The Apartheid Paradigm in Palestine/Israel:

Speaker Bios

The Rev. Canon Naim Ateek is a Palestinian Anglican priest, founder/director of The Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem. Author of Justice & Only Justice: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation.

Phyllis Bennis is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC, focusing on Middle East and United Nations issues. She has written widely on Palestine, Iraq, and U.S. domination of the UN, including her recent book Understanding the Palestinian – Israeli Conflict: A Primer. In 2001 she helped found and is currently on the steering committee of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.

Professor Anat Biletzki is a leading Israeli human rights activist and former chairperson of the board of B’Tselem -   the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights.

Diana Buttu is a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer and former legal advisor to the PLO. Buttu assisted in the litigation of Israel’s wall at the Hague in 2004 which resulted in the indictment of Israel’s wall.

Professor Noam Chomsky is a world famous linguist, philosopher, political activist, author, and lecturer. He is an Institute Professor and Professor Emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Professor John Dugard is the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Dugard is a South African international law professor and a member of the International Law Commission of the United Nations. He has written extensively on apartheid.

Noura Erekat is a Palestinian-American legal activist. As a New Voices Fellow she served as the National Grassroots Organizer and Legal Advocate for the US Campaign to end the Israeli Occupation. Prior to joining the US Campaign, Noura helped establish and lead the first divestment campaign from apartheid Israel at UC Berkeley.

Professor Farid Esack is a South African Muslim theologian, activist and author. Esack is currently a Visiting Professor of Islamic Studies at Harvard University.

Dr. Jeff Halper is the Coordinator of The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions in Jerusalem, a coalition of Israeli and Palestinian peace and human rights groups dedicated to resisting the occupation.

The Rev. Dr. Joan M. Martin is an Associate Professor of Christian Ethics at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge. She has written extensively on domestic and international social justice issues.

Dr. Nancy Murray is a human rights activist and founding member of US campaign to end the Israeli Occupation and the Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights. She is author of Palestinians: Life Under Occupation.

The Rt. Rev. M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE is the Episcopal  Bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu is the retired South African Archbishop of Cape Town and Primate of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (now the Anglican Church of  Southern Africa). An activist who rose to worldwide fame    during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid, Archbishop Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. He serves as the Patron of Sabeel International.

Rev. Dr. Donald Wagner is the Executive Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and Associate Professor of Religion and Middle Eastern Studies at Northpark University, Chicago. He is the author of Anxious for Armageddon.

David Wildman is Executive Secretary for Human Rights & Racial Justice with the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) of the United Methodist Church.. He serves on behalf of GBGM on the steering committee for the US Campaign to End Israeli Occupation.