Yara Hawari
Yara Hawari is Al-Shabaka’s co-director. She previously served as the Palestine policy fellow and senior analyst. Yara 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 and co-host of Al-Shabaka’s Policy Lab series. He holds a Masters degree in International Affairs from Columbia University. Tariq’s research and writing have covered a range of topics, from the role of open-source intelligence in exposing Israel’s war crimes to analysis of Palestinian liberation tactics. His writing has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Foreign Policy, and The Nation, among others. Follow Tariq on Twitter @tksshawa and visit his website at https://www.tkshawa.com/ for more of his writing and photography.
Sainatee Suarez
Sainatee Suarez is Al Shabaka’s Finance and Administration Officer. They have undergraduate degrees in music performance and anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania and CUNY Brooklyn College, and a master’s degree from the University of Chicago. They continued their learning in nonprofit bookkeeping at Baruch College and are forever a student of the martial arts.
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.
Megan Driscoll
Megan Driscoll is Al-Shabaka’s co-director, where she has served in various capacities since 2015. Prior to her time with Al-Shabaka, Megan previously worked in Palestine with an array of local organizations in the fields of development and advocacy. 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 counter-discourse construction and decolonized research practices.
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.
Hanan Husein
Hanan Husein is Al-Shabaka’s Member and Communications Coordinator. Hanan holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Al-Quds University in Jerusalem. She has worked for a number of different civil society organizations across Palestine in programs, fundraising, and communications. Throughout her career, she has worked in different research capacities in subjects related to development and shrinking space within Palestinian civil society. She is also a member of the board of directors at Badil Resource Center.
Fathi Nimer
Fathi Nimer is Al-Shabaka’s Palestine policy fellow. He previously worked as a research associate with the Arab World for Research and Development, a teaching fellow at Birzeit University, and a program officer with the Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies. Fathi holds a master’s degree in political science from Heidelberg University and is the co-founder of DecolonizePalestine.com, a knowledge repository for the Palestinian question. Fathi’s research revolves around political economy and contentious politics. His current focus is on food sovereignty, agroecology, and the resistance economy in Palestine.
