Ibtisam Mahameed

Ibtisam Mahameed is a Palestinian peaceworker living in a small Arab-Palestinian community in Fureidis, northern Israel. Her family was originally from the Palestinian village of Tantura on the Mediterranean coast, which was destroyed during the 1948 War of Independence. Mahameed has worked for many years counseling Arab and Jewish women regarding the status of females in Middle Eastern society. As a religious Muslim woman, she promotes inter-faith respect and understanding by encouraging Palestinian, Jewish, Druze, and Christian women to learn about each other's religions and cultures. Mahameed, a member of Jerusalem Peacemakers, is also on the board of Middleway, an NGO for the promotion of compassion and non-violence, and helped found the Women's Interfaith Encounter, a program of the Interfaith Encounter Association.