Samah Salaime

Samah Salaime holds both a B.A. and an M.A. degrees in social work, majoring in the organization and supervision of women’s internship, both from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is a graduate of the Mandel Institute for Educational Leadership, and during her studies specialized in gender mainstreaming the education system. She has founded and managed the center for female Arab youths in Ramla, the Lod community center, as well as the Issawiya culture, youth, and sports center in Jerusalem. In 2009, following a wave of murders of women in central cities in Israel, she founded the “Na’am” association: Arab Women in the Center.

This constitutes the first feminist association in the central region dedicated to Arab women, as well as to advancing the status of women in the cities of Ramla, Lod, and Jaffa. Salaime lives with her family in the Jewish-Arab community of Neve Shalom, manages foregin relations in the Wahat Al-Salam educational association, promoting education for living together and peace, and she serves as Neve Shalom’s representative in the regional council plenum of Mate Yehuda. She writes and publishes op-eds and commentaries in both the Hebrew and Arabic press, and has a regular blog in both Sicha Mekomit (Local Call) and in the ‘+972’ magazine.

She writes about feminist issues both in Israel and around the world, and focuses on Arab-Jewish relations and common struggles.