Sumaiya Omar

Speaker & Trainer

Co-founder of Hashtag Our Stories

Sumaiya Omar is a Co-founder of Hashtag Our Stories. Sumaiya has spent five years experimenting with emerging news platforms like Snapchat and Instagram in South Africa, India and the UK and has conducted mobile journalism workshops with broadcasters across Europe. She's a business commerce graduate with several years of experience in banking, and building mobile products across Africa. She is currently also a contributor for the International News Media Association (inma.org) and Thomson Foundation (TFJNow)

Tala Halaweh

Journalist. BA in Radio and Television from Birzeit University and Masters in International Media from the University of Leeds, UK. Since 2007 she has worked for several local Palestinian media and as a teaching assistant at Birzeit University and a research assistant at the University of Coventry. Tala published a scholarly article entitled "Citizen's Journalism and its Impact on Palestinian Media Sources" and co-authored the course "Media Ethics", both produced by the Media Development Center at Birzeit University.

Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch, investigates human rights abuses in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. Prior to his current role, he was a Bertha Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights, where he focused on US counterterrorism policies, including legal representation of Guantanamo detainees. As the 2013-14 Arthur R. and Barbara D. Finberg Fellow at Human Rights Watch, he investigated human rights violations in Egypt, including the Rab’a massacre, one of the largest killings of protesters in a single day. A former Fulbright Scholar in Syria, Omar holds a JD from Stanford Law School, where he co-authored a report on the civilian consequences of US drone strikes in Pakistan as a part of the International Human Rights & Conflict Resolution Clinic, an MA in Arab Studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Affairs, and a BA in International Relations from Stanford. He speaks English and Arabic.

Mahmoud Alafranji

He is a human rights activist and researcher and currently the coordinator of the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council. He holds a degree in Political Science and Diplomatic Studies from the University of Applied Sciences in Jordan. He has worked in the field of human rights for more than 15 years and specializes in documenting violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law locally and regionally. He is active in defending the principles and values of human rights and fundamental freedoms, with special emphasis on civil and political rights. He has contributed to many lobbying and advocacy human rights campaigns locally and internationally.

Leyla Larbi

Leyla is a campaigner based in France. She is currently working for SumOfUs and will Soon be leading two main campaigns: one advocating for the freedom of information in France and the other is on globally targeting a multinational company involved in the colonization of Palestine. Leyla is also a political activist from a communist and anti-colonial working-class family, and a decolonial and intersectional feminist. Beside her professional work, Leyla continues to resist intersectional forms of discrimination in French and/ or international struggle groups. Lastly, Leyla is a firm believer in the need to include local struggles in a framework of global resistance.

Nadim Nashif

Nadeem is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Arab Center for the Development of Social Media and an active member of the Palestinian Policy Network. Nadim has been active in civil society for more than 20 years. He has participated in the establishment and management of several local and international organizations and associations.

Lama Amr

Lama Amro has a BA in Business Administration from Birzeit University and is one of the founders of Bir Hakaya, which aims to change the prevalent stereotype of young Palestinians worldwide. Moreover, Lama is a photographer and also does short videos. Lama believes in the abilities of the Palestinian youth and seeks to provide opportunities for young people to discover their strengths and develop their abilities.

Alaa' Tamimi

Alaa' holds a Bachelor's degree in Law from the Kingdom of Morocco in 1999 and a Diploma in Legislative Drafting from Birzeit University in 2013 and joined the Public Prosecution Service in 2001. He is currently the Chief Prosecutor and Head of the Human Rights Unit in Palestine.

Yasmin Attoun

Co-founder at Events.ps I have BA in Media \specialized in TV and Radio, 3 years’ experience in digital marketing with big companies in the Middle East.

Tarek Al-Bakri

Computer engineer, born in Jerusalem in 1986, graduated from Amman University in Jordan. Upon his return to Palestine, he developed the idea of documenting the destroyed Palestinian villages after his contact with Palestinian refugees in the diaspora. Tarek launched a personal initiative in visual documentation in Palestine. The initiative focuses on documenting the Palestinian villages that were ruined, destroyed and depopulated during the 1948 'Nakba'. Tarek also documents the houses and monuments that were stolen by Israel, accompanied by old photographs prior to the Nakba as a proof that Palestinians have the right to them.

Sahar Francis

Human rights lawyer and the director of Addameer since 2006.

Sobhi Khatib

Sobhi Khatib consults, facilitates and trains workshops on Strategy, Change Management and Online Gender Based Violence. Sobhi has over 14 years experience working with INGOs (e.g. Amnesty International, Greenpeace and UN), media organisation (e.g. Al-Jazeera & ZDF) and others including for-profit companies. Sobhi's educational background is B.Sc Psychology & M.A. Human Rights & Conflict Management.

Sijal Nasralla

Sijal is an artist, grassroots organizer, and Kairos fellow based in Durham, NC. Before becoming a digital campaigner with SumOfUs, Sijal had been leading and supporting social justice efforts at the intersection of electoral politics, Palestinian-solidarity, Black Lives Matter, and refugee/immigrant rights both locally and globally.

Yusuf Omar

Yusuf Omar is a multi-award winning journalist and Co-founder of Hashtag Our Stories, a TEDx speaker, former CNN Senior Social Media Reporter on Snapchat and former Mobile Editor at the Hindustan Times in India where he empowered 750 journalists to tell stories with phones. Since 2010, Yusuf has been a foreign correspondent, covering the Syrian civil war by utilizing only his phone. At Hashtag Our Stories, he’s empowering mobile video storytelling communities around the world, creating shows in every language.

Mohammed Hijjawi

Mohammed Hijjawi, born in Tulkarm in 1997, is a civil engineering student at An-Najah University since 2015, editor at Wikipedia since 2012, and a representative of Palestine among Wikimedians of the Levant. Mohammed is also a volunteer in the Arab Wikipedia Development Initiative.

Raja Althaibani

Raja currently works to ensure that video is used safely, ethically and effectively in the Middle East and North African region and to ensure innovative learning is shared and built upon. Raja develops strategic programs and trainings for human rights, advocacy, justice and accountability purposes and for supporting activists, citizens, journalists, human rights defenders, and investigators using video for media.

Mohamed Badarne

Mohamed Badarne is a photographer, trainer, and activist. Born in the Palestinian village of Arraba in the Galilee, he got involved in social activism as a teenager. He volunteered in refugee camps in the West Bank and went on to build Haq (“Right”), a human rights movement for Palestinian youths. Until 2012, he earned his living as a high-school teacher and NGO worker. Since then – after graduating in Professional Photography – he has dedicated his career to photography and teaching photography. Mohamed leads workshops in cooperation with NGOs, community centers, and independent groups. For his own photographic work he received grants from renowned art foundations, and his projects were exhibited in major venues, including Darat al-Funoun Art Gallery in Amman, the International Labour Organization in Geneva and the UN Headquarters in New York. He lives in Haifa and Berlin.

Rand Khdeir

Peter Brückner

Peter Brückner is a freelance journalism trainer and a project manager for television and radio projects. A media designer with over 15 years of experience in TV production as cameraman, video editor and sound engineer, he has dedicated himself in recent years to training journalists in the fields of video and mobile journalism as well as radio production workflows. As project manager he is involved in the planning and the technical implementaton of TV and radio studios. On behalf of DW Academy he has worked in numerous projects across Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Viktoria Kleber

Viktoria Kleber studied Politics and Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic in Berlin, Tel Aviv and Cairo. She covered the Arab Uprising in 2011 from Tahrir Square for several German Online Media before doing her Traineeship at Deutsche Welle (DW). Since 2016 she has been working for Germany's Public Broadcaster ARD, covering News for Tagesschau – Germany’s most watched News Show. Viktoria loves mobile reporting and is working as a trainer and project manager for Deutsche Welle Akademie.

Edin Omanovic

Edin leads Privacy International's State Surveillance programme. He previously worked as a Researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

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Niveen Abu Rahmoun

Neven Abu Rahmoun was born in 1981 in the village of Rina. She holds BA in Political Science and Media and a Master's Degree in Political Science from Bar-Ilan University. During the last decade, Niveen worked as a teacher of 'Civilizations' as a subject. Since 1998, Nevin has been active in the National Democratic Rally, and was one of the first activists in the party, as well as one of the pioneers of the feminist movement in Arab society.

Inas Al-Khateeb

BA in Economics and Business Administration, MA in Public Management and Policy from the University of Haifa; BA in Archeology and Arabic Language and a degree in teaching from Tel Aviv University, as well as a General Certificate in Gender Studies. Inas works in Mada al-Carmel - Arab Center for Applied Social Studies - Research Assistant and Publishing Officer.

David Kaye

Saleh Hijazi

Saleh Hijazi is Amnesty International’s Head of Office in Jerusalem and Deputy Regional Director for Middle East and North Africa (MENA). He has previously worked as a researcher and campaigner in the organization. Saleh was Visiting Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and has previously worked at Human Rights Watch and Al-Quds University Human Rights Clinic. He holds BA in Liberal Arts from Lawrence University and MA in Human Rights from the University of Essex.

Derrar Ghanem

Mohammed Abu Kmeil

Trainer

Trainer and consultant in the field of digital content

Trainer and consultant in the field of preparing and marketing digital content. Conducted several training courses, workshops and activities for a number of international institutions and entities such as the United Nations Development Program, UNICEF, UNFPA, German Cooperation Foundation, British Consulate General, in addition to a group of local organisations and universities.

Mohammad Abu Hashim

Speaker

Legal Researcher at the Palestinian Center for Human Rights

A legal researcher at the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, a lecturer at Al-Azhar University, the English Law School, a human rights trainer, lobbyist and advocate in many human rights and development institutions. He holds a BA in Human Rights from Al-Azhar University in Gaza and a Master of Human Rights from York University. He holds a high diploma in societal change from the University of Barcelona, Spain. He has published many research papers in various fields related to violations of human rights, transitional justice, women's and children's rights, as well as legal reviews of certain laws.

Dr. Majed Turban

Speaker

Dean of the Faculty of Information, Al-Aqsa University

Associate Professor of Digital Journalism, Dean of the Faculty of Information at the University of Al-Aqsa and human capacity development trainer.

Mahmoud Al-zant

Speaker

Social Development Forum - Executive Director

Executive Director of the Social Development Forum and Gaza Online Network. Advisor on issues of advocacy and social media and a trainer on a range of topics related to social media and the youth sector.

Mahmoud Abu Ghoush

Trainer

Takaful Committee - Director of Information Technology Unit

Mahmoud Maher Abu Ghosh is a researcher in the field of digital information security. He has done much of his research in several areas related to information technology (data analysis, information security, image processing, cloud computing). He is currently the director of the IT unit at Takafol Committee and an IT lecturer at various Palestinian universities in Gaza. Lastly, he is a member of the Arab Data Research team.

fayrouz sharqawi

Grassroots Jerusalem - Global Movement Coordinator

Fayrouz has been the coordinator of the Global Movement at the Jerusalem Grassroots since 2012. One of her missions is to guide political tours in Jerusalem, to communicate with the media and to write about issues related to Jerusalem, in addition to providing lectures in different countries on Jerusalem and the work of the Jerusalem Grassroots.

Jamal Yaghi

Speaker

Administrative Body / Pal Plus Digital System

Youth and Community Activist, Director of the Domestic Tourism Promotion Project in the Gaza Strip, and specializing in digital platforms and modern media. He is also the founder of a number of youth groups.

Hiba Al-Abadleh

Moderator

Social Media Club

She has worked in many Palestinian media outlets and in various other platforms.

Salwa Hammad

Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center

Advocacy Campaigns Coordinator at the Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid and Human Rights. Studied political science and public administration at Birzeit University and worked as a coordinator for youth projects with the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign.