Jerusalem Women Speak

12 October 2006

Jerusalem Women Speak Tour Alumnae

The women we bring for the Jerusalem Women Speak Tour are truly extraordinary ordinary women. Through our tours, they each have had the opportunity to bring their own unique background and experience to the American public and media. Below are brief biographies of our past speakers that give some background to their work, their lives, and their passions.

		Wejdan Jaber (Age 39) A Muslim Palestinian from Gaza, Ms. Jaber was awarded a USAID “Clinton Scholarship,” in 2000 and in 2002 a Master’s in Public Administration and International Management from the Monterey Institute for International Studies, Monterey, California. During the 1948 war, Ms. Jaber’s parents, carrying her one-month-old brother, fled Al-Maghar village, leaving behind their two houses and farms where her ancestors had lived for generations. They were sheltered in UNRWA’s Al Buraij refugee camp (south of Gaza City) until the war in 1967, when they moved to Gaza City in search of a safer place to live. Ms. Jaber underwent five operations during childhood to correct her hips, which had dislocated at birth. Her experience of growing up with a disability, she says, helped her recognize that, as she needed help, she was also able to help others. She volunteered with the General Union of Disabled Palestinians and in 1998 became a board member of this organization. During the past two years, Ms. Jaber worked as an Academic Counselor on the USAID Presidential Scholarship Program for the Academy for Educational Development (AED). She was formerly employed in the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Gaza, and the UN Special Coordinator’s Office (UNSCO). Ms. Jaber currently lives in Ramallah, where she serves on the board of Filastiniyat, an organization which advocates for the greater inclusion of women and youth in all aspects of Palestinian society through media and political monitoring programs. As a human rights and women’s rights activist she believes that all human beings are equal and have the right to live their lives in peace and with dignity.
		Abir Kopty (Age 32) A Christian Palestinian citizen of Israel, Ms. Kopty was nominated as one of twelve “People of the Year” in Israel in 2005. She was the first Arab woman participant in a prime time socio-political reality TV show, “Leader Required,” on Israel’s Commercial Channel 2. Ms. Kopty, formerly the Media Coordinator and Spokeswoman for Mossawa, the Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in Israel, Haifa, has been a commentator on various Israeli TV and radio programs and a columnist for "Ynet," an Israeli online news website. A British Council “Chevening Scholar,” Ms. Kopty recently finished a Master’s in Political Communication from the City University of London and now plans to earn a doctoral degree in film production. She was born and raised in the city of Nazareth where her family has lived for generations. Since the creation of the state of Israel, members of the Arab community in Israel have been treated as second-class citizens and denied national minority status. Ms. Kopty is active in several political movements and social change organizations focused on feminism, human rights, and Arab-Jewish relations. She is involved in the struggle to end the occupation, the fight to gain full and equal rights for Arab citizens in Israel, and the women's liberation movement, particularly focusing on Arab women’s status in Israel. She approaches activism with the belief that a lasting peace will be achieved only when political, moral, social and economic justice are secured for all people in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and when all walls dividing them – both physical and psychological - are removed.
		Hagit Ra'anan (Age 57) A Jewish Israeli born in Tel Aviv, Ms. Ra'anan now lives in Kiryat Ono, a city in the Tel Aviv district. Her grandparents, Zionists from Lithuania (Poland at that time) and the Ukraine, left for Palestine in the 1920's, fearing that Europe was on the verge of a catastrophe. Her grandfather's sister chose to remain in Poland and perished in the Holocaust. Both Ms. Ra'nan's parents were members of the Jewish underground movement to end the British Mandate and create the State of Israel in the late 1940's. At age 18, she completed her compulsory military service in the Gaza Strip. During the first week of the war in Lebanon in 1982, Ms. Ra'anan's husband was killed in combat near Beirut while serving with the Israeli military. For the last seven years, she has been a member of the Bereaved Families Forum, an organization that brings together bereaved Palestinians and Israelis to promote reconciliation and a political solution that will put an end to violence and further bereavement. Ms. Ra'anan is the founder of Bridges of Peace, an organization which works on many projects, including visiting children and adults in Israeli hospitals, visiting Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, and coordinating permits for Palestinians to enter Israel. She also works with children in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim schools within Israel to help create a culture of peace and build bridges between these three communities, now largely separate and isolated from one another. Ms. Ra'anan, a spiritual healer, believes that dialogue and compassionate listening are necessary first steps toward the healing that must take place between Palestinians and Israelis.
		Ghada Ageel Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 12 (2006) Ghada Ageel is a Muslim Palestinian refugee who grew up in the Khan Yunis Refugee Camp and lives in the Gaza Strip. She is a teacher and writer and has held positions with the Academy for Educational Development, a USAID organization, and the Guardian Newspaper. Mrs. Ageel has also worked as an elementary school teacher in Gaza and, more recently, as the Deputy Director of the Palestinian Abraham Center for Languages and Dialogue. She obtained her BA in Education from the Islamic University of Gaza and is currently a Doctorate Candidate in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom.
		Shireen Khamis Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 12 (2006) Shireen Khamis is a Christian Palestinian from Beit Jala, adjacent to the city of Bethlehem. Ms. Khamis recently graduated from Bethlehem University where she received her Bachelors Degree in Business Administration with a Minor in Marketing. She now works as a Project Coordinator for a Palestinian nonprofit organization working with women on media and development projects. In addition to women's rights advocacy, Ms. Khamis' activism focuses on nonviolence, education and environmental awareness issues. In fact, the intersection of occupation policies and environmental degradation has touched her deeply as Israeli bulldozers clearing land for building the Separation Wall around Beit Jala recently uprooted olive groves that had been in her family's possession for generations.
		Rela Mazali Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 12 (2006) Rela Mazali is a Jewish Israeli author, activist and mother. Ms. Mazali is a major figure in the peace and feminist movement in Israel. She has worked for the Association of Israeli Palestinian Physicians for Human Rights, has held consultant positions with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Ford Foundation and was one of eight Israeli women nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. Ms. Mazali is one of the founders of New Profile, a grassroots organization started in 1998 that challenges militarism in Israeli society, raising consciousness to the militarization embedded in Israeli culture while providing support for Israeli youth who resist military service. Mrs. Mazali has published numerous short stories, academic articles, polemics and essays, as well as two children's books (one co-authored with her daughter, Noa Mazali) and educational curricula on topics including gender equality, childrenis rights and peace education. Her most recent book is Maps of Women's Goings and Stayings (Stanford University Press, 2001).
		Amira Hillal Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 11 (2005) A Christian Palestinian, Ms. Hillal lives in Beit Sahour near Bethlehem where she is the Women's Project Coordinator and Administrative Assistant for the Alternative Information Center (AIC). The AIC is a joint Palestinian-Israeli organization with offices in Jerusalem and Beit Sahour. Ms. Hillal's work with the AIC focuses on the dissemination of critical information and grassroots organizing skills. The AIC works to inform the Palestinian, Israeli and international communities about the current situation in Palestine/Israel. The Women's Project, which she coordinates, aims to educate Palestinian women about the social and political issues that shape their lives. The project helps the women open avenues of involvement and participation in Palestinian society and politics. Ms Hillal has lived her whole life in Beit Sahour, the small city in which the Angel Gabriel is said to have appeared to a group of shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus. She is married and has a daughter named Maisam.
		Roni Hammerman Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 11 (2005) A Jewish Israeli, Ms. Hammerman lives in Jerusalem where she heads the Department of Humanities at the Bloomfield Library for Humanities and Social Sciences of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Ms. Hammerman is actively involved in Machsom Watch (Checkpoint Watch), a women's human rights monitoring group which observes and reports on the conduct of Israeli soldiers at military and police checkpoints in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. She has worked in the Israeli Peace Camp for many years and during the first Intifada participated in a group monitoring the incarceration of Palestinian children at the Israeli Police Prison in Jerusalem. Born in Tel Aviv before the establishment of the state of Israel, Ms. Hammerman's family moved to Vienna in 1947. She was brought up in Austria and attended the University of Vienna and spent two semesters at the University of Moscow studying Russian language and literature. She received her Doctorate in Russian literature (Soviet Satire in the Twenties) from the University of Vienna in 1968 and returned to Israel the following year. She taught Russian literature at the Hebrew University for ten years before taking her current position in the University Library in 1979.
		Sherene Abdulhadi Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 11 (2005) A Muslim Palestinian, Ms. Abdulhadi was born and raised in occupied Jerusalem. She has devoted her career to Palestinian economic development and the sustenance of Palestinian private sector. Ms. Abdulhadi holds a Masters Degree from George Mason University in International Development. She has worked with a broad range of Palestinian businesses and NGOs on institutional capacity building and management consulting. Ms. Abdulhadi sees herself as a multiculturalist, pointing to the words of Edward Said: "I'm very pleased to register myself under the banner of multiculturalism. . . as a way to work with others who are jammed together with me on a tiny territory- to bring it now to Palestine and Israel- who so far have managed to survive by denying the full historical and political existence of the other. . . I think multiculturalism can be consonant with ideals of emancipation and enlightenment if it's applied to concrete situations in which people of different cultures have not been able to live together peacefully, but in my opinion can."
		Rana Khoury Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 10 (2005) A Christian Palestinian, Ms. Khoury lives in Bethlehem and holds both a B.A. and an M.A. from the University of Michigan in Modern Middle Eastern and North African Studies. Her family's roots date back to the early Christian community in palestine. Since 1997 Ms. Khoury has been the Deputy General Director of the International Center of Bethlehem, a Palestinian non-governmental organization serving 20,000 persons annually and empowering local community through education, vocational training, cultural programs and awareness-raising campaigns.
		Michal Sagi Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 10 (2005), Tour 7 (2004) A Jewish Israeli, Michal Sagi is the daughter of Israeli-born parents of European descent. She was raised in Haifa and currently lives in Jerusalem. For the past seven years, Ms. Sagi has worked at Melitz, an organization providing informal educational services to Israelis and Diaspora Jews. For seven years prior, Ms. Sagi worked at the Jewish Agency for Israel to promote solidarity in the Jewish community throughout the world. Ms. Sagi is actively involved with Checkpoint Watch, a women's human rights monitoring group which reports on its observations at Israeli military and police checkpoints in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. She writes, "I am going out to the checkpoint to protest and to show both Palestinians and Israelis that there is a different voice calling to keep human rights and remove checkpoints."
		Jumana Odeh Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 10 (2005) A Muslim Palestinian, Dr. Odeh lives in jerusalem and is the Director of the Palestinian Happy Child Center (PHCC). She supervises PHCC programs in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Jerusalem. She is the mother of two daughters, a medical doctor specializing in pediatrics, and a community leader. Dr. Odeh is also a well-known civil society activist and a pioneer in the Palestinian NGO movement. She has consulted for UNICEF, UNRWA, and the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Dr. Odeh attended medial school at the Pediatric Medical School of Leningrad. Later, she obtained an MA in Community Health in Developing Countries at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is on the faculty of the Medical School and School of Public Health at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem.
		Diana Kattan Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 9 (2005) A Christian Palestinian, Ms. Kattan lives in East Jerusalem and holds an MA in English Literature from Hebrew University. During the 1948 war, Ms. Kattan’s family took refuge in a church as the family home in West Jerusalem was seized. In a highly unusual process, Ms. Kattan’s grandfather slowly was able to buy back his house. However, Ms. Kattan now lives in Beit Hanina in East Jerusalem. After a two-week trip in 2004 she returned at 3:00 am to find the separation wall looming directly opposite her home. She is now cut-off from friends and family by the barrier which winds its way through the West Bank and parts of Jerusalem. Ms. Kattan is the Centre Director for the Martin Luther Community Development Centre, which offers educational, vocational and recreational programs. She is also active with the Sabeel Ecumenical Centre for Liberation Theology.
		Nina Mayorek Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 9 (2005) A Jewish Israeli, Dr. Mayorek is Senior Biochemist in the Department of Human Nutrition and Metabolism at the Hebrew University. She and her husband moved to Israel in 1968 to escape the anti-Semitism of the Polish government of that time to which her parents lost their academic positions. Earlier, her aunt and grandmother perished in Treblinka during the Holocaust and her grandfather died in one of Stalin’s concentration camps. She lives in West Jerusalem and is a member of the Israeli women’s human rights organization Checkpoint Watch, which participates in weekly observations at checkpoints in the West Bank. She usually monitors checkpoints around Nablus. While Dr. Mayorek has pursued a research interest in diabetes, she has also steadily promoted better understanding between Israelis and Palestinians. From 1996-1998 she was the coordinator of Israeli volunteers at a Palestinian school in El-Khader. Later she was a lecturer on Women and Family Health at the Ibda Community Center in Bethlehem’s Deheisheh refugee camp.
		Aitemad Muhanna Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 9 (2005) A Muslim Palestinian, Ms. Muhanna was the first tour participant from the Gaza Strip. She grew up in the Shati refugee camp after her family fled the village of Masmeia, now in Israel, in 1948. She has just begun a PhD program in Development Studies at Swansea University. Educated in UN schools, Ms. Muhanna is now a development professional with over 10 years of experience in gender and participatory approaches to development issues. She is a strong advocate for women’s rights, having worked to lessen domestic violence in Gaza and to establish both a women’s micro-credit coalition and a coalition to eradicate poverty in Gaza. Ms. Muhanna is troubled that much of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is viewed as a religious struggle pitting Muslims against Jews. She has been engaged in the Palestinian national struggle for 20 years and hopes to build a future in which a Palestinian state and an Israeli state work together on the basis of equal rights and cultural diversity and without religious discrimination. She notes, "I believe that the Palestinian and Israeli people have to live as two equal nations cooperating together rather than fighting against each other."
		Gila Svirsky Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 8 (2004) A Jewish Israeli, Ms. Svirsky, lives in West Jerusalem and is a veteran peace and human rights activist in Israel. Her parents left anti-Semitic eastern Europe in the 1930s, but her mother's family were unable to get out and perished in the Holocaust. Ms. Svirsky has headed Israeli peace and human rights organizations such as the New Israel Fund, Bat Shalom, and B'Tselem. She has been a member of Women in Black since its inception and co-founded the Coalition of Women for Peace, which brings together nine Israeli women's peace organizations. Ms. Svirsky has written extensively about political issues in the Middle East, and addressed the UN Security Council about the role of women in peace negotiations. She was the recipient of two major peace prizes (the Kesten Medal of P.E.N. Germany and the Bremen Solidarity Prize), and was recently honored by the New Israel Fund for her contributions to strengthening Israeli democracy. Ms. Svirsky writes, "Through the past 30 years, my views have undergone a transformation. I continue to fervently care about Israel and the Jewish community throughout the world...What has changed dramatically is my understanding of the 'other'."
		Hidaya Said Najmi Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 8 (2004) A Muslim Palestinian, Ms. Najmi has contributed as a Design Engineer in a project rebuilding a portion of the Jenin refugee camp. She currently lives in Jenin, though her family is originally from Jaffa, near Tel Aviv. In 1948 her parents fled out of fear and ended up in Nablus. Because Ms. Najmi’s father was the headmaster of a government school, the family did not live in a refugee camp. Her family moved frequently as a result of her father’s work. Years later, her mother recounted how the family suffered physically, financially, and psychologically during those years. Ms. Najmi earned her BA in Architecture from Najah National University in Nablus. She married in 1992 and has three children. During the Jenin invasion, she, her family, and her neighbors survived eight days of curfew without much food, water, or electricity. Her one-year-old daughter would have died were her husband not a medical doctor. She reports, “It’s not easy to live a normal life here. And it’s not easy to teach my kids not to hate with all that we see... Surely we need the help of the whole world to help both sides.”
		Marianne Albina Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 8 (2004) A Christian Palestinian, Ms. Albina lives in East Jerusalem and holds an MA in Philosophy from Birkbeck College in London and an MA in Middle Eastern Studies from Hebrew University. During the 1948 war, the family home of Ms. Albina’s father was seized and the family was expelled. Today, more than 100 Israeli houses are built on her parents’ land. Each time they pass by their land, she and her family feel a considerable injustice was done in erasing their family history and ties to the location. Ms. Albina worked with World Vision Jerusalem as a Communications Officer where she informed audiences on the latest political developments in Palestine and israel. In 2000, she worked with PYALARA, a Palestinian rights organization, to help children constructively channel their anger at the Israeli occupation. Ms. Albina spoke at the 2002 World Social Forum in Brazil about the viewpoints of Palestinian children on the prospects for peace.
		Nuha Khoury Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 7 (2004) A Christian Palestinian, Dr. Nuha Khoury was born in Jerusalem and lives and works today in Bethlehem. Her family’s roots date back to the early Christian community in Palestine. She is the Deputy Director of the Dar al-Kalima Academy, where she administers programs, raises funds, and gives lectures to visiting groups on the current political situation, Islamic history and Palestinian women. Dr. Khoury received her PhD in Islamic History from the University of Michigan- Ann Arbor in 1996. Between 1997 and 1999 she taught at Bethlehem University. Dr. Khoury is a member of the Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Palestine and Jordan and a church elder at the Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem. She organized and ran the Palestinian area studies section of the Friends World Program at the Middle East Center in Jerusalem.
		Nahla Asali Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 7 (2004), Tour 3 (1999), Tour 1 (1998) Lecturer in English and English Literature at Birzeit University in the West Bank. She earned her BA from American University of Beirut and MA from Indiana State University. She is co-founder and chair of Project Loving Care, a child sponsorship program and co-founder and chair of the Saraya Center for Community Services. She is a Muslim, married and has three children. Her family history goes back five hundred years in Jerusalem. In the l948 fighting, her mother was wounded and her father sent his wife and five children to Damascus as a temporary safe haven. They were never allowed to return to their home in West Jerusalem.
		Yehudit (Judith) Keshet Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 6 (2003) A Jewish Israeli, Ms. Keshet is the daughter of Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany in 1939. She lives in West Jerusalem and is writing a book about her experiences as co-founder of Checkpoint Watch, a human rights monitoring group which reports on its observations at Israeli military and police checkpoints. Ms. Keshet holds degrees in Anthropology from the University of Alberta and London's Birkbeck College. She has worked at Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, and the Israel Institute of Talmudic Publications. Ms. Keshet is currently a board member of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and Bat Shalom of the Jerusalem Link.
		Rawan Damen Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 6 (2003), Tour 4 (2001) Rawan Damen is a Muslim Palestinian from Ramallah who earned her BA in Media/Sociology with honors from Birzeit University. As a teen she pursued her hopes for peace by studying Hebrew with Jewish adults at the Ulpan Akiva Study center in Netanya, Israel. At age 14. Ms. Damen and her younger sister published their first book, Palestinian Children before 1948, which documents Palestinian childhood memories of individuals who grew up in Palestine prior to 1948. Since then she and her sister have published two other books which highlight the plight of children in Palestine.
		Mai Nassar Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 6 (2003) A Christian Palestinian, Professor Nassar grew up in Beit Jala and has taught English at Bethlehem University in Palestine since 1990. Ms. Nassar received a BA in English from the University of Jordan in 1982. She continued her studies at the University of Warwick in Great Britain and obtained an M.A. in Teaching English as a Foreign Language in 1987. Professor Nassar has participated in educational exchange programs, including a USIA-sponsored exchange for Israeli and Palestinian educators at Ohio University. Between 1996 and 1998, she participated in a joint project between Bethlehem University and George Mason University’s Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR). Ms. Nassar believes that innovative education is the key to broadening the horizons of the next generation. She writes, “We need different types of education for both groups [Israeli and Palestinian] in order to make both accept and adjust to having their two states live peacefully on one land.”
		Muna Shikaki Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 5 (2002) Muna Shikaki is a Muslim Palestinian born in Kuwait City, Kuwait. She is a program assistant at the Defense for Children International/Palestine Section in Ramallah. Ms. Shikaki earned her BA in Journalism and Political Science from Birzeit University in 2002. Her experience with Building Bridges for Peace in Denver, Colorado, as a girl, has left a deep and lasting impact. There she met with other Israeli teens and learned to view them as individuals rather than as political adversities.
		Adi Dagan Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 5 (2002) Adi Dagan is a Jewish Israeli born and raised in Israel. She is an active member of Machsom Watch, an organization that documents and influences the actions of the Israeli army officers at checkpoints around Jerusalem. Ms. Dagan earned her BA in Psychology and her MA in History of Emotions from Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She is employed at the Bloomfield Science Museum in Jerusalem. She has been active in the peace camp for many years and has begun to learn Arabic.
		Jean Zaru Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 5 (2002), 4 (2001) Vice President of Sabeel (an ecumenical grassroots organization that strives to promote more accurate international awareness of Palestinian Christians and to work for a just, comprehensive and enduring peace. She is a “senior citizen,” a Quaker, married, a mother of three and a grandmother of seven. She is the Presiding Clerk of the Ramallah Friends Meeting. She taught ethics and religion for 14 years and has been active with women’s organizations and interfaith groups such as the Worldwide YWCA and the World Council of Churches.
		Michal Shohat Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 4 (2001), Tour 3 (1999), Tour 1 (1998) Michal Shohat is a Jewish Israeli, born to East European parents. Ms. Shohat was born on a kibbutz and during her childhood she visited the Palestinian children in nearby villages. This is where she first learned that Palestinians and Jews can live together in peace. Ms. Shohat is the mother of three children and an elected member of the Meretz party, where she is responsible for the Party’s activities related to labor unions. She hopes the end of the conflict will come before her third child has to serve in the Israeli military.
		Fatin Muhawi Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 3 (1999) Fatin Muhawi is a Christian Palestinian, born in Ramallah to a Catholic father and a Lutheran mother. She graduated with a BA in Philosophy and Political Science from Hope College in Holland, Michigan. Ms. Muhawi coordinated the project Democracy and Human Rights – Education and Training for Women at the Jerusalem Center for Women in 1998 and participated in a joint Israeli-Palestinian seminar in 1997 in Crete.
		Allegra Pacheco Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 2 (1999) Allegra Pacheco is a lawyer who successfully argued the case against torture before the Israeli Supreme Court. She is an American Jewish immigrant to Israel and has participated as a keynote speaker at several international conferences including the UN Committee Investigating Israeli Practices in the occupied Territories. Ms. Pacheco earned her BA in History with a concentration in the Middle east from Barnard College. She graduated from Columbia Law School with honors in International Law and is a member of the New York State and Israeli Bar Associations.
		Sahar Fahim Francis Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 2 (1999) Sahar Fahim Francis is a Christian Palestinian, born in Upper Galilee. She earned her Bachelor of Law degree from haifa University and her MA from Birzeit University in the West Bank. Ms. Francis practices law at the BADIL resource center for Residency and Refugee Rights in Bethlehem. She has been a keynote speaker at several human right conferences, including the Third International Conference on Health and Human Rights in Gaza in 1997.
		Claudette Habesch Jerusalem Women Speak Tour 1 (1998) Claudette Habesch is a Christian Palestinian, born and raised in Jerusalem. She is the mother of three and grandmother of five. Ms. Habesch is a member of the Pontifical Council for Cor Unum and the Secretary General of Caritas- Jerusalem. She also actively serves on several committees including Caritas Internationalis Executive Committee/Roma, International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC)/Geneva, and the Middle East Council of Churches.