Mariam Barghouti
Mariam Barghouti is a Palestinian writer and researcher based in Ramallah. She earned a BA in English Language and Literature from Birzeit University, and an MSc in Sociology and Global Change from the University of Edinburgh. She worked as a journalist and reporter with a focus on the Levant, and published various sociopolitical commentaries from Palestine. She has undertaken monitoring and evaluation missions of humanitarian and development aid in Jordan, Palestine, and Lebanon for various governmental and non-governmental organizations. Her reporting and analysis have been featured in Al-Jazeera English, the New York Times, the Guardian, BBC, and Middle East Eye, amongst others.
Mary Nazzal-Batayneh
Mary Nazzal-Batayneh is a UK barrister with vast experience campaigning for human rights. She has worked with several civil society organizations including the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign. In her capacity as the Chair of the Palestine Legal Aid Fund, she is part of a legal movement to hold Israel accountable for crimes committed against the Palestinian people. She holds degrees from Columbia University, SOAS University of London, the College of Law, and Inns of Court School of Law. Mary is also the President of Landmark Hotels.
Maureen Ali
Al-Shabaka Policy Member Maureen Ali, former cultural editor of The Middle East magazine, is a writer and film-maker based in Beirut. She is the editor of the book “A Lost Summer,” a compilation of blogs, texts and other writings about the 2006 Israeli War on Lebanon and wrote the texts for “Watercolors,” a campaigning book by photographer Mazen Jannoun about the state of the Lebanese coast. She is an active member of Inaash, Association for the Development of Palestinian Camps, Beirut.
Majd Kayyal
Al-Shabaka Policy Member Majd Kayyal was born in Haifa in 1990 to a displaced family from Barwa village. He studied philosophy and political science at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Kayyal writes for Al-Safir’s supplement printed in Beirut. He has published political and literary articles in several publications and newspapers, and has maintained a personal blog since 2010. His first novel, “The Tragedy of Mr. Matar,” won the Abdel Mohsin Al-Qattan Foundation’s Young Writer Award for 2015.
Mariam Al-Mozian
Al-Shabaka policy member Mariam Al-Mozian lives in Gaza and holds a PhD in Political Science from the Institute of Arab Research and Studies. She previously worked as media officer at the General Union of Palestinian Women and as an adjunct professor at Al-Quds Open University in Rafah. Her work specializes in assessing civil society institutions’ programs and their suitability for the Palestinian context, including research on the role of civil society institutions in empowering young women leaders.
Layth Hanbali
Layth Hanbali is a freelance consultant focusing on health policy. He has also worked as a researcher, public health practitioner, and doctor, volunteered as a civil society organiser, and taught on several Global Health programmes. He earned a Master’s degree in Health Policy, Planning and Financing from the London School of Economics and Political Science and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a medical degree and a bachelor’s degree in Global Health from University College London.
Khalil Shaheen
Khalil Shaheen is a Palestinian Journalist, media expert, researcher, and well-known political and media analyst. He is currently the director of research and policies and board member at Masarat – The Palestine Center for Policy Research and Strategic studies in Ramallah. Since 1981, he has served as a journalist, editor and researcher at several institutions, newspapers and magazines in Lebanon, Syria, Cyprus, Jordan and Palestine, since 1981. His articles and policy studies are widely published.
Kifah Abdul Halim
Kifah Abdul Halim is a Palestinian journalist, translator, and activist. She began her career as a political and media advisor and worked with several NGOs, serving inter-alia as the Director of the Occupied Territories Department at Physicians for Human Rights. In recent years, she has focused her career on journalism, leading context and investigative reports for newspapers and digital platforms as well as for feature documentaries. She is the Editor of “Alasa’a” – an independent critical electronic magazine – and works with various Palestinian cultural institutions, producing festivals, concerts, writers’ and artists’ residencies, and other programs.
Karam Omar
Al-Shabaka Policy Member Karam Omar is a legal researcher at the Institute of Law at Birzeit University. He has a masters in law from the University of Essex. Karam was also called to the English Bar by the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple in 2016.
