CMES Colloquium: From Apartheid to Democracy: A Way Forward for Israel-Palestine

Hosted by Asli Bali.

MICHAEL SCHAEFFER OMER-MAN is an investigative researcher and policy analyst whose work focuses on accountability for crimes and human rights violations in Israel-Palestine. Michael is Israel-Palestine director DAWN, which he joined after working as a journalist for nearly two-decades including as editor-in-chief of +972 Magazine and as an editor at The Jerusalem Post. Michael is an expert on politics and society in the region, with a focus on Israel’s policies of occupation and annexation, its civil and human rights record, and the influence of the US-Israel relationship over those areas. Michael lives in Washington, DC.

SARAH LEAH WHITSON is the Executive Director of DAWN, an organization that seeks to support democracy and human rights in the Middle East, hold abusers accountable, and reform U.S. policy in the region. Previously, she served as executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division from 2004–2020, overseeing the work of the division in 19 countries, with staff located in 10 countries. Whitson has led dozens of advocacy and investigative missions throughout the region, focusing on issues of armed conflict, human rights, accountability, and legal and policy reform. She has published widely on human rights and foreign policy in the Middle East in international and regional media, including The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, The Los Angeles Times, and CNN and appears regularly in global media, including Al-Jazeera, BBC, NPR, MSNBC, and CNN. Whitson graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and Harvard Law School and is fluent in English, Arabic and Armenian.