Akram Baker remembered, worked at Orient House in Jerusalem with the late Faisal Husseini

Obituary, 1966 – 2025

By Hady Amr

Akram Ahmad Baker, 58, my longtime friend and colleague, passed away on December 11, following a valiant battle with disease.

Akram was born in Norfolk, Virginia in 1966 to Palestinian-American parents from Bir Nabalah, Palestine and spent his childhood in Virginia and Michigan before moving to Palestine at age 14 where he spent his formative teenage years in Ramallah and his ancestral village.

Akram was a believer in the inherent right of freedom and dignity for all people in a universal and very American sense. He was also a proponent of empathetic and organized resistance to injustice, and was never shy to speak up for freedom. He was a pioneer in public and political engagement for human rights from his earliest days.

In the early 1990’s, Akram served in Jerusalem at Orient House for the late Faisal Husseini where he was the head of English communications and U.S. relations, and participated in the 1991 Madrid Conference on Peace in the Middle East—where his former colleagues shared that Secretary of State James Baker would refer to him as the ‘Palestinian Baker’.

A few years later, he moved to Germany with his wife where he began raising a family. He returned again in Palestine a decade later with his family to do work, engaging with civil society, and then as a senior advisor to the Governor of the Palestine Monetary Authority.

His journey in adulthood took him into the worlds of activism both in the United States where he engaged in Congressional advocacy and election organizing, and in his homeland where he sought to uplift marginalized voices. It also brought him into the media where he was a frequent speaker on German television and writer for German newspapers. And it took him to the private sector where he worked with companies on business and human resource development.

But he was perhaps the freest to be his true self in music where he discovered his voice and played guitar in various iterations of local bands where his spirt soared. His earthy journey took him to stations in Virginia, Michigan, Ramallah, DC, Hamburg, Munich and ultimately Berlin where he spent his final years with his family. From the day we met, we got into ‘good trouble’ in most of these venues, lifting up the disadvantaged through creating educational opportunities or working for equal rights and human rights as we best knew how.

He found meaning in the struggle against the decades of grinding injustice endured by the Palestinian people and tolerated by the rest of the world, but like many, particularly during the last two years, it broke his heart. He was a loving father, son, sibling and friend, and is survived by his three adult children, mother and siblings, who along with Akram’s late father, Dr. Ahmad Baker, have all been champions for justice in their own ways, as well as the many people he touched across Europe, the United States and the Middle East, especially in Palestine, where his ancestors have lived for centuries.

As he struggled against cancer, while he had moments of despair, he overwhelmingly faced his challenge with courage, humor and laughter. It was just two weeks ago that we had planned to meet up in January. Maybe he knew that day would never come and was just offering hope for my benefit. But a big part of me thinks he believed it.

He was always an optimist, no matter the difficult odds, having pulled off the seemingly impossible from time to time. And maybe his sustained optimism was the sanest approach to being the proud member of a people who have been dealt such a terrible and inhumane set of cards.

I am blessed to have been on this journey in life for the past three-plus decades with Akram, whose courage, optimism, and laugh will live with my family and I forever. This is a photo of him playing guitar at my wedding—where even though he was not on the official program, he just showed up with his guitar and played.