Profiles of Peace

Jean Zaru

Jean Zaru

Palestinian Quaker who was a founding member of Sabeel, an ecumenical Palestinian Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem, and was instrumental in the establishment of the Friends International Center in Ramallah.

Jean Zaru was born in 1940 to a Quaker family in Ramallah, Palestine. When she was eight, Zaru witnessed the Palestinian "Nakba," when 750,000 Palestinians were made permanent refugees during the creation of the State of Israel. 

Michel Warschawski

Michel Warschawski

Israeli peace activist who has been instrumental in the development of numerous Israeli peace and human rights organizations. His life-long commitment has been to build alliances for a future of peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians.

Uri Avnery

Uri Avnery

Israeli activist, journalist, and former member of Israel’s Knesset who founded Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc), one of Israel’s most influential peace organizations.

Uri Avnery, tireless activist, legislator, and journalist, was born in Beckum, Germany, in 1923 and immigrated to Palestine at the age of ten with his family. Avnery was one of the first Israelis to establish contacts with PLO representatives. In 1993, together with his wife Rachel, he founded Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc), one of Israel’s most influential peace organizations.

Leah Tsemel

Leah Tsemel

One of the first Israeli lawyers to defend Palestinian rights. During the past 30 years, Tsemel’s cases have dealt with land confiscation, torture and interrogation, house demolitions, residency, and political prisoners, among many others. In 1999 she won a landmark case that outlawed the use of torture by Israeli officials when interrogating detained Palestinians.

Gila Svirsky

Gila Svirsky

Israeli activist in the women’s peace movement and a founding member of the Coalition of Women for Peace, a group of Israeli and Palestinian women’s organizations.

Gila Svirsky is an American-born Israeli who lives in Jerusalem. She is a co-founder of the Coalition of Women for Peace, a group of Israeli and Palestinian women’s peace organizations.

Hanan Ashrawi

Hanan Ashrawi

Palestinian teacher, scholar, and writer who is also an activist working on women’s issues, human rights, and for the independence of Palestine. Ashrawi founded and is currently a board member of MIFTAH (The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy), which monitors human rights abuses committed both by Palestinians and Israelis.

Raji Sourani

Raji Sourani

Palestinian human rights activist in Gaza. He is the founder and director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.

Raji Sourani of Gaza , the 1991 Robert F. Kennedy Human rights Award winner,  has been a lawyer in Gaza for more than thirty years.  His work on human rights, especially in calling attention to human rights abuses by both the Israeli Occupation and the Palestinian Authority, has brought him international attention.  It has also brought him periods of imprisonment and torture by both Israeli and Palestinian authorities.

Yehuda Shaul

Yehuda Shaul

Israeli former soldier and co-founder of Breaking the Silence, which aims to educate the Israeli public about the daily activities of the Israeli military in the occupied Palestinian territories. The group also hopes to spark a conversation among Israelis about the corrupting influence of the occupation on Israeli society and Israelis themselves.