- Edward Said
Edward Wadie Saïd was a Palestinian-American literary theorist and outspoken Palestinian activist. He was University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, and is regarded as a founding figure in postcolonial theory.
- Ali Abunimah
Ali Hasan Abunimah is a Palestinian-American, born of a mother made a refugee in 1948 from the village of Lifta now in Israel, and a father from the village of Battir in the West Bank, who co-founded Electronic Intifada, a not-for-profit, independent online publication about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict from a Palestinian perspective. Abunimah has served as the Vice-President on the Board of Directors of the Arab American Action Network.
- Ray Hanania
Ray Hanania (b. Chicago, Illinois, 1953) is an Arab-American journalist also known for his stand-up comedy. Hanania writes a syndicated column with a particular focus on the Middle East, and after the September 11 attacks, created a comedy act with the hope of defusing mutual suspicion.
- Sami Al-Arian
Sami Amin Al-Arian is a Palestinian computer engineer who was convicted of conspiracy to help Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Al-Arian, a former university professor, was arrested by the United States government in 2003 on charges of funding terrorists. He was acquitted on eight of the 17 charges against him December 2005 after a six month trial with three co-defendants.
- Joseph Massad
Joseph Andoni Massad is an Associate Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University. He is of Palestinian Arab descent from a Christian family. He became the center of a controversy over Anti-Zionism, antisemitism, and academic freedom in 2004 and 2005.
- Dean Obeidallah
Dean Obeidallah is an Arab/Italian-American comedian, who was born in Lodi, New Jersey. His father was born in Battir, Palestine, a small village near Bethlehem; his mother's parents were born in Sicily. He is part of a small but growing number of Middle Eastern-American comedians who've increasingly received media attention in the past few years, as they use comedy to both entertain and dispel negative stereotypes of Middle Eastern-Americans.
- Dj Khaled
DJ Khaled (born in New Orleans, Louisiana as Khaled Khaled,, English trans: "eternal" this name was borne by a 7th century Islamic military leader, Khalid ibn-al-Walid) is a DJ, radio personality, and a member of Terror Squad. He is of Palestinian descent. His debut album, Listennn... The Album, dropped in stores on June 6th, 2006. The album features an all-star cast of artists such as Lil Wayne, Chamillionaire, Young Jeezy, T.I., …
- Sirhan Sirhan
Sirhan Bishara Sirhan is the convicted assassin of United States Senator Robert F. “Bobby” Kennedy. He is currently serving a life sentence at the state penitentiary in Corcoran, California.
- Mubarak Awad
Mubarak Awad is a Palestinian-American psychologist and advocate of nonviolent resistance. Awad, who is also a Palestinian Christian, was born in the eastern sector of Jerusalem which was at the time, occupied by Jordan which invaded in 1948 and illegally annexed the city. He emigrated to the United States in 1969. He was given the right to Israeli citizenship in 1967, but refused and kept his Jordanian citizenship. He later became a U.S. citizen.
- Simon Shaheen
Simon Shaheen is an Arab Israeli (Palestinian) oud and violin virtuoso and composer. At the age of 2, Shaheen moved with his family to Haifa.
- Will Youmans
Will Youmans (born in Detroit, MI in 1978) is a Palestinian-American writer, activist and hip-hop artist. Youmans is an outspoken advocate for the cause of Palestinian human rights and a critic of American foreign policy in the Middle East. He co-hosts and co-produces a show, "What's Happening?," on the American channel of the international satellite TV station Arab Radio and Television (ART). He has written extensively in various media outlets, …
- Alex Odeh
Alex Odeh was an Arab-American who was killed in a October 11, 1985 bombing at his office in Santa Ana, California. Odeh was regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC). Born into a Palestinian Christian family in Jifna, the West Bank, Odeh immigrated to the US in 1972. Odeh's murder was never solved by the FBI, and there is still a $1 million reward for the capture of his killer.
- Ibrahim Abu-Lughod
Ibrahim Abu-Lughod was a Palestinian (later American) academic, characterised by Edward Said as "Palestine's foremost academic and intellectual" and by Rashid Khalidi as one of the first Arab-American scholars to have a really serious effect on the way the Middle East is portrayed in political science and in America".
- Fredwreck
Fredwreck (of Palestinian descent, born Farid Nassar in Flint, Michigan) is a hip-hop producer, mostly for West Coast acts. He got his big break when he became a producer for Snoop Dogg's record label Dogghouse Records (now Doggystyle Records) and became a known producer on Tha Dogg Pound-affiliated material. He has produced tracks from Kurupt's Streetz iz a Mutha and most of his next release, …
- John E. Sununu
John Edward Sununu (born September 10, 1964) is a Republican United States Senator from New Hampshire.
- Ismail Al-Faruqi
Ismail Raji al-Faruqi (January 1, 1921 - May 27, 1986), is a renowned Palestinian-American philosopher who is widely recognized by his peers as an authority on Islam and comparative religion. He spent several years at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, then taught at several universities in North America, including McGill University in Montreal. He was Professor of Religion at Temple University, where he founded and chaired the Islamic Studies program. Dr.
- Samih Farsoun
Samih K. Farsoun was a professor emeritus of sociology at American University, where he taught for thirty years until his retirement in 2003. He graduated from Hamilton College in New York. He received a master's degree in 1961 and a PhD in 1971, both in sociology from the University of Connecticut. He died June 9 of a heart attack while on a walk with his wife in New Buffalo, Michigan. He was a resident of Florida and Washington, D.C. During his career at AU, …
- Rosemarie Said Zahlan
Rosemarie Said Zahlan (August 20, 1937 - May 10, 2006) was a Palestinian-American historian and writer on the Gulf states. She was a sister of Edward Said. In addition to her books, she also wrote for the Financial Times, the Middle East Journal, the International Journal of Middle East Studies and the Encyclopedia of Islam. Said Zahlan was born in Cairo in 1937, as the eldest of four sisters.
- Imad-Ad-Dean Ahmad
Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad (born August 11, 1948) is an American Muslim scholar and the president of the Minaret of Freedom Institute, a libertarian Muslim think-tank. Born at sea as his mother fled from Palestine, Ahmad was raised in Pennsylvania and earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University (1970) and a doctoral degree in astronomy and astrophysics from the University of Arizona (1975).
- Jamal Nassar
Jamal R. Nassar is Professor of Politics at Illinois State University. He was born in Jerusalem, Palestine, received a B.A. from Jacksonville University in 1972, a M.A. from the University of South Florida in 1974 and a Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati in 1978; immediately afterwards, he joined the faculty at Illinois State; he is presently chair of the department.. His specialty is Middle Easter politics.
- Rachel Corrie
Rachel Corrie (April 10, 1979 - March 16, 2003) was an American member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who traveled to the Gaza Strip during the Al-Aqsa Intifada. She was killed when she tried to obstruct an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Caterpillar D9 armoured bulldozer operating in Hai as-Salam, a Palestinian area of Rafah, close to the border with Egypt, an area the IDF had designated a security zone. The circumstances of Corrie's death are disputed.
- Eddie Nash
Eddie Nash (b. 1929) was a nightclub and restaurant owner in Los Angeles and is a convicted gangster and drug dealer; he is best known for his involvement in the quadruple Wonderland Murders.
- Hazem Ali
Hazem Ali is an American professional wrestler and wrestling manager of Palestinian descent, better known by his ring names, Osama Rodriguez Alejandro and Armando Alejandro Estrada. He is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment and working on the RAW brand.
- Gibran Hamdan
Gibran Hamdan (born February 8, 1981 in San Diego, California) is an American football quarterback who currently plays for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League. He was originally drafted by the Washington Redskins in the seventh round (232nd overall) of the 2003 NFL Draft. He played collegiately at Indiana.
- Lauren Bush
Lauren Bush is a fashion model and the daughter of Neil Bush and Sharon Bush (née Smith) and niece of President of the United States George W. Bush and granddaughter of President George H. W. Bush. Bush was born in Texas and went to high school in Houston at The Kinkaid School. (Her sister, Ashley, will graduate from Kinkaid in 2007.) Bush has studied fashion design at Parsons The New School for Design and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.
- Hanan Ashrawi
Hanan Ashrawi is currently the Secretary-General of the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She was the Official Spokesperson for the Palestinian movement during the Madrid peace negotiations (1991-1993), and continues to be active in the efforts towards peace in the region. She was also a member of the Task Force on Higher Education convened by UNESCO and the World Bank.
- Walid Shoebat
Walid Shoebat is an American citizen, born to Palestinian father and American mother. By self definition, he is a former PLO terrorist. Shoebat came to public attention by becoming an ardent critic of Islam and supporter of Israel. He describes himself as a former member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation who took part in terrorist attacks against Israeli targets. He is the founder of the Walid Shoebat Foundation, …
- Francis Boyle
Dr. Francis Anthony Boyle, is a professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago and Harvard Law School. He also received a Ph. D. in political science from Harvard University. Between 1988 and 1992 Boyle was a member of the board of Amnesty International USA.
- Daniel Barenboim
Daniel Barenboim (b. November 15, 1942) is a pianist and conductor. He lives in Berlin and holds citizenship in Argentina, Israel, and Spain. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina; his parents were Russian Jews. Barenboim first came to fame as a pianist but now is as well-known as a conductor, and for his work with an orchestra of young Arab and Jewish musicians, based in Israel, called the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, …
- George Habash
George Habash, to a family of Christian Palestinian merchants. Sometimes he is known by his nom de guerre "Al-Hakim", الحكيم, meaning "the govenor", is the founder and former Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
- Daoud Kuttab
Daoud Kuttab is a Palestinian journalist. Born in Jerusalem in 1955, he has become one of the most prominent moderate voices among Palestinians. He is the director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al Quds University, and he is the founder and general director of AmmanNet, the Arab world's first internet radio station. He has been arrested by both Israelis and Palestinians and has won numerous international awards, including the CPJ International Press Freedom Awards, …
- Suheir Hammad
Suheir Hammad was born in Amman, Jordan to parents that were Palestinian refugees on October 25 1973. Hammad’s family immigrated to Brooklyn in New York City when she was five years old. She grew up there, her parents later moving to Staten Island. Her poetry has allowed Hammad to travel the world, reading her poems in Ivy League Universities and on Brooklyn’s street corners. Her work has appeared in award winning anthologies, …
- Adam Shapiro
Adam Shapiro (1972-) born in Brooklyn, New York, is a co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a pro-Palestinian organization, the stated mission of which is to resist the Israeli occupation using nonviolent tactics, but which is regarded by some as condoning terrorism, a charge ISM vigorously denies. He became famous for staying with Yasser Arafat in his Mukataa compound in Ramallah while it was besieged by the Israeli Army.
- Walid Khalidi
Walid Khalidi (1925-) is a Palestinian historian who had written extensively on the Palestinian exodus and the 1948 Israeli-Arab War. He is also the General Secretary and co-founder of the Institute for Palestine Studies. He was born in Jerusalem and graduated from University of Oxford in 1951. Khalidi was Professor of Political Studies at the American University of Beirut from until 1982 and thereafter a research fellow at the Harvard Center for International Affairs.
- Naomi Shihab Nye
Naomi Shihab Nye was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to a Palestinian father and an American mother. She spent most of her childhood in the United States but also lived in Jerusalem for a few years. A poet, songwriter, and storywriter, she lives in San Antonio, Texas. She has twice traveled abroad-to the Middle East and to the Far East-as a participant in the Arts America program. Her poetry has been published internationally and has won several literary prizes.
- Hedy Epstein
Hedi Epstein is a Holocaust survivor who escaped Germany in 1939 as a child, by way of the Kindertransport, and currently resides in the United States. She has been working actively with Palestinian and Israeli peace organizations to bring about a peaceful resolution to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. She frequently makes public speeches to bring awareness to this issue. As of 2004, she lived in St. Louis, Missouri.
- Baruch Marzel
Baruch Marzel is an American-born Israeli, Orthodox Jew and radical right-wing politician. He lives in the Jewish community of Hebron with his wife and nine children. He is the leader of the Religious Zionism-orientated Jewish National Front party. He claims he was the "right hand man" of Rabbi Meir Kahane, acting as spokesman for the American Rabbi's Kach organization for ten years until it was outlawed in Israel and the US as a terrorist organization.
- Fawaz Damra
Fawaz Damra is an imam who lived near Cleveland, Ohio. He was deported and had his United States citizenship stripped for lying to immigration officials while obtaining that citizenship. Damra was alleged to have recruited suicide bombers to attack Israel. The "Cleveland Plain Dealer" reported that Damra delivered bridge building speeches in English to audiences that included Jews, while also preaching Jihad against Israel to Muslim audiences in Arabic.
- Casey Kasem
Casey Kasem (born Kemal Amin Kasem on April 27 1932, in Detroit, Michigan, USA, of Palestinian/Lebanese heritage) is an American radio personality and voice actor. He currently hosts four weekly syndicated radio programs based on the popular American Top 40 franchise, which he founded in 1970. "American Top 20 with Casey Kasem", "American Top 10 with Casey Kasem", "Casey Kasem's American Top 40: The 70s", …
- Samih Farsoun