The ISCZ Team

Mimi Kirk, ISCZ Director / JSCZ Editor. Mimi Kirk is Associate Director and Adjunct Faculty in the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University, Washington D.C. Kirk served as Board President of Americans for Middle East Understanding (AMEU) and as a consultant to al-Shabaka: the Palestine Policy Network. A writer and editor with expertise in Palestine and US foreign policy toward Palestine/Israel, she is co-editor of Palestine and the Palestinians in the 21st Century (Indiana University Press, 2013).

Tony Deik, New Testament Theology and Ethics. A Palestinian Christian from Bethlehem, Palestine, Tony is currently a residential researcher at Tyndale House, Cambridge, where he is finalizing his PhD in New Testament social ethics. He is also a lecturer in biblical studies at Bethlehem Bible College, and a member of the leadership team of the International Fellowship for Mission as Transformation (INFEMIT).​ He has contributed to several edited volumes including The Religious Other: A Biblical Understanding of Islam, the Qur’an and Muhammad, and Between Religion and Politics: A Christian Perspective on Political Questions from the Middle East.

Atalia Omer, Religion, Conflict, and Peace Studies. A Professor at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame, Omer also recently served as a senior fellow and Visiting Professor at Harvard University’s Religion and Public Life program. She earned her PhD in Religion, Ethics, and Politics (2008) from the Committee on the Study of Religion at Harvard University. Her research focuses on religion, violence, and peacebuilding, as well as theories and methods in the study of religion. Omer was awarded an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship in 2017, resulting in Decolonizing Religion and Peacebuilding. Other publications include When Peace is Not Enough: How the Israeli Peace Camp Thinks about Religion, Nationalism, and Justice and Days of Awe: Reimagining Jewishness in Solidarity with Palestinians . She is a co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding and a co-editor of Palestine/Israel Review, a journal that de-siloes Palestine Studies and Israel Studies while centering questions of settler-colonialism, power analyses, and decolonial outlooks.

Deanna (Dee) Roberts, Library Manager. Reference and Outreach Librarian, Pitts Theology Library, Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta, and Palestine Justice Network (PJN) Steering Committee. Deanna’s focus for Palestinian liberation is to introduce more people to the narrative of Palestinians by bringing those voices into the collections within theological libraries in the United States.

Marie-Claire Klassen, Theologian in Residence. Postdoctoral Researcher, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium. Klassen’s research focuses on the role religion can play in nonviolent resistance and the impact of women in nonviolence resistance movements.

Daoud Kuttab, Media Affairs and Journalism. A Palestinian journalist and media activist, Daoud Kuttab is former Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University. He currently directs the Community Media Network (CMN), dedicated to advancing independent media in the Arab region. CMN administers Radio al Balad in Amman and www.ammannet.net. Kuttab is a regular columnist on Palestinian issues with Al-Monitor, Arab News and his writing appears often in the Washington Post, LA Times, Al Jazeera, New Arab, Newsweek, The New Republic, Religious News Network, and other publications. Born in Jerusalem, Kuttab has worked in journalism since 1980, having received several international awards: the CPJ Freedom of Expression Award, the IPI World Press Freedom Hero, the PEN Club USA Writing Freedom Award, the Leipzig Courage in Freedom Award, the Next Foundation Peace in Journalism Award and Japanese Peace Award for producing Shara’a Simsim, the Palestinian version of Sesame Street.

Jenny Haddad Mosher, Educational Design, Spiritual Formation, and Eastern Orthodoxy. Jenny grew up in the large Palestinian diaspora community in Kuwait, a Palestinian American daughter of a 1948 refugee from Jerusalem; she and her family resettled in the United States in the wake of Gulf War I. An Orthodox Christian, she has degrees from Yale (BA, MAR), St Vladimir’s Seminary (MTh), and Union Theological Seminary (PhD) and works as Director of Research & Educational Design at CrossRoad Institute. A teacher, editor, curricula designer, and grant writer, Jenny is also a published author of various articles and chapters on the theology of childhood and the spiritual formation of children in the Orthodox tradition, and co-author of Find Your Telos: Discover What Orthodox Young Adults & Parishes Can Create Together. Her wider research interests include religious and spiritual formation in traumatized and/or persecuted communities.

Jesse Steven Wheeler, Administrative Support / Public Advocacy. Associate Executive Director, Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA); formerly Projects Manager/Support Faculty for the Institute of Middle East Studies, Arab Baptist Theological Seminary, Beirut, Lebanon; formerly Islamic Studies Coordinator at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA. Author, Serving a Crucified King: Meditations on Faith, Politics, and the Unyielding Pursuit of God’s Reign.

Co-Founders

In addition to the Administrative Team listed above, the following individuals were key members of the ISCZ Implementation Committee, and they remain valued members of our Advisory Board and Speakers Bureau.

Kathleen Christison is an American political analyst and author whose primary area of focus is the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. 

Stephen Sizer: Director of Peacemaker Trust; Chair of the Convivencia Alliance; author and researcher on Christian Zionism; international coordinator for the 2024 International Sabeel Gathering and member of the Kairos for Global Justice theology group; Church of England priest (1983-2018).

Joe Roos serves on the Board of Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA). Roos is co-founder and former publisher of Sojourners, as well as a retired Mennonite minister. 

An Arab Palestinian, a Jerusalemite and a Greek Orthodox Christian, Omar Haramy is a mosaic of identities. Since 2017, Omar has served as the Director of Sabeel Jerusalem. Omar also serves on the Kairos Palestine steering committee.

An internationally respected scholar, Nadera is Lawrence D. Biele Chair in Law, Institute of Criminology-Faculty of Law, School of Social Work and Social Welfare, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In addition, she serves as Chair in Global Law, Queen Mary University of London.

Mark is a retired businessman and Anglican Priest who spends time in both Australia and the UK supporting his children and grandchildren. Mark is the Chair of Friends of Sabeel Australia and a trustee of the Peacemaker Trust. He has led multiple pilgrimages and living stones tours to Palestine and focuses much of his time working with others for justice and peace in Palestine.

Donald Wagner. Founder / Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, North Park University, Chicago. Former National Program Director, Friends of Sabeel North America (2012-2017); Presbyterian Church USA clergyperson. Notable publications include: Zionism and the Quest for Justice in the Holy Land; Anxious for Armageddon: A Call to Partnership for Middle Eastern and Western Christians; Dying in the Land of Promise: Palestine and Palestinian Christianity from Pentecost to 2000.

Advisory Board

We are indebted to the vision, scholarship, and moral witness of each and every individual on our Advisory Board.

Grace Said is a long-time advocate of Palestinian human rights. She is a member of the Steering Committee of Friends of Sabeel, North America and treasurer of the Washington Interfaith Alliance for Middle East Peace. She has in the past served on the boards of Trans-Arab Research Institute and the Arab-American University Graduates. In 2009 she was a co-founder of Al-Shabaka and also organized a major Sabeel conference in Washington, DC.

Founder and President of Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem. The most widely published Palestinian theologian to date, Dr. Raheb is the author and editor of 50 books including: Decolonizing Palestine: The Land, The People, The Bible; In the Eye of the Storm: Middle Eastern Christians in an Age of Empire; Politics of Persecution: Middle Eastern Christians in an Age of Empire; The Cross in Contexts: Suffering and Redemption in Palestine; Faith in the Face of Empire: The Bible through Palestinian Eyes; His books and numerous articles have been translated so far into thirteen languages.

Naim Stifan Ateek (born in the Palestinian village of Beisan in 1937) is a Palestinian priest in the Anglican Communion and founder of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem.He has been an active leader in the shaping of the Palestinian liberation theology. He was the first to articulate a Palestinian theology of liberation in his book, Justice, and only Justice, a Palestinian Theology of Liberation, published by Orbis in 1989, and based on his dissertation for his degree in theology.The book laid the foundation of a theology that addresses the conflict over Palestine and explores the political as well as the religious, biblical, and theological dimensions. A former Canon of St. George’s Cathedral, Jerusalem, he lectures widely both at home and abroad. His book, A Palestinian Christian Cry for Reconciliation, was published by Orbis in 2008, followed by A Palestinian Theology of Liberation, 2017.

I grew up in a North American evangelical-charismatic setting which emphasized that we should support Israel and the Jewish people. Around the time of the Second Uprising, I remember responding to an altar call at a revival service, where I committed to be a “watchman on the wall” for Jerusalem. At that time, I had no knowledge whatsoever about Palestinians, least of all Palestinian Christians. Nevertheless, I think that my interest in Israel and my commitment to pray for Jerusalem led me to discover another side to the story.

Rifat Odeh Kassis is a Palestinian human rights and political and community activist. He is an author and speaker. He has been arrested and imprisoned several times by Israel.
Born in Beit Sahour to a Palestinian Christian family, he founded in 1991 the Palestinian section of the international child rights organization,[1] Defence for Children International (DCI) and in 2005 he was elected President of the international movement. In October 2008, he was re-elected President for another term. In 2014, he concluded his work as General Director of Defense for Children International Palestine and moved temporarily to Jordan to lead the Lutheran World Federation program there.

Gary M. Burge is an American author and professor. He is a New Testament scholar at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is also an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

 

Zoughbi Zoughbi is the founder and director of the Palestinian Conflict Transformation Centre in Palestine. Known by the name “Wi’am,” the Arabic word meaning “cordial relationships,” the center offers mediation, training, and psycho -social counseling to help resolve community disputes and alleviate the suffering of the people. It includes a trauma-coping program for children, leadership training for women, ending community violence, trying to eliminate violence against women and children, and nonviolence education programs.

For the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal for the Study of Christian Zionism, Click Here.