Victoria Brittain interviews ActforPal member Mays Ishnaiwer on growing up as part of the Palestinian diaspora and the relationship between academia and activism.

Victoria Brittain: Please can you give us some background on you, and your family history?

Mays Ishnaiwer: I was born in Jordan in 1992, the fourth child in a Palestinian family with Jordanian nationality. My parents were born in Dahreye, a town southwest of Hebron. My mother left Palestine as a child and lived almost her entire life in Jordan. My father left Palestine at 18 to study in Germany and sometime during his studies, his permit to reenter Palestine was lost and he could never go back again.

After 1967, Palestinian residents of the Occupied Palestinian Territories crossing into Jordan had to leave their Israeli-issued ID at the border and take a permit that allowed them to reenter Palestine. For the time they were in Jordan and abroad, they would use Jordanian documents. Losing that permit meant that my father could not reclaim his Palestinian ID and reenter.

We lived in Amman while my father was working in Saudi Arabia, so I spent my childhood between those two places. I grew up seeing our relatives come to visit from Palestine and did not understand why we could not also visit their home. As I grew up, I began to understand that we cannot go to Palestine because it is under Israeli occupation, and my parents do not have Palestinian IDs that would allow them to enter.

VB: Can you tell us a bit about your education and your teenage life and experience?

MI: My parents put a big emphasis on education and always wanted us to get the best they could afford. I changed schools a lot, so I was exposed to different communities.

Growing up, I was always aware of the wider world and of being Palestinian. I was eight when the Second Intifada began, and I remember watching the news with my father every day for hours. My parents introduced us then to the concept of boycott, and we knew that we could not consume anything American because the US supported Israel. Whenever we complained about this, my father responded, “Children of your age are getting killed by US weapons.”

Also, some of the Palestinians injured in the Intifada were brought to Saudi Arabia for treatment, and it was a ritual for my father to take us to the hospitals where they were treated, to welcome them, talk to them, see how we could support them, and ask them what they needed.

I remember, too, watching 9/11 on the news, and later, as a teenager, I watched the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, and Israel’s devastation of Lebanon in July 2006. Two years later, on the first day of my secondary school examinations (Tawjihi), I remember coming home to see Israel bombing Gaza in ‘Operation Cast Lead’. I saw the same scenes repeating, children of my age being killed and displaced by the same machinery. Of course, I was deeply interested and engaged with the world where all this was unfolding. It was the subject of daily discussion at home, in school, and in family and friends’ gatherings.

VB: What subject did you choose at university and where did you study?

MI: I studied International Relations at the Hashemite University in Jordan. In secondary school, I knew I wanted to study politics. I thought there must be explanations for what I grew up watching. I remembered how I used to question my father as a child about the world and the wars I saw against the Arab region.

VB: Tell us about your MA project, and are you planning a PhD?

MI: From my first day in university, I knew I would do postgraduate studies. After my BA, I wanted to continue in the field of conflict resolution. I found it frustrating to read textbooks missing an Arab voice, noticing they presented one-sided knowledge. So I decided to do my MA on the role of discourse in shaping perceptions of Palestinian history. And I am planning a PhD, not just for an academic career, but to broaden my knowledge.

VB: Tell us about the women’s organisation you are working with now, and what pulled you into that setting.

MI: As I neared graduation, I knew I did not want to work in the diplomatic field; I wanted to work in advancing human rights. I joined the Jordanian Women’s Union (اتحاد المرأة الأردنية) in November 2014, working initially on a social cohesion project for Syrian and Jordanian children. After a year, I became an assistant project coordinator and in 2017, I became responsible for reporting on our work to our donors.

I have learned so much through this experience and have seen my own beliefs and views on the world put into practice in the organisation’s work. We are right at the intersection between women’s rights and our region’s political and economic realities. It is more than a job; it is a place where I am doing work that matters to women, and where I express who I am.

VB: Why did you join ActforPal? You are in more than one of the groups. Please tell us why you chose them, and what skills you are using and learning.

MI: I joined ActforPal in November 2024, invited by one of the group’s co-founders, Dr. Afaf Jabiri. She asked me to volunteer interpreting for the first webinar launching ActforPal. Then, like everyone, I was feeling paralysed watching the genocide unfold. ActforPal was for me a beacon of hope, a door for action even if I had little to contribute. Afaf knew about my MA and suggested I join the Awareness Raising and Narrative Shaping group, and also the Media and Communication group. I have been taking on tasks in the two groups’ work and initiatives, like documenting minutes of meetings and preparing event recaps. Most importantly, this engagement is a world of learning for me. It has introduced me to great academics who show me the essence of an academic world of real solidarity and commitment on a daily basis.