Center For Middle Eastern and North African Studies MLK Day Lecture

Huwaida Arraf is a Palestinian American civil and human rights attorney, activist, and organizer whose work for more than two decades has focused on legal advocacy, political education, and grassroots mobilization for Palestinian freedom. In 2001, she co-founded the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led movement for nonviolent resistance that has twice been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. She later helped establish one of the first accredited clinical legal education programs in the Arab world at Al-Quds University. Huwaida has long been a central figure in direct-action efforts to break Israel’s blockade on Gaza. As former chair of the Free Gaza Movement, she led multiple sea missions to Gaza and helped organize the 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla, surviving Israel’s lethal attack on the flotilla in international waters. She currently serves as an organizer with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, coordinating ongoing civilian missions challenging the siege. Based in Detroit, Huwaida practices civil rights law, representing communities targeted by state violence and systemic discrimination. She sits on several organizational boards and continues to educate, advocate, and organize for Palestinian liberation and for greater Arab, Muslim, and youth engagement in U.S. political life.