Rizek Abusharr was born in in 1936. His ancestors in Jerusalem go back 500 years. Rizek was educated at Terra Sancta College in Jerusalem and Nazareth and at George Williams College in Chicago in the United States. Rizek worked for the Jerusalem YMCA for 51 years, concluding his service as Director General. He served as Session Clerk and as Clerk of the Presbytery of Jerusalem of the Church of Scotland. The Jerusalem YMCA was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the Austrian Parliament due to Rizek’s work with Arab and Jewish youth toward peaceful coexistence. He was awarded the “Martha Prize for Tolerance and Democratic Values.”

Alice Abusharr was born in Jerusalem in 1935. Her grandfather, an Armenian, was the first local photographer in Jerusalem. Alice completed her schooling at the St. Joseph French School in Jerusalem and speaks Arabic, English, French and Hebrew. Alice worked at the Jerusalem YMCA after raising her two sons. Rizek and Alice moved to Pilgrim Place at Claremont California is 2006 and have worked together in offering travel courses to Palestine since that time.

Rev. Allan Boesak's engagement in the struggle for a free South Africa brought him to leadership in the African National Congress where he worked closely with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. A theologian in the Reformed tradition, Dr. Boesak is a former leader of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. He is currently an affiliated professor at the International Institute for Studies in Race, Reconciliation and Social Justice, University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Dr. Boesak is the author of numerous books and articles. His latest, Radical Reconciliation: Beyond Political Pietism and Christian Quietism was published by Orbis Books this year. He is well versed in the parallels between the anti-Apartheid struggle in South Africa and the Palestinian struggle, calling Palestine a far more difficult struggle than the South African. This spring he is a Prof. of Theology at the Disciples Church seminary in Indianapolis, IN.

Mark Braverman is a Jewish American whose writing and speaking focuses on the role of religious beliefs and theology in the current Israeli Palestinian discourse and the function of interfaith relations in the current search for a resolution of the conflict. He serves on the advisory board of Friends of Sabeel North America, on the Board of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions-USA, is a cofounder of Friends of Tent of Nations North America, consults to and writes for the Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church USA and is a consultant for Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding. Dr. Braverman is the author of Fatal Embrace: Christians, Jews, and the Search for Peace in the Holy Land. in which he traces his own journey as a Jew struggling with the difficult realities of modern Israel. Dr. Braverman currently serves as Program Director for Kairos USA, a movement to unify and mobilize American Christians to take a prophetic stance for a just peace in Israel and Palestine.

Estee Chandler grew up in Southern California, has worked in the film industry on both sides of the camera for over twenty years and is currently a freelance producer working on and developing film, radio and commercial projects. She has been active in US politcs since 2001. In 2010 she launched the LA chapter of (JVP), a national organization of activists that supports the aspirations of and Israelis for security and self-determination. She continues to serve as the chapter’s key organizer.

Jewish community activist Rick Chertoff is a native Angeleno. After high school, he traveled for 14 months to 25 countries in Europe and the Middle East, including Morocco, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and Israel. He was a conscientious object to the Vietnam War in 1965, and has been involved in various Jewish community organizations, the Director of the Jewish Labor Committee, worked with the United Farm Workers and other unions. He is a founding member of L.A. Jews for Peace and in 2007 he taught a course in the Israel-Palestine Conflict at UCLA Labor Studies Center.

Brice Harris was Professor of Middle East History, International Relations, and US Foreign Policy at Occidental College (1965-2005). He is a graduate of Swarthmore College (B.A.) and received his M.A. and Ph.D.from Harvard University. He has traveled to the Middle East many times since 1965, including multiple trips to Palestine and Israel, and most recently to Turkey, Morrocco, and Oman..

Jonathan Kuttab is a leading human rights lawyer in Israel and Palestine born in West Jerusalem, but after the Six Day War, his family moved to the United States, where he later earned his law degree from the University of Virginia. After practicing with a Wall Street law firm for several years, he returned to his homeland and co-founded the Palestinian Center for the Study of Nonviolence, Al-Haq (lawyers and others who assist with human rights issues), and the Mandela Institute for Political Prisoners. He is licensed to practice law in Palestine, Israel, and New York. A founding member of the Sabeel Center for Palestinian Liberation Theology in Jerusalem, he served on its Board of Directors for more than ten years and serves as Chairman of the Board at Bethlehem Bible College and the Holy Land Trust. He has written extensively on international human rights and humanitarian law in Occupied Palestine.

Elliott Lapinel is a Senior at UCLA majoring in Political Science and Statistics. Having served in the United States Navy as a helicopter mechanic, Elliott has since become an avid anti-imperialist, anti-war, human rights activist. He has been organizing with Students for Justice in Palestine for the past two years and was an active member of Occupy UCLA. He is currently on the BDS committee for Students for Justice in Palestine.

Rev. Darrel Meyers helped organize and co-chairs the FOS working group in Southern California. He founded and chairs the Middle East Fellowship of Southern California, established in 1969, which is an NGO related to the UN. A frequent traveler to the Palestine/Israel, including participation in six Sabeel international conferences, he is a Presbyterian minister who served several congregations and campuses in the LA area. With longtime involvement in peacemaking groups and activities, he currently chairs his regional synod's work groups on Peace, Justice, and the Integrity of Creation.

Professor Jamal R. Nassar is Dean, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, California State University, San Bernardino. Born in Jerusalem, Palestine, Professor Nassar is a leading international authority on the politics of the Middle East. His many publications include such books as Globalization and Terrorism: The Migration of Dreams and Nightmares; Politics and Culture in the Developing World; Intifada: Palestine at the Crossroads; The Palestine Liberation Organization: From Armed Struggle to the Declaration of Independence; and Change Without Borders: The Third World at the End of the Twentieth Century.

Sara Roy (Ed.D. Harvard University) is a senior research scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies specializing in the Palestinian economy, Palestinian Islamism and the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. Dr. Roy is also co-chair of the Middle East Seminar, jointly sponsored by the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and co-chair of the Middle East Forum at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Dr. Roy is the author of numerous studies and books on the political economy and economy of Palestine and Israel, and her most recent, Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza: Engaging the Islamist Social Sector (2011) has won a number of awards and was named one of CHOICE’s “Outstanding Academic Titles” in the Top 25 Academic Books for 2012. In addition to her academic work, she serves on the Advisory Council of American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), and has served as a consultant to international organizations, the U.S. government, human rights organizations, private voluntary organizations, and private business groups working in the Middle East.

Rosemary Radford Ruether received her Ph.D. in Classics and Patristics from the Claremont Graduate University. She taught at Howard University School of Religion in Washington D.C., at Garrett Theological Seminary and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. She presently teaches at the Claremont Graduate University and School of Theology. She is author or editor of 47 book and numerous articles, among them The Wrath of Jonah: The Crisis of Religious Nationalism in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict with her husband, Herman J. Ruether.

Shakeel Syed is the Executive Director of the Islamic Shura Council, a federation of mosques & Muslim organizations serving more than half a million Muslims in Southern California. Syed also serves the boards of American Muslims for Palestine and ACLU of Southern California. He speaks frequently at places of worship, institutions of higher learning, public agencies, and various organizations, private and public, both locally and nationally, and speaks to and is cited by national and international media on issues related to Islam and Muslims.

Sarah Thompson is a scholar-activist from Elkhart, IN. She received a Masters of Divinity from Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary immediately before departing for work at Sabeel Jerusalem (2011-2012, through Mennonite Central Committee). She has been formed by travels to five continents through volunteer work with Mennonite World Conference, feminist anti-war movements, women's soccer teams, the Fulbright Scholarship, and Spelman College (graduated in 2006 with a Comparative Women's Studies & International Studies double major, and a minor in Spanish). Her current growing edges are related to her interest in postcolonial theology, social movement building, embodied nonviolence, menstruation, and alternatives to robotic warfare and society.

Don Wagner is the Program Director of Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA). He was the co-founder and director of Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding and previously served Presbyterian churches in New Jersey and Evanston, Illinois, where he resides. His books include: All in the Name of the Bible (editor, 1986), Peace or Armageddon (with Dan O’Neill, 1993), Anxious for Armageddon (1995), and Dying in the Land of Promise: Palestine and Palestinian Christianity from Pentacost to 2000 (2000). In addition to serving on the board of Friends of Sabeel—North America, which he helped to found in the early 1990s, Don has provided leadership for groups such as the Holy Land Trust, Pilgrims of Ibillin, the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation, and Youth Advocates. He has led numerous study groups to the Middle East and works internationally to educate Christians about the problems of Christian .

Nicholas Walrath is a Palestinian-American, activist, student and writer. After graduating from UCSD he wanted to extend his studies beyond Academia by visiting and learning first hand from Palestinians in Palestine. During the Arab Spring he spent four months living and volunteering in the West Bank He is writing a book about his time in Palestine, and his research will be used in his doctoral studies. He also serves on the Technology Committee of Friends of Sabeel, North America.

The Rev, Dr. DarEll T. Weist has been a United Methodist Clergy for the last 52 years.He has served as a Campus Minister, a Teacher of Theology in Sierra Leone, West Africa, a Program Director on his Bishop’s Program Staff and a Local Church Pastor. He was the founder and President/CEO of 1010 Development Corporation which built 252 units of Affordable (Family and Senior) Housing in downtown Los Angeles. He has been to Palestine/Israel 10 times, 5 times in the last 6 years. With his wife Diane he coordinates the Middle East Email Network for about 200 people around the world sending articles by email which are not usually available in your local newspaper. Hobbies are travel, writing, reading, walking and herb gardening.