Patrons and Advisory Board
The Most Reverend Desmond Tutu
Nobel Peace Prize winner Tutu served as the first general secretary of the South African Council of Churches in 1978, led South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1994, and is known for his global leadership in the struggle against apartheid. He is the international patron of Sabeel International, speaking courageously on the issue of Israeli apartheid practices against Palestinians. |
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Canon Naim Ateek
Born in the Palestinian village of Beisan, Ateek was ordained in the Anglican (Episcopal) Church in 1967 and earned degrees from Hardin-Simmons University and the Church Divinity School of the Pacific; he also holds a doctorate of divinity degree from the San Francisco Theological Seminary. Ateek established the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem in 1991. He is author and editor of numerous books, and has been called “the Desmond Tutu of Palestine.” |
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Laila Al-Marayati
Palestinian-American al-Marayati is an assistant professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine, and an assistant residency program director in obstetrics and gynecology. She is also the director of women’s health at the Eisner Pediatric and Family Medical Center in Los Angeles. She has served as presidential appointee to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, is the president of the Muslim Women’s League in LA and head of KinderUSA. |
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Mubarak Awad
Awad, a psychologist, is the founder and director of Nonviolence International, advocating peaceful solutions to the Palestine-Israel conflict. He speaks at conferences throughout the United States and abroad. |
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Kathy Bergen
Bergen, a Russian Mennonite, is a co-founder of FOSNA and program coordinator for the Friends International Center. For 11 years, she was national coordinator of the Middle East Program of the Peacebuilding Unit for AFSC in Philadelphia. She lived in Jerusalem in the 1980s, working in peace education and advocacy for the Mennonite Central Committee. She was also involved in interfaith dialogue, taught courses at the Bethlehem Bible College, and co-organized the first Liberation Theology conference in Palestine. |
Mark Braverman
Braverman is a Jewish American with family roots in the Holy Land. A clinical psychologist and a pioneer in crisis intervention and trauma recovery, Braverman now devotes himself to peace in historic Palestine, focusing on religious belief and theology in discourse on Palestine and Israel. He serves on the advisory board of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions-USA. |
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Rt. Rev. (John) Barry Curtis
Archbishop Curtis was the Anglican bishop of Calgary from 1983 to 1999 and metropolitan of Rupert’s Land. Curtis was ordained to the diaconate in 1958 in Ottawa’s Christ Church Cathedral. He was ordained a priest the next year in Smiths Falls, Ontario, was named bishop of Calgary in 1983, and became archbishop and metropolitan in 1994. |
Tom Getman
Getman is a former World Vision executive director for international relations, where he managed diplomatic relations and sensitive negotiations through the World Vision’s liaison office with the UN and the World Council of Churches. He also served on the board of the UN Deputy Secretary General for Emergency Relief as chair of the International Council of Voluntary Agencies. From 1997 to 2001, he was the director of World Vision’s programs in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. |
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Rt. Rev. Thomas Gumbleton
Gumbleton is a retired auxiliary bishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit and founding president of Pax Christi USA. His Sunday homilies from St. Leo’s parish in Detroit are published as “The Peace Pulpit” in the National Catholic Reporter weekly. He traveled to Gaza in 2008. Gumbleton is a member of several peace organizations and a recipient of 47 peace awards. |
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Gabriel Habib
Born in Lebanon, Habib studied law at St. Joseph University in Beirut. He has worked for the World Council of Churches, the World Student Christian Federation, and the Near East Ecumenical Bureau of Information and Interpretation. He helped create the Middle East Council of Churches, was the International Affairs Consultant for the National Council of Churches in the United States, and is now on the board of Policy Institute for Religion and State. |
Yvonne Haddad
Haddad is a professor of the history of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations at Georgetown University. A Presbyterian from Syria, she came to the United States with her husband in 1963 and received her doctorate in the history of religion from Hartford Seminary in Connecticut. She is the former president of the Middle East Studies Association and specializes in contemporary Islam. She has edited and authored |
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Zaha Hassan
An American-born Palestinian Muslim, Hassan graduated from the Friends Girl School in Ramallah. She is a graduate of the UC Berkeley School of Law and founder of Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights. She is one of three civil rights lawyers who sued the National Security Agency, claiming it illegally wiretapped conversations between the leaders of an Islamic charity and two of its lawyers. |
Rashid Khalidi
Khalidi, an American of Palestinian descent, is the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University. He holds a D.Phil. from Oxford University. His research covers the history of national identities and the role played by external powers in their development in the Middle East. He also researches the impact of the press and education on new senses of community, political identity, and historical narrative. He has written many award-winning books. |
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Atif Kubursi
Kubursi is a professor emeritus of economics at McMaster University. He is the founder and president of Econometric Research Limited. He was a senior development officer for the United Nations Industrial Organization and a team leader on several UNIDO missions. Kubursi taught economics at Purdue University, was a senior visiting scholar at Cambridge University, and lectured and consulted at Harvard. He is the author of several books. |
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Afif Safieh
Safieh is a Palestinian Christian diplomat; former PLO mission representative to the United States; and a former ambassador to the Vatican, the U.K., and the Russian Federation. He was involved in the 1988 Stockholm negotiations that led to the first official American-Palestinian dialogue. He was on the international board of trustees of Bethlehem University and was nominated Palestinian general delegate to the Holy See.
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John Salzberg
Salzberg, a Quaker, has a Ph.D. in international relations from New York University. He has been a staff consultant for the House Subcommittee on International Organizations, regional affairs officer for the Department of State’s Bureau of Human Rights, and Washington representative for Center for Victims of Torture. He is also the chair of Washington Interfaith Alliance for Middle East Peace, a steering committee member for Friends International Center in Ramallah, and co-chair of the UN Human Rights Task Force. |
Dorothy Jean Weaver
Weaver is a professor of the New Testament at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, where she has taught since 1984. She holds a PhD in the New Testament from the Union Theological Seminary. Her publications are numerous. Weaver co-leads regular Palestine and Israel study tours for EMS and Nazareth and Bethlehem work groups for Virginia Mennonite Missions. She has taught New Testament courses in Beirut, Bethlehem, and Cairo. Weaver is a member of Community Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg. |
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Cornel West
West’s teaching weaves the traditions of the black Baptist Church with progressive politics and jazz. After earning his Ph.D. at Princeton, he became a professor of religion and director of the Afro-American Studies program there. West has also taught at Union Theological Seminary, Yale, Harvard, and the University of Paris. His 1993 best-seller, Race Matters, is a searing analysis of racism in the United States. He has published 18 other books, received over 20 honorary degrees, and produced three albums. |
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