights with a Minor in Arabic Language and Culture from the same university. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Middle East Monitor, Rabble and TRT World.
Safa Joudeh
Al-Shabaka Policy Member Safa Joudeh is an Egypt-based political and security analyst working for an international strategic advisory consulting firm. She advises government and private sector clients on security, political and geopolitical developments affecting investments and operations in Egypt and the MENA region. She is also a multimedia journalist with experience covering Egypt and Palestine focusing on conflict, security and governance. She holds a Masters in Public Policy from Stony Brook University in New York.
Saleh Hijazi
Al-Shabaka Policy Member Saleh Hijazi is a human rights activist and researcher presently living in London where he works at Amnesty International. He is advisor to Al-Quds University Human Rights Clinic where he worked as academic coordinator and lecturer. Saleh holds a master’s degree in human rights from the University of Essex and a bachelor degree in philosophy and political science from Lawrence University. His interests are social movements and caricature.
Salem Barahmeh
Al-Shabaka policy member Salem Barahmeh is the Executive Director of the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy. He is currently a Non-Resident Fellow at the US Middle East Project and previously worked as an international affairs advisor to Dr. Hanan Ashrawi at the PLO and the Palestine Investment Fund. He has also worked at Portland Communications in London, as a Policy and Public Affairs Advisor to Gulf governments, and for the Palestinian Embassy to the United States. Salem received a BA in Government from Lawrence University and an MA in Law and Politics from King’s College London.
Salim Tamari
Salim Tamari is a senior fellow and director of the Institute of Jerusalem Studies which is affiliated with the Institute for Palestine Studies. He is editor of Jerusalem Quarterly and Hawliyyat al Quds. He is professor of sociology at Birzeit University and has authored several works on urban culture, political sociology, biography and social history, and the social history of the Eastern Mediterranean. He has served as visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley and Eric Lane Fellow at Cambridge University among other posts.
