THE 16TH ANNUAL CONVENTION FOR PALESTINE IN THE US
Friday & Saturday, November 24-25, 2023
Tinley Park Convention Center
18451 CONVENTION CENTER DR, TINLEY PARK, IL 60477
18451 CONVENTION CENTER DR, TINLEY PARK, IL 60477
Tarek Khaill is an attorney, lecturer, and activist. He worked with the Illinois Coalition Against Torture, an organization which seeks to end domestic police torture and raise awareness of global torture. He also clerked with CAIR-Chicago (Council), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group. He’s currently a Chicago board member and Education Coordinator for the American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). Tarek lectures on topics such as modern Palestinian history, Middle East politics, and Palestinian rights under international law.
Taher Herzallah is the Associate Director of Outreach & Community Organizing for American Muslims for Palestine. Mr. Herzallah is one of the ‘Irvine 11,’ a group of students who were arrested and prosecuted for expressing their constitutionally protected rights of free speech at an event given by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren. Mr. Herzallah was also one of six people arrested for protesting the appointment of David Friedman as US ambassador to Israel.
Zarefah Baroud is the Digital Media Associate with American Muslims for Palestine. She is
a PhD candidate at the University of Exeter’s European Centre for Palestine Studies. Baroud received her Master’s degree in Policy Studies from the University of Washington, where she researched American aid programs to the Israeli military.
Nihad Awad is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest non-profit Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States. He has been frequently interviewed on national and international media such as CNN, BBC World Service, PBS, C-SPAN, NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Voice of America and Al-Jazeerah. CAIR news releases are disseminated to hundreds of thousands people worldwide on a daily basis.
Arshia Ali-Khan, M.A.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA)
Arshia joined the Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA) as their first ever Chief Development Officer (CDO) spearheading organizational development strategies, building development infrastructure, enhancing development activities, and planning and executing comprehensive development campaigns for the Muslim Legal Fund of America. In June of 2022, the MLFA Board of Directors appointed Arshia as the CEO of MLFA. To build a strong foundation for MLFA, Arshia led and successfully completed a merger between MLFA and the MLFA-funded Constitutional Law Center for Muslims in American (CLCMA).
Wesam is the Head of Centre for Applied International Law in Al-Haq. He earned a B.A. in Political Science and Sociology, and a J.D., from Louisiana State University in the US, as well as an LL.M. in International Human Rights Law from the National University of Ireland – Galway. Wesam has been working as a human rights advocate with Al-Haq since moving to Palestine in 2006, focusing on the area of business and human rights and the role of corporate actors in economic incentive structure perpetuating the continued colonization of Palestine.
After retiring in 2010,Mohammad turned his attention to helping non-profit organizations, such as Islamic Relief life for Relief and Development ,and united Muslim Relief. Mohammad loves to consult non-profit and train young aspiring leaders, additionally he loves to spend time with his children and eleven grand- children. Mohammad is a doctoral candidate in Public Administration Non profit expected to defend his dissertation in March 2023. His research interest is Civic and Political Engagment of American Muslin young adults. Mohammad is an engineer with a Master’s degree in Non- profit management. Mohammad taught various public administration courses at Rutgers University. Mohammad is a retired businessman, who founded Keller Williams Realty- Tri-State in 2020. The Ny Tri-State Region currently boasts 43 offices and over 10,000 associates. Mohammad spent the last 10 years of his 30- year business career training franchise owners, team leaders and sales associates in business and personal development.
Dr. Osama Abuirshaid is the Executive Director and a board member of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), and Executive Director of Americans for Justice in Palestine Action (AJP Action). He is also a board member of the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), an umbrella organization of eight major national American Muslim organizations. He authored or coauthored several books in Arabic and he published dozens of studies and articles in Arabic and English, on issues relevant to the Middle East and its political climate.
Ayah Ziyadeh is AMP’s advocacy director. She has 5+ years of political and grassroots advocacy as well as lobbying campaign experience. This experience consists of being legislative staff, a lobbying intern working closely with the ACLU, and an organizer working with several different organizations and coalitions. Throughout her graduate experience, she has specialized in Palestinian rights and the dynamics of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. She has completed an abundance of research and policy work on the issue.
Hareth Yousef is a visual artist based in Ramallah, Palestine, mainly in photography and film. Yousef holds a bachelor’s degree from Birzeit University in journalism with a minor in sociology. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts in photography from Columbia College, Chicago. Yousef seeks to capture scenes of Palestinian daily life to illuminate its human experience, which is often overlooked by international media. His work has been featured in numerous collective and individual exhibitions and publications in the United States, Europe and Palestine. Yousef worked at the Palestinian Museum in Birzeit as an Audio Visual specialist and taught an Image Making class at Birzeit university. Yousef is a candidate for an MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts at Duke University.
Yousef believes it is vital for us to be the ones who create our image rather than others creating an image of us.
Rev.Dr. Don Wagner is a retired Presbyterian clergyperson having served churches in New Jersey and Evanston,IL. He ended his professional career
as the National Program Director of Friends of Sabeel–North America. He is the author of six books on Palestinin human rights and Christian
zionism, including his recently published memoir “”Glory to God in the Lowest: Journeys to an Unholy Land.”
Lesley Williams is a member of the coordinating committee for Jewish Voice for Peace in Chicago, the advisory board and Speakers Bureau for Jews Against Anti-Muslim Racism, and a founding member of Tzedek Chicago, a non-Zionist, pro-social justice synagogue in Chicago. Lesley has twice visited the West Bank with the Center for Jewish Nonviolence for solidarity work and resistance with Palestinian and Israeli peace activists, and is on CJNV’s Strategy and Values planning team. She is the author of The Anti Defamation League Kills the Black/Jewish Alliance and “”We Cannot Fight Anti-Semitism and Anti-Black Racism in Isolation”” in Truthout, and is working with local coalitions of teachers and activists to bring Palestinian history into school curricula.
Khalid Turaani is a Palestinian-American advocate for the rights of the people of Palestine. He is Chairman of Refugee Aid Initiative, a charity that focuses on helping refugees and victims of conflicts and disasters. Khalid’s past advocacy engagements include; serving as Executive Director of the Washington based, American Muslims for Jerusalem, AMJ and Director of the Brussels based International Forum on the Mideast, INFORM. Khalid is a frequent guest on international media on issues related to Palestine, the Middle East and the US policy in the region.
Dr. Tibi is a prominent Arab politician and intellectual, elected as Knesset member representing “” The Arab Movement for Change.”” Dr. Tibi served as a political advisor to the late Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat for several years. He was awarded first place in opinion polls conducted by major Arabic newspapers and websites as the best deputy in the Knesset and the best political figure. The Haaretz newspaper selected him one of the 50 most influential figures in the last decade.
Malak Shalabi is a law graduate who works in immigration law, primarily with asylum seekers. She previously worked with AMP as a Legal Intern and Media Coordinator. She has researched, published, and advocated on issues including the Palestinian occupation, torture in Syrian prisons, and Islamophobic domestic and foreign policy in the US.
Linda Sarsour is an author, award-winning racial justice and civil rights activist. She is a member of the Justice League NYC, a leading NYC force of activists, formerly incarcerated individuals, and artists working to reform the New York Police Department and the criminal justice system. Linda was the National Co-Chair of the 2017 Women’s March on Washington, dubbed the largest single day protest in US history. She serves on the executive board of Women’s March, Inc. where she focuses on fundraising and direct action planning.
State Representative Salam “”Sam”” Rasoul is the first Muslim and first Palestinian ever elected to office in Virginia’s history. He created and continues to run the Impact Center, which helps train the leaders of tomorrow. He is a business leader who served as a Chief Financial and Operating Officer in healthcare. His guiding philosophy starts with the Golden Rule: Treat others as you would want to be treated. Sam leads with his values of Truth, Love, and Grit.
Professor Ilan Pappe is the Director of the European Center for Palestine Studies and a senior fellow of the Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, UK. Pappe is the author of 20 books his two most recent ones are Our Vision for Liberation, with Ramzy Baroud and The Historical Dictionary of Palestine with Johnny Mansour. His most known work is The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine and he also co-authored two books with Noam Chomsky.
Sarah Nahar (she) is a nonviolent action trainer and interspiritual theologian. As a PhD candidate, she focuses on ecological regeneration, community cultivation, and spiritual activism. Previously, Sarah was a 2019 Rotary Peace Fellow, has worked at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center in Atlanta, Georgia and in Jerusalem for Sabeel: An ecumenical liberation theology organization. She is a founding member of Black Christians for Palestine, a collective organizationally supported by the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights.
Nora Lester Murad is a writer, educator, and activist. She co-authored “Rest in My Shade: A Poem About Roots” with Danna Masad and edited “I Found Myself in Palestine: Stories of Love and Renewal From Around the Globe” (both from Interlink Books). Her just-released young adult novel, “Ida in the Middle,” is about a Palestinian-American girl’s search for belonging and her political voice (see www.idainthemiddle.com). While living in Palestine, Nora co-founded Dalia Association, Palestine’s community foundation, and Aid Watch Palestine, an aid accountability initiative. She now lives in Massachusetts where she organizes to expand the teaching of Palestine in schools, among other social justice issues. A policy member of Al-Shabaka, The Palestinian Policy Network, Nora also teaches international humanitarian affairs at Fordham University and blogs at www.noralestermurad.com.
Alyssa F. Morrison
Alyssa Morrison is an attorney with The Constitutional Law Center for Muslims in America, Inc. (CLCMA), and has extensive briefing experience in federal court litigation, appearing in the briefing on over two dozen cases, and representing clients on appeals before the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, Ninth and D.C. Circuit Courts of Appeal. Currently, Alyssa represents American Muslims for Palestine/Americans for Justice in Palestine Educational Foundation as part of CLCMA’s litigation team in the Northern District of Illinois, and also continues the challenge against Texas’ anti-BDS statutes before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Dr. Abdullah Marouf is the Assistant Professor of Islamic History at the Istanbul 29 Mayis University
Gideon Levy is an Israeli journalist and author. Levy writes opinion pieces and a weekly column for the newspaper Haaretz that often focuses on the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. Levy has won prizes for his articles on human rights in the Israeli-occupied territories.
Nerdeen Kiswani is the founder and chair of Within Our Lifetime – United for Palestine. In 2021 Nerdeen led a campaign that successfully defeated a proposal to adopt the IHRA definition of anti-semitism. While her organizing led to Zionist organizations orchestrating character assassination campaigns against Nerdeen demanding her expulsion, in the summer of 2021 CUNY Law issued a statement defending Palestinian activism and denouncing anti-palestinian hate.
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Dr. Khoury is the recipient of two Excellence in Teaching awards at Mercer University, the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Personal Achievement Awards for Central New York in 1992, and for the entire State of Georgia in 1997. Dr. Khoury has written articles and has given numerous presentations on the quest for justice and peace in the Middle East and on empowering people with disabilities. He is the author of Giving Up Is Not An Option: Memoirs of a Palestinian American, one of 51 books nominated world-wide for an award by the London-based Middle East Monitor for the year 2022.
Dr. Yousef Khelfa, PAMA President and co-founder, received his MD in 2003 from Al Quds University Medical School, Palestine.. Dr Khelfa worked between 2009-2013 as an Academic Hospitalist before he became Assistant Professor of Medicine at Oakland University William Beaumont in Michigan state. In 2014 he was elected as Fellow of American College of Physicians. He finished his hematology/oncology training at Marshall University-School of Medicine in West Virginia. Currently he is a practicing oncologist in Northern California.
Christina A. Jump is a Civil Litigation Department Head, and served as an Associate Hearing Officer for the City of Dallas for over ten years. She has been named a “Texas Super Lawyer” for multiple years, most recently in 2021 and again in 2022. Christy represented clients in the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth and D.C. Circuit Courts of Appeal, and the United States Supreme Court. Christy currently leads the Civil Litigation team in litigation defending Palestinian nonprofit organizations and their Directors, as well as litigation challenging the State of Texas’ Anti-BDS statutes.
Ousama Jammal is the secretary general of the US Council of Muslim Organizations, a national coalition of several national organizations. He is also the director of the Muslim American Society – Public Affairs and Civic Engagement, an organization dedicated to empowering the Muslim community to engage in civic affairs. Mr. Jammal is also the vice president of the Mosque Foundation.
Dr. Sawsan Jaber is a Palestinian American global educator of 20+ years. Dr. Jaber is currently a high school English teacher at East Leyden High School in Franklin Park. She founded Education Unfiltered Consulting and focuses on curriculum mapping, strategic planning, custom tailoring a social justice curriculum for schools, and anti-bias training. Sawsan is one of the founders of the Arab American Education Network (AAEN). She is a member of the International Society for Technology in Education professional learning network (ISTE PLN) Leader. She has just published her first co-written book and is working on completing a practitioner book for Arab American student advocacy
Co-Founder, Board Member, and CEO of Syrian Forum With over 30 years as a business and community leader whose entrepreneurial instincts and clarity of vision has carried many organizations to achieve their objectives and visions successfully. Mr. Hitto’s professional career focused on the Information Technology and Telecommunication sectors through various leadership and management positions. His long-standing public service career spanned building education and community empowerment initiatives, organizations, and coalitions in the United States, Türkiye, Syria, Europe, and the Gulf.
Moved to Türkiye in 2012, where he co-founded the Syrian Forum, a consortium of 6 nonprofit organizations tasked with sustaining, supporting, and rebuilding Syrian lives.
Katie Halper is the host of The Katie Halper Show livestream youtube show, podcast and radio show. She’s the co-host of the youtube show and podcast Useful Idiots. Her writing has appeared in places like New York Magazine, The Nation and The Guardian. For three years, Katie was a weekly contributor and occasional host on the The Hill’s “Rising” show until they censored and fired her over a video monologue she wrote and delivered which defended Rashida Tlaib and demonstrated that Israel has an apartheid system.
Dr. Manal Fakhoury
President and CEO of Fakhoury Leadership International. With over 33 years of non-profit and leadership experience, she serves on many community and national boards, including YMCA Executive Board, AHA, Rotary Club President, Arab American Community Center (AACC), and more.
Manal has been recognized with many professional and community awards including Person of the Year, Business Women of the Year, Communicator or the Year, Volunteer of the Year, Webster’s University Distinguished Alumni Award, and many others.
Jonathan was a frontline activist of the Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT) Palestine project in Hebron/Al-Khalil and Masafer Yatta from 2012 to 2014. As the Israel/Palestine Partners in Peacemaking Coordinator for Mennonite Church USA, he facilitated the implementation of the “”Seeking Peace in Israel and Palestine”” divestment resolution. Today, Jonathan works as a communications consultant with Eyewitness Palestine, leading political education and activation tours to Palestine.
Executive Director, Islamophobia Studies Center. Professor, Zaytuna College, Senior Lecturer in Middle Eastern Languages & Cultures & Asian American Studies, UC Berkeley, Editor, Islamophobia Journal, Chair and President of American Muslims for Palestine, Chair of Muslim Legal Fund of America, President, International Islamophobia Studies and Research Association and co-founder of Students for Justice in Palestine. Author of five books, including Palestine, … it is something colonial, hundreds of articles and countless interviews.
Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of six books. His books include My Father Was a Freedom Fighter, The Last Earth and These Chains Will Be Broken. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is “Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak out”. Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net
Lina Abu Akleh(Al Quds Annual Award) , Shireen Abu Akleh’s niece, is Palestinian-Armenian born and raised in Jerusalem. She holds a bachelors in political studies and a master’s in international studies and human rights. For the past six months Lina has been advocating for justice and accountability for her aunt’s killing.
Othman Ata is a Milwaukee attorney Othman Atta and the executive director of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, where he has served in various positions for the past 30 years. Mr. Atta was born in Palestine. He received his degrees from the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee and Marquette University Law School.
Rev. Dr. Fahed Abuakel
Dr. Fahed Abuakel is a Presbyterian minister and member of the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta, GA, where he served as the mission staff for 25 years. . Rev. Abuakel is the Founder & Past Executive Director of the Atlanta Ministry with International Students , Inc (AMIS) from 1978-2012. He was the former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in the USA, and moderated the 214th General Assembly Presbyterian Church (USA).