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Amal Elsana-Alhjooj (born October 27, 1973) is a Palestinian Bedouin Israeli community organizer and social activist known for her grassroots work promoting universal access to rights. She has organized around the issues of minority rights in Israel, particularly for women and indigenous peoples. A graduate of both Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and McGill University's School of Social Work, she is currently based in Montreal, and does work in both North America and the Middle East. She is the founder of PLEDJ, a nonprofit organization aiming to increase access to community organization for marginalized demographics which works primarily out of Montreal, Quebec.

Biography

Education

Elsana-Alhjooj completed her BA in Social Work at Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and went on to complete her MA in Community Organizing at McGill University, before receiving her PhD in Social Work at the McGill University School of Social Work. She has also conducted postdoctoral research at the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School, as well as participating as a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University.

Personal

Amal was born in the Negev desert in the South of Israel, in the Bedouin town of Laqiya. She is currently based in Montreal, and has lived in the Middle East and North America, traveling between them extensively to assist and oversee various social work projects.

She currently lives in Montreal, Canada, with her husband and twin children.

Work

She was the Executive Director of ICAN-McGill from 2016 to 2020. She is the co-founder of AJEEC, the Arab Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation, as well as a past co-executive director of AJEEC-NISPED.

Honors & Awards

• Nobel Peace Prize nomination as part of Peace Women Across the Globe's 1000PeaceWomen's joint nominations, 2005.
• IIE Victor J. Goldberg Prize for Peace in the Middle East, 2011
• Palestine Book Award, for Palestinian Activism in Israel: A Bedouin Woman Leader in a Changing Middle East, 2012
• Genius100, Einstein Legacy Project, 100 visionaries of the future, 2017.

See also

• Community Building
• List of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev People
• List of McGill University People
• List of Peace Activists
• List of Women Pacifists and Peace Activists
• Palestinian Citizens of Israel