Professor Safwan Masri, Executive Vice President for Global Centers and Global Development, Columbia University
in conversation with
Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director, Human Rights Watch
Omar Shakir will discuss his recent deportation from Israel over his human rights advocacy and what it means for the human rights movement on the ground. He will also explore the Israeli government's evolving stance towards activists and civil society organizations, human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza, and issues related to gender and sexuality in the context of prolonged occupation.
Omar Shakir is the Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch. He investigates human rights abuses in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. Prior to his current role, he was a Bertha Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights, where he focused on US counterterrorism policies, including legal representation of Guantanamo detainees. As the 2013-14 Arthur R. and Barbara D. Finberg Fellow at Human Rights Watch, he investigated human rights violations in Egypt, including the Rab’a massacre, one of the largest killings of protesters in a single day. A former Fulbright Scholar in Syria, Omar holds a JD from Stanford Law School, where he co-authored a report on the civilian consequences of US drone strikes in Pakistan as a part of the International Human Rights & Conflict Resolution Clinic. He earned his MA in Arab Studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Affairs and BA in International Relations from Stanford University.