New Fellows Bring Expertise on Israel-Palestine and U.S. Foreign Policy to the Organization
(Washington, D.C., August 26) — Two leading experts, Sari Bashi and John V. Whitbeck, have joined DAWN as its newest Non-Resident Fellows, DAWN announced in a statement issued today. They join 22 other Non-Resident Fellows at DAWN whose expertise, commentary and analysis complements and advances the organization's mission to reform U.S. policy in the Middle East and North Africa. Like all of DAWN's fellows, Whitbeck and Bashi will contribute to DAWN's online journal, Democracy in Exile, and offer insight, analysis and recommendations on behalf of DAWN.
"It is an honor to welcome two new scholars—Sari Bashi and John V. Whitbeck—who join DAWN's diverse non-resident fellows program as thought leaders on Israel-Palestine and U.S. foreign policy," said Sarah Leah Whitson, DAWN's executive director.
Sari Bashi is a human rights lawyer, writer, analyst, and senior leader and the co-founder and former executive director of Gisha-Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, the Israeli human rights organization promoting freedom of movement for Palestinians in Gaza. She has also served as program director at Human Rights Watch, leading the organization's global research and research staff of 270 people and as research director at DAWN. She's an expert in international humanitarian law, a subject she has taught at Tel Aviv University and Yale Law School. She authors the Umm Forat blog on raising her kids in the West Bank and is an ultra-marathon runner. Her essays appear in the New York Times, MSNBC, Foreign Policy, the New York Review of Books, and other publications, and the English translation of her award-winning Hebrew-language memoir, "Upside-Down Love," will be published in 2026.
John Whitbeck is a Paris-based international lawyer who practiced law in Saudi Arabia in the late 1970s and again from 1999 through 2009 and served as a legal advisor to the Palestinian leadership. He supported the Palestinian negotiating team in Madrid in 1991, in Cairo in 1994 and Camp David in 2000. His articles have been published widely in more than 90 different Arab, Israeli and international newspapers, magazines, journals, and books. He also runs the Whitbeck Blog, an exclusive list where he publishes daily analyses of current events related to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
"Readers of DAWN's journal are already familiar with their compelling voices and insights in analyzing and understanding the region," said Alexander Langlois, senior editor of Democracy in Exile and manager of DAWN's fellow program.
"I'm honored to rejoin DAWN in its mission to fulfill Jamal Khashoggi's vision of a democratic, rights-respecting Middle East. As more and more Americans rise up to oppose U.S. backing for abusive regimes in Israel-Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and elsewhere, DAWN's leadership is more important than ever," said Sari Bashi.
"It is a pleasure and a privilege to be associated with DAWN, which dares to speak out promptly and boldly regarding the many injustices in the Middle East, notably including those for which the U.S. government is responsible or complicit," said John Whitbeck.
DAWN's Non-Resident Fellows are available for interviews with the media. For topical inquiries based on each Fellow's area of expertise, please contact press@dawnmena.org.
DAWN, founded in 2018 by Jamal Khashoggi, is a nonprofit organization that seeks to reform U.S. policy in the MENA region and to hold human rights abusers accountable.
