Policy Advisors

Policy Advisors are selected from the pool of Policy Members to serve for three-year terms. They commit to making a major intellectual contribution to Al-Shabaka’s work during their term. Among other things, this includes:

Writing policy briefs and position papers
Peer reviewing policy briefs and position papers
Serving on the Al-Shabaka editorial and other committees
Disseminating Al-Shabaka’s policy analysis and opinions through media contacts and other outreach throughout the world

Tareq Baconi

Al-Shabaka Analyst Tareq Baconi served as Al-Shabaka's US Policy Fellow from 2016 - 2017. He is currently the Israel/Palestine and Economics of Conflict Analyst at the International Crisis Group. His book Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance was published by Stanford University Press. Tareq holds a PhD in International Relations from Kings College London, which he completed alongside a career as an energy consultant. He also holds degrees from the University of Cambridge (International Relations) and Imperial College London (Chemical Engineering). Tareq is an adjunct visiting fellow at the US Middle East Project. His writings have appeared in the New York Review Daily, The Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, Sada: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, The Daily Star, Al Ghad and Open Democracy.

Noura Erakat

Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor 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).

Laila el-Haddad

Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Laila el-Haddad is a Maryland-based freelance journalist, author, political analyst, and parent-of-two from Gaza. From 2003-2007, she was Gaza correspondent for the Al-Jazeera English website and a regular contributor to the BBC World Service. She is the author of Gaza Mom: Palestine, Politics, Parenting, and Everything in Between, named for the award-winning blog she has authored since 2004, and was a contributor to The Goldstone Report: The Legacy of the Landmark Investigation of the Gaza Conflict (Nation Books January 2011) and author of the forthcoming Gaza Kitchen. She has been published in The Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, The New Statesman, Le Monde diplomatique, and has been a guest on WUNC, WBUR and CNN. She is also a columnist for the Guardian's Comment is Free. She is a graduate of Duke University and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Victor Kattan

Al-Shabaka policy advisor Victor Kattan is a Senior Research Fellow at the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore. He previously served as Al-Shabaka's Program Director and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Law Faculty of the National University of Singapore. He is the author of From Coexistence to Conquest: International Law and the Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1891-1949 (London: Pluto Books, 2009) and The Palestine Question in International Law (London: British Institute of International and Comparative Law, 2008). He was a legal adviser to the Palestinian Negotiations Support Project from 2012-2013 and a Teaching Fellow at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) from 2008-2011 where he obtained his PhD in 2012. He worked for the British Institute of International and Comparative Law from 2006-2008, Arab Media Watch from 2004-2006, and the BADIL Resource Centre for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights from 2003-2004.

Rashid Khalidi

Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Rashid Khalidi is the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies in the Department of History at Columbia University. He is past President of the Middle East Studies Association, was an advisor to the Palestinian delegation to the 1991-1993 Arab-Israeli peace negotiations, and is the editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies. Khalidi is the author of Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. has Undermined Peace in the Middle East (2013); Sowing Crisis: American Dominance and the Cold War in the Middle East (2009); The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood (2006); Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America’s Perilous Path in the Middle East (2004); Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness (1997); Under Siege: PLO Decision-making during the 1982 War (1986); and British Policy towards Syria and Palestine, 1906-1914 (1980). He has written over ninety articles on aspects of Middle Eastern history.

Nadim Rouhana

Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Nadim N. Rouhana is Professor of International Negotiation and Conflict Studies at The Fletcher School, Graduate School of International Affairs, Tufts University. His current research includes work on the dynamics of protracted social conflict, collective identity and democratic citizenship in multiethnic states, the questions of reconciliation and multicultural citizenship, transitional justice, and international negotiations. His research and writing focused on the Arab-Israeli conflict and on Israeli and Palestinian societies. He is also the Founding Director of “Mada al-Carmel -- The Arab Center for Applied Social Research” in Haifa. The center focuses on issues of identity, citizenship and democracy, and the future relationship between Palestinians and Israelis.

Alaa Tartir

Alaa Tartir is Program Advisor to Al-Shabaka. Tartir also serves as a research associate at the Centre on Conflict, Development, and Peacebuilding, and a visiting fellow at the Department of Anthropology and Sociology, The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID), Geneva, Switzerland. Amongst other positions, Tartir was a post-doctoral fellow at The Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) from 2016-17, a visiting scholar and lecturer (2015) at Utrecht University’s Department of History and Art History, The Netherlands, and was, between 2010 and 2015, a researcher in international development studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where he earned his PhD. Follow Tartir on Twitter: https://twitter.com/alaatartir and read his publications at www.alaatartir.com