FMEP’s Lara Friedman and MEI’s Khaled Elgindy speak with Tariq Kenney-Shawa about the Palestinian diaspora, the shifting narrative around Palestine, the prospects for change in U.S. politics and policies, and how all of this relates to the situation on the ground in Palestine today, and the hopes for achieving Palestinian rights and liberation. You can read Tariq’s recent piece, mentioned in the podcast, on +972 Magazine: “Palestinian-Americans are turning the tide of US policy.”

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Tariq Kenney-Shawa is an FMEP-sponsored fellow at the Middle East Institute’s Palestine Program (2021-2022). Tariq is currently pursuing his Masters in International Affairs at Columbia University, where he is studying conflict resolution, international security, and journalism. During his time as a graduate student he also consulted for The New York Times, researching far-right extremism and threats posed to journalists. Before that, Tariq worked at a security consulting firm based in New York City, where he covered conflict developments across the Middle East and North Africa. As a Palestinian-American, Tariq hopes to pursue a career that contributes to the Palestinian struggle for self-determination and equal rights and influences US foreign policy. In his free time, he is an avid street and travel photographer.

Khaled Elgindy is a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute where he also directs MEI’s Program on Palestine and Israeli-Palestinian Affairs. He is the author of the newly-released book, Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians, from Balfour to Trump, published by Brookings Institution Press in April 2019. Elgindy previously served as a fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution from 2010 through 2018. Prior to arriving at Brookings, he served as an adviser to the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah on permanent status negotiations with Israel from 2004 to 2009, and was a key participant in the Annapolis negotiations of 2007-08. Elgindy is also an adjunct instructor in Arab Studies at Georgetown University.

Lara Friedman is the President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP). With more than 25 years working in the Middle East foreign policy arena, Lara is a leading authority on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, with particular expertise on the Israeli-Arab conflict, Israeli settlements, Jerusalem, and the role of the U.S. Congress. She is published widely in the U.S. and international press and is regularly consulted by members of Congress and their staffs, by Washington-based diplomats, by policy-makers in capitals around the world, and by journalists in the U.S. and abroad. In addition to her work at FMEP, Lara is a Contributing Writer at Jewish Currents and a non-resident fellow at the U.S./Middle East Project (USMEP). Prior to joining FMEP, Lara was the Director of Policy and Government Relations at Americans for Peace Now, and before that she was a U.S. Foreign Service Officer, serving in Jerusalem, Washington, Tunis and Beirut. She holds a B.A. from the University of Arizona and a Master’s degree from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service; in addition to English, Lara speaks French, Arabic, Spanish, (weak) Italian, and muddles through in Hebrew.