Iraq Speakers Bureau

Jennifer Bing-Canar

Jennifer Bing-Canar is the National coordinator of the Middle East Peacebuilding Program for the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization founded in 1917. Jennifer’s involvement in Middle East issues began in 1982, when she lived and traveled in Israel and Palestine and researched the Israeli peace movement. She later volunteered as a teacher for three years at Palestinian Quaker school on the West Bank. Jennifer has traveled to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco. She has organized hundreds of speaking tours, conferences, workshops, advocacy campaigns, and educational programs about the Middle East in her tenure with AFSC since 1989. She serves as a resource to organizations and individuals beginning their Middle East and/or antiwar activism in the Chicago area and is a steering committee member of the Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine. Jennifer has directed and produced two video documentaries about the Chicago Arab community that have aired on PBS and cable stations around the United States.

Jennifer’s interest in Iraq began in 1990, prior to the first US war on Iraq. Jennifer was a steering committee member of Chicago’s anti-war coalition in 1990-91, organizing demonstrations, educational events, and outreach to the media. Following the ceasefire in 1991, Jennifer helped to organize AFSC’s advocacy and educational outreach to lift the non-military sanctions on Iraq, primarily through public vigils, forums, conferences, and speaking tours. Jennifer worked during the ensuing decade of sanctions to develop humanitarian relief projects for Iraq, in addition to an “Iraqi Peace Quilt” project for faith-groups. She helped to produce study guides and a curriculum for youth about Iraq, “Fostering Friendships.” She has also worked with staff, interns and volunteers to develop educational workshops on Iraq and most recently a conference on Iraqi refugees held in May, 2007.