ADC Presents the Hala Maksoud Leadership Award at the 2021 Alex Odeh Memorial Conference
The American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is happy to present this year’s Hala Maksoud Leadership award to Suhair Nafal.
This Award is presented annually to a community leader who has shown outstanding commitment and leadership, strength and compassion toward the concerns of the community.
Please join us in congratulating Suhair by registering for and attending our 2021 Alex Odeh Memorial Conference!
Suhair Nafal was born in Jordan to exiled Palestinian parents. Her mother was from Birzeit and her father from Jifna, in Palestine. She began her life in Jeda, Saudi Arabia until the age of 8, when her family immigrated to California where she grew up among the Palestinian community in the San Francisco Bay Area.
As her mother was an activist, poet, teacher and speaker in the Palestinian struggle, Suhair was raised in the milieu of community organizing and activism.
After attending San Francisco State University she established a successful career in corporate America, eventually moving to Chicago several years before the 2014 protective edge massacre that spurred her to begin organizing on social media, where she worked to expose Israeli crimes.
Her posts ultimately raised her public profile considerably as she gained a significant following, becoming an influencer, which allowed her to:
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- Raise funds to help build homes for Palestinian war victims in Gaza
- Bring awareness to her followers on any and all issues pertaining to the Palestinian cause including educating on BDS, Palestinian community leaders, authors, organizations, culture/ cultural events, political events, fundraising for organizations and individuals.
- Lead social media actions including mass petition signing and letter writing/phone calls to Congressional lawmakers to push for legislative change etc.
- Bring breaking news directly from Palestine which the mainstream media consistently fails to report.
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In 2020. Suhair was sued for 6 million dollars after posting a picture exposing a young American woman who joined the Israeli army and compared her career choice to Razan Najjar, a Palestinian medic who was murdered by an Israeli sniper.
The lawsuit alleged defamation. Represented by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), Suhair won her lawsuit in the Orange County Superior court in a decisive ruling, which is currently being appealed by the other side.
Register for the conference and join us for the Awards Ceremony at our 2021 Alex Odeh Conference! We will be at the Delta Hotel by Marriot in Garden Grove, CA, October 8-9.
Register here: https://tinyurl.com/ADCConference
Book a room here: https://tinyurl.com/ADCRoom
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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