Tahanie Aboushi is the founding-partner of the Aboushi Law Firm and an experienced litigator. Her practice includes civil rights; personal injury; wrongful death, commercial litigation, discrimination; and police misconduct. She is zealous in her protection and defense of all of her clients and particularly, her youngest clients: children. Tahanie has extensive experience in impact litigation against the City of New York, NYPD and other City agencies resulting in policy changes. Tahanie received her B.A. from St. John’s University and a J.D. from Syracuse Law School.
Samar S. Ali’s research initiatives focus on positive compromise through promoting conflict-resolution best practices among people, communities and nations experiencing polarization due to the connection between violence and labeling. Ali joined Vanderbilt’s political sciences and law faculties as a research professor with 14 years of experience in international relations and legal practice. She began her legal career as a law clerk to Judge Gilbert S. Merritt Jr. ’60 of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals and then clerked for Justice Edwin Cameron during his tenure on the Constitutional Court of South Africa. In 2007, she joined Hogan Lovell US in Washington D.C., helping to establish the firm’s Middle Eastern practice in the United Arab Emirates. She left the firm in 2010 when she was named a White House Fellow in President Barack Obama’s administration. During her fellowship, she worked closely with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on counterterrorism measures, gaining experience with bilateral negotiations on behalf of the U.S. government and later joined former President Jimmy Carter as part of an international delegation observing Egypt’s 2012 presidential election.
After returning to Tennessee to practice law, she joined the administration of Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam as the state’s assistant commissioner of international affairs, supporting Tennessee’s global relations. The five-year international strategy plan she helped develop laid the framework for Tennessee’s international economic development footprint.
In addition to her legal practice at Bass Berry & Sims, Ali co-founded and has served as a director of the Lodestone Advisory Group, a boutique consulting firm that specializes in growth strategies through innovation, venture capital, global markets and transformation. She is also president and CEO of Millions of Conversations, a nonprofit organization that aims to unite Americans around common values for a shared future by fostering dialogue among those who hold different opinions, views or beliefs.
Specializing at the intersection of national security, economic development and human rights, Ali is a Young Global Leader with the World Economic Forum, a term member with the Council on Foreign Relations, a Winrock International board member, and a recipient of the White House Fellows IMPACT Award. She currently serves as an adviser to the Aspen Institute’s initiative, “Who Is Us: A Project on American Identity,” and was recently appointed as a New Pluralist Fellow.
Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean and other publications and venues.
Huwaida Arraf is a Palestinian-American lawyer and human rights advocate. Her father is from the village of Mi'ilya, in the Galilee (Akka District) and her mother is from the West Bank town of Beit Sahour. Huwaida has been involved in numerous legal, political, and grassroots initiatives for Palestinian liberation for the last two decades. In 2001, she co-founded the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led non-violent resistance movement, which has twice been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. From 2007-2008, Huwaida helped build the first accredited clinical legal education program in the Arab world, based at Al-Quds University. She was one of the initiators and organizers of the first delegation of lawyers to enter Gaza following Operation Cast Lead (2008-2009) and co-authored a National Lawyers Guild report on their findings, "Onslaught: Israel's Attack on Gaza and the Rule of Law." Huwaida is the former Chairperson of the Free Gaza Movement, and from August to December 2008, led 5 successful sea voyages to the Gaza Strip to confront and challenge Israel's illegal blockade on the over 2 million Palestinians living there. 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 31 May 2010.
In 2011, she was one of the six Palestinian Freedom Riders, who, inspired by the U.S. Civil Rights Movement’s Freedom Rides of the 1960s, attempted to ride segregated Israeli settler public transport, for which they were harassed then violently arrested. In 2012, Huwaida helped conceive of and launch the Witness Bahrain initiative—an effort to provide human rights observers on the ground in Bahrain, where an uprising for democracy is being violently repressed. She was arrested by Bahraini authorities and deported for her work.
Huwaida currently resides in Detroit with her husband, Adam, and two young children—Diyaar and Mayaar—where she practices civil rights law. She was honored to serve as a member of Rasmea Odeh’s legal defense team. Huwaida continues to advocate for Palestinian freedom and human rights, most importantly, by supporting the next generation of Palestinian voices and leadership. Huwaida was a founding member of the Palestinian Youth Movement; is a member of the Palestinian Feminist Collective; regularly leads delegations to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory and serves as an active or advisory board member of a number of organizations. In 2020, Huwaida was a Bernie Sanders delegate to the Democratic National Convention, and in 2022, was a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives for Michigan's 10th Congressional District. Huwaida is currently organizing with the international Freedom Flotilla Coalition to send a flotilla, carrying over 5000 tons of life-saving aid and hundreds of civilians from around the world to challenge and break Israel’s illegal siege on Gaza.
Abed Awad was born in New Jersey and was raised in the village of Deir Debwan, near Ramallah, Palestine.
Awad is a founding partner of Awad & Khoury, LLP located in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. His practice in the New Jersey / New York area focuses on complex family law, Sharia-compliant estate planning, Islamic wills and Islamic Trusts (waqfs), Islamic law, not-for-profit law, and business law. Awad is AV rated by Martindale and is a fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers. Awad has native fluency in Arabic and is an international expert in Islamic law and the laws of Muslim countries. Awad has testified, consulted, and/or provided expert reports for courts and attorneys throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Singapore concerning the interpretation and application of Shari'a (Islamic law) and the laws of Arab and Muslim countries. Awad is the Founder and CEO of Shariawiz.com, an award-winning online Islamic estate planning portal for Muslim Americans.
Awad was an adjunct law professor at Rutgers Law School, Newark (2003-2020), and has taught at Pace Law School and Seton Hall Law School. Courses taught include Matrimonial Litigation, Islamic Banking & Finance, and Islamic Jurisprudence. Awad was also a contributor and U.S. Editor for Harvard Law School's Islamic Legal Studies Program ShariaSource portal (2016-2019).
As a frequent public speaker at bar associations, universities, conventions, and political events, Awad lectures on subjects ranging from law, American politics, International Affairs, immigrant identity, gender, religion, and culture internationally, and he has more than 200 television and radio appearances as a political and/or legal commentator for numerous media outlets, including The New York Times, ABC, CNN, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Al-Jazeera, BBC, NPR, Dream TV, Palestine TV, French 24 (Arabic), and Al-Arabia.
Awad has been frequently quoted by national and international media outlets as a political and/or legal commentator, including The New York Times, ABC, CNN, Bergen Record, Star Ledger, Foxnews.com, ESPN, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, The Village Voice, and Chicago Lawyer.
Awad has published extensively in various publications, among them The Star Ledger, Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Women, New Jersey Law Journal, ShariaSource.blog, CNN.com, National Law Journal, North Carolina Lawyers Weekly, Daily Journal (California), The Daily Record (Maryland), Religions News Service, The Nation and the Bergen Record. Awad is a regular continuing legal education lecturer nationally.
In 2002, Awad was selected as one of ten “Lawyers of the Year” by the Lawyers Weekly (USA) for his groundbreaking decision enforcing the mahr provision in a Muslim Marriage Contract. Awad was a member of the New Jersey Electoral College (2004) and has been the recipient of numerous awards, most notably Scholar of the Year, New Jersey Muslim Lawyers Association (2018), Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year, Unchained (2018), Avenue Magazine’s Legal Elite (2010), the Vision & Achievement Award, Mental Health Association in Passaic County (2010), Community Activism Award, Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) (2007) among others.
Awad earned a juris doctorate from Pace Law School and an MA in Islamic Studies from the University of London (School of Oriental & African Studies) with a focus on al-Muʻtazilah’s methodology to authenticate hadith. Prior to entering private practice, Awad clerked for Hon. George E. Sabbath, NJ Superior Court. Awad is a Board member of: Palestine Legal, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and Ya Samar Dance Company.
George Bisharat is the Honorable Raymond L. Sullivan Professor at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, where he has been a faculty member since 1991. He has taught criminal procedure and practice, law and anthropology, law in Middle East societies, and Islamic Law. His research and writing focus on Palestine, US policy toward the Middle East, and a variety of topics in criminal practice and crime policy. He has published for both academic and general audiences in the United States and abroad.
Prior to joining UC Law, Bisharat was a deputy public defender for the City and County of San Francisco. He studied law and anthropology at Harvard (J.D. 1983, Ph.D. 1987) and holds degrees from Georgetown University (M.A. 1979) and UC Berkeley (B.A. 1975).
Bisharat is a jazz/blues musician, and as “Big Harp George” has released 7 albums that have earned award nominations, critical acclaim, and global airplay.
Omar M. Dajani is the Carol Olson Professor of International Law at McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific. With family roots in Jaffa (as well as Syria and France), Omar was born and raised in East Texas. He received his B.A. from Northwestern University and his J.D. from Yale Law School. From 1999 to 2001, he served as a legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team in peace talks with Israel, participating in the summits at Camp David and Taba. Subsequently, he was a political officer in the office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) in Jerusalem. He has also consulted on a variety of legal infrastructure development and conflict resolution processes in the Middle East and elsewhere—for institutions including the United States Department of State, the Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Center, the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, and the European Council on Foreign Relations. Currently, Omar is co-chair of the joint board of A Land for All, a movement that advocates a two-state confederation in Israel-Palestine, with freedom of movement and residence for all citizens of both states. He has published widely regarding Palestine in academic journals (including at Yale and the University of California) and in media outlets (including Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Foreign Policy). His recent book, Federalism and Decentralization in the Contemporary Middle East and North Africa (co-edited with Aslı Bâli) (Cambridge University Press, 2023) explores institutional design solutions for addressing identity conflict and governance challenges in the MENA region.
Noura Erakat is a human rights attorney and a Professor at Rutgers University, New Brunswick in the Department of Africana Studies and the Program in Criminal Justice. Her research interests include human rights law, humanitarian law, national security law, refugee law, social justice, and critical race theory. Noura is an editorial committee member of the Journal for Palestine Studies and a co-Founding Editor of Jadaliyya, an electronic magazine on the Middle East that combines scholarly expertise and local knowledge. She is the author of Justice for Some: Law and in the Question of Palestine (Stanford University Press, 2019).
Noura’s scholarly publications include: “Racism, whiteness, and burnout in antiracism movements: How white racial justice activists elevate burnout in racial justice activists of color in the United States" in Ethnicities; "New Imminence in the Time of Obama: The Impact of Targeted Killings on the Law of Self-Defense" in the Arizona Law Review; and "Overlapping Refugee Legal Regimes: Closing the Protection Gap During Secondary Forced Displacement," in the Oxford Journal of International Refugee Law. Her multimedia productions include the Black Palestinian Solidarity video and website as well as the Gaza In Context Pedagogical Project, featuring a short documentary. A full list of her scholarly publications can be found here. Her current research seeks to examine the activist praxes in contemporary renewals of Black-Palestinian solidarity as well as technologies of surveillance and counter-surveillance in greater East Jerusalem.
Noura served as Legal Counsel for the Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee in the House of Representatives from 2007-2009. Prior to her time on Capitol Hill, Noura received a New Voices Fellowship to work as the national grassroots organizer and legal advocate at the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. Noura worked as the Legal Advocacy Coordinator for the Badil Center for Refugee and Residency Rights from 2010-2013. In that capacity, she drafted their submissions to the human rights treaty bodies and lobbied the US Congress as well as diplomatic missions at the United Nations on their behalf.
Noura has appeared on CBS News, CNN International with Becky Anderson, CNN with Don Lemon, MSNBC’s “Up With Chris Hayes,” "All In With Chris Hayes," "Ronan Farrow Daily," Fox’s “The O’ Reilly Factor,” NBC’s “Politically Incorrect,” PBS News Hour, NPR, BBC World Service, Democracy Now, and Al-Jazeera America, Arabic, and English. Her publications have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The LA Review of Books, The LA Times, The Nation, USA Today, The Hill, Foreign Policy, Jezebel, Al Ahram English, Al Shabaka, MERIP, Fair Observer, Middle East Eye, The Interdependent, IntLawGrrls, The Huffington Post, Al Jazeera, and Jadaliyya.
Noura earned her J.D. and undergraduate degrees from the University of California at Berkeley (Phi Beta Kappa) and a LLM in National Security from Georgetown University Law Center (Distinction & Dean’s List). She also earned a LLM in Legal Education by completing the Abraham L. Freedman Teaching Fellowship at Temple University, Beasley School of Law.
Dima Khalidi is the founder and director of Palestine Legal. She oversees Palestine Legal’s array of legal and advocacy work to protect people speaking out for Palestinian freedom from attacks on their civil and constitutional rights.
Prior to founding Palestine Legal in 2012, Dima worked with the Center for Constitutional Rights as a cooperating attorney on the Mamilla Cemetery Campaign, submitting a Petition to United Nations officials to stop the desecration of an ancient Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem, and advocating on behalf of Palestinian descendants of individuals interred in the cemetery. As a volunteer and Ella Baker intern at CCR, she also worked on numerous cases that sought to hold Israeli officials and corporations accountable for Israeli violations of international law, as well as on CCR’s Guantanamo Bay docket. As a law student, she interned with the People’s Law Office in Chicago, assisting in the acquittal of Palestinian-American Muhammad Salah on major federal criminal charges.
Dima has a JD from DePaul University College of Law, an MA in International and Comparative Legal Studies from the University of London – SOAS, and a BA in History and Near Eastern Studies from the University of Michigan. Prior to studying law, Dima worked at Birzeit University, heading a research project on the role of informal justice mechanisms in the Palestinian legal system.
Dima has advocated on Palestinian rights issues in media forums such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Hill, Democracy Now!, The Nation, Al Jazeera, Huffington Post, The Birmingham News, In These Times, Jacobin, NPR, Law and Disorder Radio, and KPFK's Middle East in Focus, among others.
Dima is based in Palestine Legal’s Chicago office, and is admitted to practice law in Illinois.
Diala Shamas is a Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, where she works on challenging government and law enforcement abuses perpetrated under the guise of national security, both in the U.S. and abroad. Prior to joining the Center for Constitutional Rights, Diala was a Clinical Supervising Attorney and Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School, and a Senior Staff Attorney supervising the CLEAR (Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility) project at CUNY School of Law.
Diala has represented individuals who were approached for questioning by local and federal law enforcement, targeted for surveillance, placed on federal watch-lists or who have had immigration benefits withheld on national security grounds. She advises social justice movements and advocates as they face suppression efforts at the hands of the state and private actors. She has worked closely with Yemeni-American communities in their legal and advocacy efforts to challenge the Muslim Ban. She was on the legal team representing the plaintiffs in Raza v. City of New York, which challenged the New York City Police Department’s program of suspicionless surveillance of Muslims. She also litigated Tanvir v. Tanzin, challenging the FBI’s abuse of the No-Fly List to pressure individuals to become informants.
Diala has also worked on a range of international human rights issues. This includes human rights and humanitarian law violations in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian Territory, where she has lived and worked extensively, as well refugee policies in Australia and Greece. She brings a community-oriented and client-centered approach to all of her work.
Diala received her undergraduate and law degrees from Yale, where she was an editor for the Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal. She has been published by or appeared in major news outlets, including the New York Times, The Nation, DemocracyNow!, CNN.com, The Washington Post, NPR, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, This American Life, and The Intercept.
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