Rawan Damen
Speaker/ Trainer
Director of Stream Media Consultants
Rawan Al Damen is the Director of Stream Media Consultants. She is a media consultant specialising in documentary, television and digital programs. Director and author of more than 25 documentaries in several languages, won international awards and supervised more than 250 documentaries throughout 2008-2016 in Al Jazeera Media Network. Team leader and founder of REMIX Palestine, the largest interactive visual site on the Palestinian cause. Member of the jury of a number of Arab and international film festivals, won the Media Creativity Award from the Arab Thought Foundation in Beirut (December 2015). She holds a Master's degree (Hons) in Media and Communication from the University of Leeds in the UK.

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.

Moderator
Journalist
Omar Shakir

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.
Speaker
Human Rights Watch, Israel and Palestine Director
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.
_jp.jpg)
Moderator
Researcher and human rights tender

Alaa Qaq
Alaa holds a post-graduate degree in economics and history related to the European Union and a bachelor's degree in economics and political science. Alaa has been working in Khazaen since its inception.
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.

Khazaen
Speaker
Trainer
Campigner at SumOfUs

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.
7amleh- Arab Center for the Development of Social Media
Moderator
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.

Speaker
Founder of Bir Hakaya
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.
Chief Prosecutor and Head of the Human Rights Unit in Palestine
Speaker
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.

Speaker
Co-Founder of Events.ps

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.

Visiual Documentation and Storytelling
Speaker
Director of Addameer
Speaker

Ed Geraghty
Trainer
Technologist at Privacy International
Ed is a Technologist at Privacy International. He is responsible for our technical security and research, and leads the development of our security framework and tech engagement with our International Network. Prior to joining Privacy International, he has worked in various industries, and has been a privacy activist since 2009. He holds a BSc (Hons) degree in Computer Science from the University of Kent, and has met the academic requirements for a post-graduate Professional Diploma in Management from the Open University, where he is studying towards an MBA.
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.

Trainer

Mohammad AlQaq
Trainer
Visual Artists and Storyteller
Mohammad alQaq is a visual artist, and a multimedia storytelling trainer. He uses different artistic platforms to express his ideas: singing, videography, photography, presenting and acting. In the academic field, Mohammad is part of the evaluation and selection committee for art students’ graduation projects. Mohammad relies in his visual arts, photography and film, on simulating cases that are inspired by the real world and surrounding events. Mohammad alQaq started his career as an art director at Rubicon. After 6 years of work experience, he joined the blogging world in 2005, and created his popular blog "Khobbeizeh", which was the first video-blog in the Arab region, and a career milestone, which lead him to join Hiber as a co-founder and trainer. As a trainer, Mohammad assists trainees to tell their digital stories visually and creatively, as well as to advocate for the ideas these stories hold. In 2015, he was hired to direct Fikrezyon, along with the well-known New Think Theater event. Mohammad is currently a self-employed art director, media consultant and trainer.
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.

Trainer
Campigner at SumOfUs

Deborah Brown
Speaker
Association for Progressive Communications (APC)
Deborah Brown is APC's global policy advocacy lead. She focuses on internet rights advocacy and fostering good internet governance. Her role is to ensure APC is an effective actor in global internet rights and governance spaces through developing and leading strategic programmes of activities (research, communications, advocacy, capacity building, and networking) that involve members and reflect APC's theory of change. Deborah represents APC on the Civil Society Information Society Advisory Council (CSISAC) at the OECD Committee on Digital Economy Policy and the Freedom Online Coalition's Advisory Network. Previously, Deborah worked at Access Now, the United Nations Foundation, and the National Democratic Institute. Deborah received her master’s degree from Georgetown University in Democracy and Governance and Arab Studies, and her bachelor’s degree from Barnard College, Columbia University in Political Science and Human Rights.
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.

Speaker and Trainer
Journalist and Co-founder of Hashtag Our Stories
Jonathan McCully
Speaker
Legal Advisor to the Digital Freedom Fund
Jonathan is the Legal Adviser to the Digital Freedom Fund. He previously held a senior legal role at an international non-governmental organisation, working on strategic litigation before international, regional and domestic courts.Jonathan is also Editor of Columbia University’s Global Freedom of Expression Case Law Database, and has published widely on freedom of expression, privacy, open justice, human rights and intellectual property. He is based in London.
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.

Speaker
Editor for Wikipedia

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.
Program Manager - Middle East and North Africa
Trainer
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.

Trainer
Photographer

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.
Rand is a producer and presenter of television programs such as "Bidha Qa'ada" for the year 2016, in the Palestinian channel, and has worked in various media and cultural projects, as well as in the field of media consulting and production. She studied radio and television at Birzeit University.
Host
Trainer
Journalist

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.

Project Manager at Deutsche Welle Akademie
Trainer
Trainer
Privacy International

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.
Speaker
Teacher and Activist
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.

Speaker
The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media

David Kaye
David Kaye has been appointed UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression in August 2014. Mr Kaye is clinical professor of law at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law. He teaches international human rights law and international humanitarian law and directs a clinic in international justice. His research and writing focus on accountability for serious human rights abuses and the law governing use of force. He has collaborated with local and national governments, major international NGOs as well as those at the grassroots, international organizations, and academic institutions around the world
Speaker
Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression
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.

Amnesty International’s Head of Office in Jerusalem
Speaker

Derrar Ghanem
co-founder and Chief Outreach Officer for BuildPalestin
Speaker
Derrar Ghanem is the co-founder and Chief Outreach Officer for BuildPalestine. He is passionate about fostering the growth of the social entrepreneurship ecosystem in Palestine. Previously, Derrar led the development of the Work Factory, a co-working space in Ramallah for Palestinians.
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.
.jpg)
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
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.