Gaza is the Compass

Palestinian political activist, researcher, and organizer, president of Tamkeen Movement and co-founder of Quds News Network.

A Palestinian journalist from Deir al-Balah Refugee Camp in Gaza. Initially a football journalist and commentator, he evolved into an "accidental war correspondent" due to Israel's ongoing war on Gaza, reporting on the genocide’s devastating impact.

A plastic and reconstructive surgeon who worked as a war surgeon in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, South Lebanon and during the 4 wars in the Gaza Strip. On the 9th of October 2023 he entered the Gaza Strip and worked in Shifa Hospital and then Al-Ahli- Baptist Hospital for 43 days during the current bombardment. 

Pulitzer Prize–winning Palestinian poet, author, and writer from Gaza, founder of the Edward Said Library.

Palestinian American emergency medicine physician who served in Gaza during the genocide.

A civil/human rights attorney and activist based in Detroit who co-founded the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and is one of the primary organizers of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla now and in 2010, when she was traveling with as it was lethally attacked by Israeli forces.

Writer and researcher specializing in the political dynamics of Arab liberation, with a focus on resistance movements, anti-colonial struggles, and the culture of resistance.

Former Palestinian prisoner and coordinator of the executive committees of the Popular Conference.

Nora Barrows-Friedman is a journalist, radio broadcaster, and staff editor at the Electronic Intifada. 

Mariam Barghouti is a journalist based in Ramallah, occupied Palestine. She has covered the region for more than ten years as a policy-analyst, researcher, and reporter. 

A senior lecturer at UC Berkeley, co-founder of Zaytouna college, President of the Northern California Islamic Council, co-founder and national chair of American Muslims for Palestine, and chairman of the board of the Muslim Legal Fund for America.

Hannah Priscilla Craig is the Director of Culture & Communications at The People’s Forum in New York City, where she leads cultural programming & artist initiatives as well as design & communication. She’s also a founding organizer of Artists Against Apartheid, building with over 15,000 cultural workers around the world dedicating their work to the struggle for Palestinian liberation & beyond.

Amaya Tawasha Diwan is a Palestinian of mixed heritage from the Bay Area. She is a member of Arab Youth Organizing with AROC. In her free time, she likes to write about Palestine and dance dabke.

A human before being a journalist from Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem. She was put under administrative detention in September 2022 for her social media posts, facing interrogation in al-Maskobiyya prison and solitary confinement in Hasharon before being transferred to Damon, the prison for Palestinian women. After she was released, she was put under 10 months of house arrest for her social media posts in September 2022.

Ashraf Hazeyen, PhD, is a philosopher and author whose forthcoming works explore Israeli thought, the collapse of moral meaning, and the unspoken grammars of political life. His research interrogates ideology, symbolic power, and the fragile architectures of ethics in contemporary politics.

Dr. Monadel Herzallah has been involved in student activism since the 80s through OAS and GUPS, currently serving as part of the coordination committee in USPCN, and co-founder and organizer with the People’s Center for Palestine in California.

Co-founder of Doctors Against Genocide, a global organization mobilizing healthcare professionals to confront and prevent genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

Professor at San Francisco State University and organizer with United States Palestinian Community Network (USPCN).

Palestinian graduate of Columbia University who was unlawfully detained for 104 days for his Palestine advocacy.

Co-founder of Doctors Against Genocide and lead of the Health for Palestine Pediatric Program, providing care and training in refugee camps across the West Bank.

Mayor Eduardo Martinez was born in 1949 in Dumas, Texas. After moving to the Bay Area in the 1970s, Councilmember Martinez received his BA in Liberal Arts and a Multiple Subjects Teaching Credential from San Francisco State. He began his teaching career in 1989 and worked in the West Contra Costa County Unified School District for many years before retiring in 2010.

Organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement.

Grant Miner is the President of the Student Workers of Columbia - UAW 2710 (pron. twenty seven ten), the union of all student researchers and instructors at Columbia University. Previously, he was a PhD student at Columbia for five years, until he was expelled last March for participating in on-campus protests against the genocide in Palestine. 

Belal Muhammad is a mixed martial artist and former UFC Welterweight Champion, known for proudly representing Palestine on the global stage. In 2024, he made history by becoming the first fighter of Palestinian descent to win a UFC world title, carrying the flag and his heritage into every fight.

Mohammed Nabulsi is a Palestinian American lawyer and organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement based out of Houston, TX. He has organized for Palestine in various capacities, from shaping political analysis for the role of the movement to educational programming to building out the infrastructure of the broader Palestine movement.

Organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement and steering committee member of the Mask Off Maersk Campaign.

Jemma Pasch is the Director of Grassroots Organizing at Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), where she fosters powerful, locally-rooted organizing at national scale so that anti-zionist Jews in the US can play our strongest possible role to end this genocide and the US-Israel alliance enabling & funding it. A long-time organizer in movements for Palestinian and collective liberation, Jemma is dedicated to cultivating practices and structures that build trust and alignment at scale, allowing us to move in disciplined, collective formation when it’s time to act.

Sachin Peddada is the Research Coordinator of the Progressive International. His work supports state governments, factory and maritime workers, and civil society organizations around the world seeking to intervene in the supply chains and transport routes of military cargo shipments to the Zionist entity. Sachin is also a PhD student in Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where his research focuses on the political economy of ecological justice and sovereign development. His most recent publication — “Imperialist Intervention and the Invention of Israel” — analyzes the rise, expansion, and evolution of the zionist project as a tool of empire over the past two centuries.

Miko Peled is the founder and director of Palestine House of Freedom in Washington DC. Born in Jerusalem, Palestine to a Zionist family, his memoir, “The General's Son, Journey of an Israeli in Palestine,” documents his departure from Zionism and his work as an activist calling to dismantle the apartheid Zionist state and establish a free Palestine with equal rights from the river to the sea. In 2016 he published his second book, “Injustice, the story of the Holy Land Foundation Five.” This book tells the story of the persecution and prosecution of the largest Muslim charity organization in the US, and the imprisonment of 5 innocent Palestinian- Americans.

Eugene Puryear is an American journalist, author, activist, host on Breakthrough News, and author of Shackled and Chained: Mass Incarceration in Capitalist America." He is also a cofounder and central committee member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

Columbia University graduate student and organizer.

The founder of Thiqa, an initiative working to reconnect Palestinian communities.

Jake Romm is a New York City based writer, the associate editor for Protean Magazine, and the US Representative of the Hind Rajab Foundation.

Palestinian-American author, racial justice and civil rights activist, and community organizer.

Zeiad Abbas Shamrouch is a Palestinian refugee from Dheisheh Refugee Camp in the West Bank. He is the co-founder of the Ibdaa Cultural Center in Dheisheh. Zeiad is also a filmmaker, journalist and educator who has worked with Palestinian and international media and has participated in the production of several documentary films.  He completed his Master of Arts in Social Justice and International Relations from the World Learning School for International Training Graduate Institute.

Founder of the Amazon Labor Union and The Congress of Essential Workers, 2025 Handala Flotilla crew member.

Dr. Omar Suleiman is dedicated to building bridges across humanity, serving the Muslim community, and advocating for justice. He is the founding director of MUHSEN, a nonprofit supporting individuals and families with special needs and promoting greater inclusion within Muslim spaces. He also serves as an adjunct professor of Islamic Studies at Southern Methodist University and is the founder and president of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, which focuses on addressing doubts, strengthening faith, and inspiring positive Muslim contribution and impact.

Rashida Tlaib, born in Detroit to Palestinian immigrant parents, is the first Palestinian-American woman elected to the U.S. Congress. She currently represents Michigan’s 12th District.

Ammar Youzbashy is a Computer Science graduate working as a Youth Programs Manager with extensive experience in training, community empowerment, and youth political and social engagement. He also volunteers as the Beirut Area Coordinator at the Palestinian Cultural Club, supervising the work of committees in both Beirut and North Lebanon.

Munir Atalla is the Head of Production & Acquisitions at Watermelon Pictures. He is also an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement and a producer of the film "The Encampments".

Widely considered the lead Palestinian dance company in Palestine and the diaspora, El-Funoun was established in 1979 by a small group of enthusiastic, creative and committed artists. The Troupe has developed an innovative style of dance deeply-rooted in Palestinian and Arab folklore and informed by elements of contemporary dance movement. The Troupe’s repertoire includes 16 major dance productions and over 1,500 performances throughout historic Palestine, regionally, and internationally. In Palestine, El-Funoun has developed a school for contemporary Palestinian dance, training hundreds annually. It has carried out dabke workshops throughout the West Bank, in the Arab world and internationally.

Hani Almadhoun is the co-founder of the Gaza Soup Kitchen, a grassroots effort that provides daily hot meals and direct assistance to families in Gaza, including his own. Despite serving as Senior Director of Philanthropy at UNRWA USA, Hani felt compelled to take direct action as famine spread. Coordinating from Washington, D.C., he fundraises and advocates internationally while his family and community on the ground cook and distribute food under bombardment. His work blends personal loss with humanitarian action, turning grief into sustenance for thousands of Palestinians.

Reem Assil is a Palestinian-Syrian chef and activist, based in Oakland, CA, working at the intersection of food, community, and social justice. She is a founding member of The Arab Resource and Organzing Center (AROC) and owner of nationally-acclaimed Reem’s California, an Arab bakery and restaurant. Before dedicating herself to a culinary career, Reem spent over a decade as a community and labor organizer building the leadership of marginalized communities in their jobs and their neighborhoods.  She is also the author of award-winning cookbook Arabiyya: Recipes from the Life of an Arab in Diaspora.

Nelson Garay is a coordinating member of Detroit's People's Assembly, a grassroots coalition dedicated to resistance against our government's fascist, anti immigrant agenda. Nelson is a native of the metro Detroit area and a proud son of Salvadoran immigrants. As a long time advocate for immigrant communities, as well as a strong supporter of the people of Palestine, he is proud and honored to be speaking to this conference today.

Taher Dahleh is an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement.

Zane Dangor is a South African diplomat and the Director-General of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation. As Director-General, he has helped lead South Africa’s historic legal case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to hold Israel accountable for genocide in Gaza. 

Nidaa Lafi is a Palestinian American organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement. She has several years of experience organizing in the student movement and is currently based in Dallas.

Dr. Mohammed “Mo” Mustafa is an English-Australian emergency physician trainee, humanitarian advocate, and the first Palestinian to represent the UK in international rugby. In 2024 and 2025, he served in Gaza’s Nasser and European hospitals with RAHMA Worldwide, providing critical emergency care amid escalating violence. His commitment to frontline care drew him back in March 2025 with the Palestinian, Australian, and New Zealand Medical Association team, arriving just as a fragile ceasefire collapsed. His personal experiences, fierce advocacy, and unwavering sense of justice continue to mobilize international conversations about the protection of civilians, the rights of children, and the critical importance of safeguarding healthcare in conflict zones. Today, Dr. Mo stands at the forefront of humanitarian advocacy, using his platform to champion the rights of Gaza’s children to healthcare, dignity, and life.

Mr. Hani Al-Masri is one of the founders, and currently the Director General of The Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies -MASARAT. He was the founder and director general of the Palestinian Media, Research and Studies Centre –Badael in the period between 2005 and 2011. Mr. Masri is a well-known political analyst, journalist and columnist; he has written and published thousands of articles, researches and policy papers for several Palestinian and Middle Eastern magazines and newspapers, including Al-Quds, Al Araby Al Jadeed, Al Safir, Al Ayam and Al Khaleej. His work has also been translated into English and circulated by various institutions. Mr. Masri is also a regular participant and presenter in international meetings and conferences.

From 1981-1989, Mr. Masri was a member of the editorial board for Al Hadaf Magazine Prior to 2005, Mr. Masri served as General Manager of the Printing & Publication Department at the Ministry of Information for a decade. He also served as a member of the Committee on Government in the formal Palestinian reconciliation Dialogue held in Cairo in 2009. Up until 2021, Mr. Masri was also a member of the board of trustees of the Yasser Arafat Foundation.

Born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and raised in Istanbul, Turkey, Hasan Piker is an American journalist, producer, activist, and ridiculously entertaining political commentator. His honesty, personality, and deep understanding of the subjects he covers makes him one of the leading political voices for millennials and Gen Z. An early adopter of the popular gaming and streaming site Twitch, Piker live streams daily to an average audience of over 30,000, making him the #1 most popular “Just Chatting” and commentary creator on the platform. To put Piker’s unique standing in American politics and grasp on the zeitgeist in perspective, in the run up to the 2020 general election he was able to leverage his platform to collaborate with Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar for a ‘Get Out the Vote’ initiative, playing the multi-player game ‘Among Us’ on Twitch to an audience of over 700,000 viewers. It was exactly the type of political, yet accessible and entertaining spectacle that has come to represent Piker’s brand.

Wesam completed his BA in Political Science and Sociology from Louisiana State University (LSU) and his Juris Doctor from LSU Law. In 2012 he also completed his LLM in International Human Rights Law from the National University of Ireland at Galway (NUIG). Since moving to Palestine in 2006, he has been working as a human rights advocate with Al-Haq. Wesam has contributed to the development of Al-Haq’s work in the area of Business and Human Rights including corporate accountability and currently heads Al-Haq’s Center for Applied International Law, which serves as the educational and capacity building arm of the organization investing in the next generation of human rights advocates for Palestine.