Founders
Kenneth Mann is a lawyer and professor of law at Tel-Aviv University. He drafted Israel's Public Defender Law and in 1996 was appointed by the Israeli Minister of Justice to head the then-new public defender system. The Public Defender's method for providing legal aid is highly successful and serves as a model for this project. With Advocate Sari Bashi, Professor Mann is co-founder of the Israeli NGO Gisha which provides legal assistance to Gaza Palestinians for obtaining travel permits allowing them to leave and return to Gaza, and for the movement of food, infrastructure supplies, and merchandise into and out of Gaza.
Mor Soker is one of a few lawyers licensed to practice in Israeli courts with years of experience in representing West Bank Palestinians in travel and entry permit litigation. Ms. Soker is highly qualified to be the project's main supervisor of legal services. Her expertise grew out of her work representing Palestinian workers blocked from entering Israel for having been illegally employed by Israeli employers who knew that many of their Palestinian workers did not have permits. Through her work, Ms. Soker learned that most West Bank Palestinians who were denied a permit could obtain a permit with the help of a lawyer.
Founders
Advisory Board
Sari Bashi is Program Director at Human Rights Watch supervising a staff of 270 people in 50 countries and served in the past as its Israel-Palestine Director. She co-founded Gisha, the leading Israeli human rights group promoting the right to freedom of movement for Palestinians in Gaza, and served as Gisha’s executive director for nine years. Sari is an expert in international humanitarian law and has taught the subject at Yale Law School, where she also served as a Robina Foundation Visiting Human Rights Fellow. She lectures and writes on Israeli policy toward the occupied Palestinian territory and is the author of Maqluba: Upside Down Love (Hebrew), a love story about the Israeli occupation. She has also served as Research Director for Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). She is licensed in Israel and New York, earned her B.A. (summa cum laude) from Yale University and her J.D. from Yale Law School, was a Fulbright scholar and clerked on the Israeli Supreme Court. She is a marathon and ultra-marathon runner and writes the blog, “Bamba in Ramallah” (www.ummforat.com).
Omar Dajani is Professor of Law, University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law and Co-Director at the Law School of the Global Center for Business and Development; His work in the region includes: Political Officer, Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) 2001-2003; Legal Adviser, Palestinians Negotiations Support Unit, Ramallah, September 1999-2001; Consultant: European Council on Foreign Relations, Ramallah, 2017; Consultant, Norwegian Peacebuilding Center (NOREF) Ramallah 2012-2014; Consultant, Al Mustakbal Foundation for Strategic and Policy Studies, Ramallah, 2006-2008; Selected publications: Federalism and Decentralization in the Contemporary Middle East (ed. Asli Bali), Cambridge University Press, 2023; Rethinking Oslo, How Europe can Promote Peace between Israel and Palestine (with Huge Lovatt), in Ephraim Lavie, Yael Ronen and Henry Fishman (eds.); "No Security without Law": Prospects of Implementing a Rights Based Approach in Palestinian-Israeli Security Negotiations, in Michael Lynk, Susan Akram, Michael Dumper & Ian Scobbie, (eds.), International Law and the Israel-Palestine Conflict: a Rights-Based Approach (London: Routledge, 2011); The Oslo Peace Process: A Twenty-Five Years Perspective (Carmel 2019); Education, B.A., Northwestern University 1991; J.D. Yale Law School, 1997. Clerkship, Judge Dorothy Nelson, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.
Moien Odeh is an international human rights lawyer, research and teaching assistant, and Ph.D. student at George Mason University, Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. While living in Jerusalem, Moien represented Palestinians in leading public interest cases in Israeli courts. His resume includes: Political and IHL advisor for diplomatic missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah; founder and manager of the legal clinic in East Jerusalem neighborhoods behind the Wall; US State Department “young leader” and participant in the State Department’s “Leaders for Democracy Fellowship” on the theme of conflict resolution; fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; fellow, University of Virginia Center for Politics and Global Perspectives on Democracy; member, Al Shabaka, Palestinian Policy Network; member, European Academy of Diplomacy; “young legal leaders” of the International Bar Association; LLB, BA (Accounting), Hebrew University; commentator and author Middle Eastern media (Al-Jazeera; Al Quds Newspaper; JURIST Legal News and Research) and US media.
Julie Gal is a documentary film director and producer. Julie founded Galex, whose first film, October’s Cry (2006), chronicles the demonstrations in 2000 in northern Israel when 13 young Palestinians, 12 of them Israel citizens, were killed by security forces. Galex's current film in production examines Palestinian security prisoner rights in Israeli jails. Julie heads the Gal Foundation whose grantees include Haqel, Gisha, Yesh Din, Shomrei Mishpat, LEAP and other NGOs concerned with human rights in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Julie founded the Fried-Gal Transitional Justice Program at the Hebrew University Law Faculty to support teaching and research, annual colloquia, and student study tours. The Fried Gal Clinical Legal Education Center provides legal aid in East Jerusalem to Palestinians for family reunification and expungement of criminal records for Palestinian minors. The Gal Foundation supports the Hebrew University. Julie serves on the Governing Boards of the Hebrew University, Shenkar College, the Truman Research Institute, the Jerusalem Business Development Bureau, and is an ADL National Commissioner. Julie received a BA in political science from Hebrew University and an MA in Communications from Emerson College. She attended Columbia University’s Graduate School of Film.