As the aftermath of Trump’s speech on Jerusalem continues to unfold, the risks for the region are serious. What can Israelis, Palestinians, and Americans do in this moment to ease tensions and ensure a better future for Jerusalem?
Talia Sasson
Attorney Talia Sasson is President of the New Israel Fund (NIF) and Chair of its board. She serves on the public councils of numerous peace and human rights organizations. In 2009, she ran for the Knesset as representative of The New Movement & Meretz. From 2004 to 2010, Mrs. Sasson taught a course on “Defending Israel’s Democracy through Law” at Tel-Aviv University’s Law Faculty. At the request of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, from August 2004 to March 2005, Mrs. Sasson served as a special legal advisor for the government. In that capacity, she authored the Sasson Report on illegal outposts and law enforcement on Israelis in the West Bank. From 1979 to February 2004 she worked in the State Attorney’s office. From 1989 to 1993 she headed the Civil Department in the Office of the District Attorney of Jerusalem. From 1996 to 2004, she headed the Special Tasks Division of the State Attorney’s office. In this role, she represented the government of Israel before the Supreme Court for thirteen years in civil, criminal, constitutional and administrative cases and was also involved in various security and military issues. Mrs. Sasson is the author of At the Edge of the Abyss: Is the victory of the settlements the end of Israeli democracy? which was published in 2015.
Betty Herschman
Ir Amim’s Director of International Relations & Advocacy, Betty Herschman, serves as the organization’s international spokesperson and policy advocate. She is Ir Amim’s key liaison to the diplomatic community, conducts political advocacy in the US and Europe, and serves as the voice of Ir Amim to American and European media outlets, think tanks and opinion shapers. Prior to her role at Ir Amim, Betty designed development strategies and conducted advocacy for US based not-for-profit organizations focused on homelessness, domestic violence and elimination of disparities in access to health care. She is a graduate of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where she studied public administration, public policy and negotiation, and holds a master’s degree in education from Boston University.
Nisreen Alyan
Nisreen Alyan is an attorney in ACRI’s East Jerusalem Project. She joined the organization in 2008, as an attorney and field worker for the East Jerusalem Project. She has also worked as an attorney in ACRI’s Arab Minority Rights Unit, focusing on the equal allocation of resources and public services. Before joining ACRI, Ms. Alyan served as the Arabic spokesperson for B’Tselem and subsequently worked as a parliamentary aide in the Knesset. During her legal studies, she worked in the office of Human Rights Attorney Shlomo Lecker. Ms. Alyan earned an L.L.B. degree from the Academic Center of Law and Business in 2007.
Dahlia Scheindlin
Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin is a public opinion expert and an international political and strategic consultant who has advised electoral and civil society campaigns in over a dozen countries, including post-communist and post-conflict societies, and five national campaigns in Israel. Dahlia conducts extensive public opinion research and policy analysis on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and on a wide range of domestic and foreign affairs for dozens of civil society organizations (NGOs) in Israel. She has been a senior analyst for the Washington-based global polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research; the director of international campaigns at GCS Issue Management, and a researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute. She holds a PhD in political science from Tel Aviv University; she has taught as an adjunct lecturer at Tel Aviv University, Ben Gurion University and Jezreel Valley College, she is a founder and regular columnist at +972 Magazine, and serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of 972 – Advancement of Citizen Journalism. In 2013, Dr. Scheindlin was a fellow at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University; she is currently a policy fellow at Mitvim – the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, and she co-hosts the The Tel Aviv Review podcast on TLV1 radio.
Libby Lenkinski
Libby is the Vice President for Public Engagement at the New Israel Fund, where she leads all aspects of NIF’s public efforts in the United States – including communications, digital, programs, events, leadership, community partnerships and engagement, New Generations and our fellowships. Prior to joining NIF, Libby lived and worked in the Israeli non-profit field for almost a decade. There she worked as Director of International Relations at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and as a strategy consultant for human rights organizations like Yesh Din and Physicians for Human Rights.