Huwaida Arraf | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | February 1976 (age 48) Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Education | University of Michigan (BA) American University (JD) |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Adam Shapiro |
Huwaida Arraf (born February 1976) [1] is a Palestinian American activist and lawyer who co-founded the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led organization using non-violent protests and international pressure to support Palestinians. [2]
Arraf was born to two Palestinian Christian parents. Her mother is from the West Bank town of Beit Sahour and her father from Mi'ilya, a local council in Northern Israel. Under Israeli law, she has Israeli citizenship through her father, a Palestinian citizen of Israel. Her parents moved from the West Bank to Detroit, Michigan, Arraf's birthplace, to be able to raise her away from the violence in the West Bank. She and her parents were able to visit Palestine/Israel every few years until Arraf was ten years old. [3]
Arraf triple majored in Arabic, Judaic studies, and political science at the University of Michigan. She spent a year at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and studied Hebrew on a kibbutz. [4] Arraf later earned a Juris Doctor from American University's Washington College of Law. Her focus was on international human rights and humanitarian law, with a particular interest in war crimes prosecution.
As a law student, Arraf conducted research for the Public International Law and Policy Group, which provides pro bono legal assistance to governments involved in conflicts. Arraf also worked with the International Human Rights Law Clinic at the Washington College of Law, where she represented clients before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on issues ranging from indigenous lands rights to cross-border abductions and irregular rendition. [5]
In the spring of 2000, Arraf traveled to Jerusalem to work as program coordinator for Seeds of Peace, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that seeks to foster dialogue between Jewish and Palestinian youth. [6]
In 2001, Arraf worked at the Center for Coexistence in Jerusalem as a regional coordinator. [7] [8]
The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting what it terms "the long-entrenched and systematic oppression and dispossession of the Palestinian population, using non-violent, direct-action methods and principles." [9]
In April 2001, while living in the occupied Palestinian territories, Arraf founded the ISM with members of the Holy Land Trust and the Rapprochement Centre to focus international attention on what it says is the oppression of the Palestinians. [10] [11]
Since its creation, over 10,000 volunteers from dozens of countries have joined the ISM to monitor human rights abuses in occupied Palestine. In 2003 and 2004, the organization was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. [6]
"The Palestinian Intifada, the ‘uprising for freedom,’ has got to be an international struggle. . .," Arraf says. "[It] is a struggle for freedom, a struggle for basic human dignity and human rights. Anyone who believes in freedom, believes in justice, believes in equality for all people not based on religion or nationality, can join in the struggle." [6]
Arraf co-authored the book "Peace Under Fire: Israel, Palestine, and the International Solidarity Movement." [11]
Arraf was the chair of the Free Gaza Movement, [12] the organization behind the Gaza Freedom Flotillas, a series of groups of ships carrying pro-Palestinian activists that were organized to break Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. She was aboard the 2008 Free Gaza boats [4] as well as the 2010 flotilla that was raided by Israeli commandos on May 31. [13] Using a satellite phone on board, Arraf stated that their plan was to have the boats keep heading toward Gaza "until they either disable our boats or jump on board." [13]
At the time of the raid, Arraf was aboard the Challenger 1, [13] one of the smallest boats (30 feet) of the flotilla. On Thursday, 3 June 2010, she provided her version of the events on Challenger 1 in an interview on Democracy Now . [14]
Arraf resigned from this position in October 2012 after a new board was approved on September 17, 2012. [15] Her resignation came shortly before a controversy over an allegedly antisemitic tweet posted by Greta Berlin on the official Twitter feed of the Free Gaza Movement. Arraf called Berlin's tweet "offensive" but declined to answer a question put to her by Avi Mayer, a staffer at the Jewish Agency for Israel, about whether her departure was related to it. [16]
In November 2021, Arraf declared her candidacy for Michigan's 10th congressional district in the 2022 election. [17] [18] Arraf placed fourth in the five-way Democratic primary held in August 2022, losing the nomination to Carl Marlinga. [19]
Arraf was a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2024 election to the University of Michigan Board of Regents, challenging Shauna Ryder-Diggs and incumbent Denise Ilitch for the nomination. She launched her campaign in August 2024, at the urging of students angered by the university's response to the pro-Palestinian protests. Arraf lost by roughly 100 district-weighted votes in the straw poll at the party convention. Many of her supporters protested when the results were announced due to a perceived lack of transparency in calculation. [20] [21] A lawsuit is currently pending in the Ingham County Circuit Court. [22] A judge denied a request for injunctive relief to stop the MI Secretary of State from finalizing November 2024 ballots. [23]
Arraf married Adam Shapiro, another ISM co-founder, in 2002. They met while both were working at the Jerusalem center of Seeds of Peace. [1]
Rachel Aliene Corrie was an American nonviolence activist and diarist. She was a member of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and was active throughout the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. In 2003, Corrie was in Rafah, a city in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli military was demolishing Palestinian houses at the height of the Second Intifada. While protesting the demolitions as they were being carried out, she was killed by an Israeli armored bulldozer that crushed her.
The International Solidarity Movement is a Palestinian-led movement focused on assisting the Palestinian cause in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. ISM is dedicated to the use of nonviolent protests and methods only. The organization calls on civilians from around the world to participate in acts of nonviolent protests against the Israeli military in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The ISM participates in the Free Gaza Movement.
Adam Shapiro is an American co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a pro-Palestinian organization, the stated mission of which is to bring civilians from around the world to resist nonviolently the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. He became famous for visiting Yasser Arafat in his Mukataa in Ramallah while it was besieged during the March 2002 Israeli military operation in the West Bank and Gaza.
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The Free Gaza Movement (FGM) is a coalition of human rights activists and pro-Palestinian groups formed to break Egypt and Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip and publicise the situation of the Palestinians there. FGM has challenged the Israeli–Egyptian blockade by sailing humanitarian aid ships to Gaza. The group has more than 70 endorsers, including the late Desmond Tutu and Noam Chomsky.
The Gaza flotilla raid was a military operation by Israel against six civilian ships of the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla" on 31 May 2010 in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea. Nine of the flotilla passengers were killed during the raid, with thirty wounded. Ten Israeli soldiers were wounded, one seriously. The exact sequence of events is contested, in part due to the IDF's confiscation of the passengers' photographic evidence. The flotilla, organized by the Free Gaza Movement and the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (İHH), was carrying humanitarian aid and construction materials, intending to break the Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Reactions to the Gaza flotilla raid on 31 May 2010 ranged from fierce condemnation to strong support for Israel.
The Gaza Freedom Flotilla was a small fleet of ships organized in 2010 by the Free Gaza Movement and the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (İHH) carrying humanitarian aid and construction materials with the intention of breaking the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. In typical circumstances, aid is first brought to Israel to be inspected and then transferred to Gaza.
Greta K. Berlin is an American Anti-Zionist activist. She has been a spokesperson for the Free Gaza Movement (FGM), which she co-founded in 2006.
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