MEET THE TEAM

Sandra Tamari, Executive Director

Sandra Tamari is a Palestinian organizer and the Executive Director of Adalah Justice Project (AJP). Prior to her work with AJP, Sandra worked for 10 years in higher education as a immigration specialist, and before that as a Senior Program Manager for AMIDEAST, the Assistant Director of Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, and a grant writer and researcher for Al-Jana, Arab Resource Center for Popular Arts in Beirut. She is a co-founder of the St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee and was co-chair of the Steering Committee for the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights from 2015-2018. Based in St. Louis, the murder of Mike Brown in Ferguson in August 2014 greatly impacted Sandra’s work, and since then she has focused on building joint liberation efforts between Palestinians and Black communities. She was a lead organizer of the Palestinian contingent to Ferguson October in 2014.

Sumaya Awad, Director of Strategy and Communications

Sumaya Awad is a Palestinian writer and analyst based in New York City.  Her writings focus on Palestinian liberation, anti-imperialism, Islamophobia, and immigration, and have been featured in the Feminist Wire, In These Times, Open City, the Middle East Solidarity Magazine, and Slate, among others. Sumaya is the co-author of “Palestine and Elections “ in the collection Strategy and Electoral Politics, released by Verso Books, Jacobin Magazine, and Haymarket Books in 2019. She has spoken widely at universities and grassroots organizations across the country, and is a cofounder of the Against Canary Mission Project, which helps defend student activists targeted by blacklists for their Palestinian rights advocacy. Her edited volume Palestine: A Socialist Introduction was released in December 2020.

advisory BOARD

Jamil Dakwar, Advisory Board Chair

Jamil Dakwar is the Director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Human Rights Program. Before joining the ACLU, he worked at Human Rights Watch and before coming to the United States he worked at Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel. He is an adjunct professor at Hunter College and John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY) and a graduate of Tel Aviv University and New York University School of Law.

Nadia Saah, Advisory Board Member

Nadia Saah has served as a business development executive, campaign director and strategist for media companies, rights organizations and foundations, including; Discovery Communications, Warner Bros., Nintendo, the Gere Foundation, Institute for Middle East Understanding, Arab Fund for Arts & Culture, and BoomGen Studios. With a background in film, Nadia worked on several Hollywood and independent features. She is currently developing a cross-platform project to advance awareness of the Palestinian Nakba, while producing and consulting on Palestine-themed film & tv productions that envision a more just and sustainable future. 

Jeffrey Haas, Advisory Board Member

Jeffrey Haas is a movement lawyer based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 1969, Jeff and partners formed the People’s Law Office in Chicago representing Black Panthers and other social movement organizers. In 2009 Jeff published The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther. Most recently from 2016 to the present Jeff represented Water Protectors at Standing Rock. Jeff is on the board of the indigenous led Water Protectors Legal Collective.