Team
Retrun Space & Tours
umar@zochrot.org
Umar is a Palestinian educator and group facilitator, experienced in giving lecutres and leading workshops on identity, history and power relations between Jewish-Israelis and Palestinians. Before joining Zochrot in 2006, Umar was the coordinator of the youth department in the School for Peace in Neve Shalom. Umar has more than twenty years of experience in social education for elementary school students in informal education programs. He was born in the village of Musheirfa, whose residents survived the expulsion during the Nakba and became citizens of Israel. He now lives in the village of Neve Shalom/Wahat al Salam.
Throughout his work at Zochrot, Umar has led hundreds of tours to Palestinian localities that were depopulated by the state of Israel during the Nakba. He wrote and edited dozens of booklets about those localities, gave lectures, authored articles and facilitated workshops on the subjects of Nakba and Return. Umar has also co-edited two books: “Once upon a land” and “Awda - imagined testimonies from potential futures”.
In 2020, Umar received the Andreina Blua Award for Frontline Responders and Educators by Psychologists for Social Responsibility
“Zochrot is an anti-colonial worldview that challenges the (dis)order in Palestine, cracks the wall of Israeli denial and opens the eyes of Israelis who seek the truth. Zochrot works for acknowledging past atrocities but uniquely also seeks and promotes a more just future, including return of Palestinian refugees. This is why I’m with and part of Zochrot.”
Advocacy & Media
Najwan is a grassroots activist who has been actively engaged in political organizing and was an active member, founder and spokes person for several campaigns such as “Love in the time of Apartheid.” Najwan has over 10 years of experience in debate and advocacy and has worked for more than 6 years in establishing and developing Debate in Arabic in the MENA region with a number of International organizations focusing on political, social, economic and human rights motions. Currently, Najwan is the media and advocacy director at Zochrot organization along with her work as a senior debate consultant.
Najwan joined Zochrot because it's on of the only organizations that deals with the root cause and root solution of the settler colonial reality. ''I remain at zochrot because of its committment to grassroot work, the ongoing learning, and the internalized feminist and critical practicies which not only give me hope and support but contiously drive my radical imagination from Nakba to a just vision of Return.
Director
LLB (Tel Aviv university) Feminist political activist. Co-founder of PSee, an independent feminist media organization. Worked as media coordinator at Gisha - Legal center for freedom of movement. Worked as a journalist before that, for several news organizations. Covered Human Rights, political and social issues in China as a Beijing based reporter. Rachel currently Lives in Jaffa.
''I choose to be part of Zochrot because I believe in “Tikun Olam'', in righting to wrongs, and i know it starts with telling the truth, because Zochrot makes it possible to tell the truth about our history as Israelis under the Zionist colonial project and also makes it possible to look forward, towards a future of return.''
Resource Development
Political feminist activist, was formerly the director of Zochrot, was for many years a volunteer and member of the board of directors of the Tel Aviv Rape crisis Center, and also served in management positions in various non-profit organizations.
''I joined Zochrot because I see the importance of a constant resistance and exposure of the ongoing crimes of the Israeli zionist rejeim and so we can build a better society for us all in this place. ''
Board
Moran Barir is a videographer and educator, combining the fields of education, cinema, new media, and activism within different civil society organizations.
She holds a BA in cinema and communication from Tel Aviv University and a certificate in group facilitation from The School for Peace (SFP) at Neve Shalom – Wahat al-Salam. She has also studied for an MA in community development in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Mora nis an active member of Zochrot since 2010: was involved in think-tanks about Palestinian Return, was a member of the ''48 mm'' film festival steering committee, and the co-creator of the exhibition ''New KKL (JNF)''.
''I joined Zochrot because it is my political home. It analyzes the reality of colonialism in Israel-Palestine in an unequivocal clarity. It takes actions to promote a vision of a just future, while also creating space for the emotional processes that parallel the political processes. I choose to be active with Zochrot because it gives me hope, and hope is the driving force that keeps me working against atrocities and injustice.''
Niva has extensive experience in the fields of public outreach and international conference production in the not-for-profit sector as well as experience in human resources and operations in hightech, especially in startups. Niva holds a BA in Art History and multi-disciplinary programs from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She also received an MA (with Honors) in Consulting and Organizational Development from the College of Management, Academic Studies. Niva lives in Tel Aviv with her family and two cats. Between work and her family, she is a board member in Zochrot.
''I learned about Zochrot from one of my best friends more than 17 years ago. At first I was astonished to learn about the Nakba, it made me question my identity and my life in this land as a privileged Jew. The ongoing conversation about the Return and acknowledging the Nakba is my hope for a future of this land. Zochrot work is Hope for a better home for my child.''
Aya is a Palestinian feminist and political activist from Lydd who now lives in Haifa. She is the founder of “Halekat Istiqbal”, an initiative that organizes feminist political tours in Palestinian towns and villages in Israel and the west bank with the aim of documenting a Palesitnian feminist narrative and threnghthening relationship between Palesitnian women. Works as a social change organizer in Shatil. Headed the public committee for family law - a coalition of Palestinian feminist organizations for proomoting womens’ rights in family lawץ Aya worked as a researcher in Gisha -legal center for the freedom of movement, where she focused on researching the impact of Israeli control an civil society in Gaza,including womens’ organizations. She was among the founders of the Hebrew version of “We are not numbers” a media initiative to tell the stories of residents of Gaza and the impact of Israeli occupation and closure in them. She also took part in many other faminist projects including an initiative to support Palesitnia female prisoners.
׳׳I have taken part in Zochrot activities since I was a teenager. As daughter to a family that lost all of its property and land during the Nakba and many of whose members became refugees, I know that thanks to Zochrot, no one can deny our right to return, because alongside the Palesitnian struggle Zochrot will continue to tell the truth and to relate the message of justice, accountability and liberation. It’s important to me to be part of Zochrot and strengthen a faminist Palestinian voice within the organization. ׳׳
Munir is a human rights lawyer and academic based in Al-Quds University in Jerusalem, Palestine. He is an assistant professor at Al-Quds University's faculty of law; the director (and co-founder) of Al-Quds Human Rights Clinic, the first accredited clinical legal education program in the Arab World; and the director of the Community Action Center in Jerusalem. He holds an LL.M in International Legal Studies from the Washington College of Law of the American University in Washington DC and a PhD degree from the University of Westminster in London, UK, where his thesis dealt with Forced Displacement in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, International Law, and Transitional Justice.
Munir joined the board of Zochrot because of his belief in the importance of the role of this unique organization in defending the right of the Palestine refugees to return to their homes, and the research and exercise that Zochrot conducted to conceptualize the return in a practical sense.
Maysoon earned BA & MA inSociology and Anthropology from Tel Aviv University, is technion certified in coaching and learned conflict group facilitation in Neve Shalom/Wahat al Salam.
Maysson has an extensive professional experience in promoting the civil. Social and political rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel as well as Palestinians in the West Bank.
Worked as project coordinator and field researcher in the department of the Arab minority at ACRI and was part of the training team of a training for Psychologists and social workers as change agents, initiated by the school for peace.
Maysoon facilitated many workshops and courses about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Tel Aviv, Be’er Sheva and Haifa universities. She co-coordinated the forum of women for a fair budget in Adva Center where she also managed a project of social economy and for the implementation of gender awareness in budgets of municipal governments.
Maysoon now works at Yesh Din, where she is coordinator of gender issues and documenting human rights violations in the West Bank.
“I chose to be part of Zochrot because of the moral stance of this organization in thriving for righting the wrong that was done to Palestinians in 1948. Zochrot represents for me the dream and the aspiration to reunite with my family members who are refugees”.