Awad is a retired United Methodist missionary, having served for decades in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. He is co-chair of the Education Committee for United Methodist Kairos Response. He has spoken at assemblies across the United States to advocate for church divestment. He’s a highly effective speaker, sometimes moving audiences to tears and—best of all—to action.

Expertise: Christian Zionism, theology

Location: Eugene, Oregon

Abunimah is a journalist and the co-founder and executive director of The Electronic Intifada, a nonprofit, independent online publication focusing on Palestine. A graduate of Princeton University and the University of Chicago, he is a frequent speaker on the Middle East, contributing regularly to numerous publications. He is the author of One Country, A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse.

Location: Chicago

Awad Halabi is associate professor at Wright University in the Departments of History and Religion Philosophy, and Classics, specializing in Islam and the modern Middle East. He is the coordinator of the Wright State University’s minor in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. Halabi organizes the annual Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Lecture Series, which hosts speakers to deliver public talks on Islam and the Middle East. His main research focuses on Islamic rituals and Palestine during the period of late-Ottoman and British colonial rule. Halabi graduated from the University of Toronto.

Location: Dayton, OH

Khalidi is the founder and director of Palestine Legal. She provides legal advice to activists, engaging in advocacy to protect their rights to speak out for Palestinian freedom, and educating activists and the public about the suppression of the movement for Palestinian rights.

Expertise: Palestine Legal (DIR)

Location: Chicago

Daniel is a doctorate student in Qur'anic Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Daniel grew up in Bethlehem and got his university education in the USA and the UK. He has been involved in a number of nonprofits and grassroots initiatives in Palestine, as well as Kairos Palestine and the Christ at the Checkpoint conference. He taught Comparative Religion at Bethlehem Bible College before moving back to the USA for his doctorate studies. Daniel is also the founder of Ultimate Palestine, the Palestinian association of Ultimate Frisbee. Click here for a podcast interview with Daniel.

Expertise: Christian Zionism, Palestinian Theology, and Islam.

Location: South Bend, Indiana

Rev. Dr. Fahed Abu-Akel is Founder and Executive Director of the Atlanta Ministry with International Students Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Georgia. He was born in Kafr Yasif, in the Galilee, of Christian Palestinian parents. He was ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church USA in 1978 and has served on the mission staff of the First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta.

He has served the Presbyterian Church in numerous executive capacities including Moderator of its 214th General Assembly, General Assembly Commissioner, board member of the National Middle Eastern Ministries Committee, and member of the Outreach, Christian Education, and Peacemaking Committees of the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta. He is former vice chair of its Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns and a past board member of the Christian Council and Interfaith Coalition of Metropolitan Atlanta. Rev. Fahed has been honored for his life-long dedication to interfaith dialogue and international understanding by many organizations.

Location: Atlanta

Bazian is a co-founder and a professor of Islamic law and theology at Zaytuna College, the first accredited Muslim liberal arts college in the United States. He is also a lecturer in the Near Eastern and Asian American and Asian diaspora studies at UC Berkeley. He served as an adjunct professor at Boalt Hall School of Law and as a visiting professor in religious studies at Saint Mary’s College of California.

Location: Berkeley

Arraf is a lawyer and human rights advocate. In 2001, she co-founded the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led nonviolent resistance movement, which has twice been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. She was one of the primary organizers of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and was traveling with it when it was lethally attacked by Israeli forces on May 31, 2010.

Location: Detroit

Saca is the director of the Middle Eastern Studies program at Saint Xavier University in Chicago, where she is also an associate professor of anthropology and chair of the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice. Saca is the co-founder of the Palestinian Heritage Center in Bethlehem.

Expertise: Palestinian women, archeology of Palestine

Location: Chicago

Jeff has served as Advocacy and Outreach Director for the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation. In 2006, he received a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition for his leadership in promoting awareness and support for the Palestinian Christian communities in the Holy Land. In 2010, Jeff was knighted by the Vatican into the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem and holds the rank of Knight Commander with Distinction. He has been awarded the Bronze Palm of Jerusalem and the Pope Pius IX award for extraordinary service to the Order and the Holy Land. He is a speaker and writer on the Churches' perspective on the current situation of the Christians in the Holy Land.

Location: Ohio

Kholoud Khoury is a Palestinian-American who lived in Zababdeh near Jenin in the northern part of the West Bank, an occupied territory. She grew up in the West Bank. In 2002 she immigrated to the United States of America after the second intifada (uprising).

Ms. Khoury earned her Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Illinois at Chicago in Chicago, IL. Before coming to the United States she studied at the Universite de France-Comte in Besancon, France, and received a diploma in French as a second language.

She served as a teacher for elementary classes at the Latin Patriarchate School in Zababdeh, Jenin; a translator for Doctors without Borders in Hebron, Palestine; Executive Assistant to the Palestine Red Crescent Society in Al-bireh, Palestine; and she served at The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in Chicago, IL.

Location: Chicago, IL

Born of Armenian descent in Jerusalem, Lucy and her mother were forced to flee Jerusalem as refugees. During this period, Janjigian attended the British Syrian Training College in Beirut, Lebanon. Although she received degrees in Biology and Plant Ecology, Lucy Janjigian longed to pursue her passion for painting. As a professional painter and sculptor, her works hang in public, private and corporate collections around the world.

As a devote Presbyterian, Lucy Janjigian has played a critical role in international humanitarian work for the last 23 years. Inspired by her own experiences and faith, Janjigian began working amongst Palestinian refugees in UNRWA camps in Jerusalem, Jericho, and Nablus. As a short-term missionary in Armenia, she worked for four consecutive summers from 1996 to 1999.

Location: Bay Area, CA

Maher Massis is a resident of Northern Virginia. He received his Masters in International Affairs and Law from the American University and his Ph.D. in Political Science with a focus on Comparative Politics and International Relations from the University of Houston.

Maher had several articles and studies published in the Arabs Study Quarterly, Palestine Chronicle, Jordan Times, and had been interviewed by local TV News networks and various international media. Most recently he edited an anthology of poems — Poems For Palestine published in 2016. Maher has also volunteered at various organizations such as the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation and also serves as an Executive Board Member of the Coalition of Palestinian American Organizations. Maher strongly believes that a Palestinian Christian narrative must be part of the discussion on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the peace process.

Location: Virginia

An adjunct professorial lecturer at the School of International Service at American University, Awad is the founder and national president of the Youth Advocate Program. He is also the founder of the Palestinian Center for the Study of Nonviolence in Jerusalem, and was deported by the Israeli supreme court in 1988 after being jailed for organizing nonviolent civil disobedience.

Location: Washington, DC

Muna is the Assistant Program Director of the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts Boston. many years of experience advocating for and writing about women's and human rights, peace, and social and economic justice issues. At CWPPP, she works with the Gender, Leadership, and Public Policy graduate programs, oversees communications, and assists with fund development.

Location: Boston, MA

Elia’s parents are from Jerusalem; she was born in Iraq and grew up in Lebanon. She is a past president of the Association for Middle East Women’s Studies and served on the national steering collective of INCITE! Women and Trans People of Color Against Violence. Elia is an energetic speaker on activism and grassroots organizing, a prolific writer, and a regular contributor to Mondoweiss and Middle East Eye.

Expertise: Academic boycott, Palestinian political history, feminist movements in Palestine

Location: Seattle

Gordon is a professor emerita at Case Western Reserve University. A lifelong Presbyterian, she is a church elder and serves on several Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) committees. She experienced, first hand, the 1948 Palestinian Nakba; her book, Palestine is Our Home: Voices of Loss, Courage, and Steadfastness. Gordon has published articles on Palestine in the Electronic Intifada, Mondoweiss, CounterPunch, and Unbound.

Expertise: the Nakba, history of Palestine, liberation art

Location: Cleveland

Ateek moved to Nazareth after Israel’s occupation of Beisan in 1948. He was ordained in the Anglican (Episcopal) Church in 1967 and holds a doctorate of divinity from the San Francisco Theological Seminary. Ateek established the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem in 1991. He is the author and editor of numerous books, and has been called “the Desmond Tutu of Palestine.”

Location: Houston

Outside of his service as an Antiochene Orthodox priest, Father Dahdal has devoted countless hours to raising awareness of the conflicts of the Middle East. Recognized by religious and civic leaders as an expert on the topic, Father has worked fervently to raise money for humanitarian groups and educate the public about the plight of the Palestinian people. He has spoken numerous times on radio and television and has written many articles seeking justice for the oppressed. Father has traveled numerous times to the Middle East in furtherance of his mission.

Location: Palos Hills, Illinois

Nina was born in Katamon, West Jerusalem during the British Mandate. Her family is Greek Orthodox, members of Mar Yacoub Church, which is adjacent to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. After the Nakba, they lived in Bethlehem. After graduating high school Nina worked for UNRWA, in Hebron, Dheisheh camp, and Beit Safafa, as teacher, Head Teacher and Practice Teacher Supervisor. She then got a degree from the Beirut College for Women, BCW, now American Lebanese University.

She is active in the Episcopal church and is active with Palestinian and Educational organizations, including the Bethlehem Association of which she has been a Board member for 26 years. She continues to be active working on Palestinian advocacy groups. This year she published my memoir, "Living through The Nakba: Tales of a Palestinian Youth.”

Location: Virginia

Paul Noursi has been active with the Virginia Coalition for Human Rights (VCHR) since its founding in 2016. He is also active with several other organizations working for peace and justice in the Middle East, including the Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace, the New Dominion PAC, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and the Arab American Democratic Caucus of Virginia.

Noursi has lived and traveled extensively in the Middle East, including Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon. He has a BS in Civil Engineering, an MS in Engineering Management, and is a licensed and practicing civil engineer with wide-ranging experience in land development and public works in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, DC.

Location: Virginia

Philip was born in Jerusalem in 1952, four years after his family was driven out of their home in what became Israeli West Jerusalem. He received his education at the Anglican St. George’s School in Jerusalem and later studied political science at the American University of Beirut. He returned to Jerusalem to teach at several schools in the West Bank and at Birzeit University. Philip was active in the nonviolent struggle against the Israeli occupation; he was among Palestinian progressives who pioneered relations with anti-occupation Israelis.

Philip came to the United States at the age of 27 to continue his university education, earning a PhD in Natural Resources and Environmental Economics from the University of New Mexico. He has lived and worked in several countries in the Middle East. He currently works as an economist in Washington, DC, and lives in Vienna, VA with his wife and three children. He is a founding member, in 2000, of the Washington Interfaith Alliance for Middle East Peace and the Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace.

Location: Washington, DC / Virginia

Abdulhadi is a senior scholar in Arab and Muslim ethnicities and diasporas studies, associate professor of ethnic studies/race and resistance studies, and affiliated graduate faculty in the Sexuality Studies Program at San Francisco State University. She has taught at Yale University, Hunter College, American University in Cairo, New York University, and Birzeit University.

Expertise: Feminism and Palestine, Islamophobia, academic boycott

Location: San Francisco

Baroud is a journalist, media consultant, author, internationally syndicated columnist, editor of Palestine Chronicle, former managing editor of the London-based Middle East Eye, and former deputy managing editor of Al Jazeera online. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story. Baroud has a PhD in Palestine studies from the University of Exeter.

Expertise: Resistance movements in Palestine, current political movements inside Israel and Palestine

Location: Seattle

Tamari is an organizer with the St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee and co-chair of the US Campaign Steering Committee. Since the murder of Mike Brown in Ferguson, she has focused on joint liberation among Palestinians, black Americans, and other communities of color. Tamari has a master’s in Arab studies from Georgetown University and has worked with Palestinian communities in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, and Lebanon.

Expertise: Black-Palestinian solidarity, faith washing, Palestinian Christians, organizing

Location: St. Louis

Rev. Ateek is a Christian born and raised in Palestine and Israel. He earned his master’s of divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, and a certificate in Anglican studies from Virginian Theological Seminary. He is currently serving as the rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Chevy Chase, Maryland. He is the son of Naim Ateek, the founder of Sabeel.

Location: Silver Spring, Maryland

Abulhawa is an international best-selling novelist, poet, and essayist. She is also a scientist and founder of Playgrounds for Palestine, a children’s organization dedicated to upholding the right to play for Palestinian children (www.playgroundsforpalestine.org).

Location: Philadelphia

Born into a Christian family in Bethlehem, Abuata moved to Texas during the first Palestinian Intifada. FOSNA’s former executive director, Abuata has worked for Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace, Love Thy Neighbor, Christian Peacemaker Teams, the United Palestine Appeal, and the Negotiations Support Unit of the Palestinian Authority. Abuata holds a J.D. from the University of Texas Law School.

Expertise: Christian activism for Palestine, nonviolence

Location: Houston