Board Members Sumud

Sumud’s Board

Noora Dadu, Chair

Noora Dadu is a Finnish-Palestinian actor and playwright. Personal and political intersect in many of their art works. Dadu has written the books Minun Palestiinani ja Fail (2022) and Roolitus (2024).

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Majed Abusalama, Vice Chair

Majed Abusalama is a political activist, writer, and researcher who was born and raised in the Jabalia Refugee Camp in Gaza. He emerged as a prominent civil society activist, initiating, organizing, coordinating, and leading various local and international humanitarian and political efforts to break the military siege of Gaza, including initiatives like Beats for Gaza and the Gaza Freedom March.

Since leaving Gaza, Abusalama has been actively involved in anti-racist, migrant, decolonial, and solidarity movements across Europe. He tirelessly works against far-right and fascist forces, continuing his commitment to justice and liberation.

He has co-founded several organizations, including Sumud in Finland, Palestine Speaks in Germany, and Alliance for Palestine in Switzerland.

In Berlin, Abusalama won a 3 year-long, well-known trial named the Humboldt3, where he and another two anti-Zionist activists took Israel to court.

In his PhD research at the Palestine Research Group in Finland, Abusalama investigates the colonial control over the generation of the blockade. He regularly writes for many media outlets including Aljazeera, Mondoweiss, NewArab and others.

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Syksy Räsänen, Vice Chair

Syksy Räsänen has been on the board of ICAHD Finland since 2010. He also has been part of the International Solidarity Movement on the West Bank in various years. He is the author of the book Israelin apartheid.

Alaa Altamimi

Alaa Altamimi is a refugee from Baghdad and human rights activist. Co-founder of MIITTI Pro Lapinlahti Mielenterveysseura ry and co-founder of Mieli ilman rajoja ry. Working at the moment in Amnesty International Finland as an activism coordinator and In Pro Lapinlahti mielenterveysseura and Miitti’s operations manager.

Alisa Ajomaa, Secretary

Alisa Ajomaa, is a social worker and social scientist from Helsinki who is actively trying to defend human rights. In her work and studies, Alisa has focused on forced displacement. In her life she aims to master the Arabic language and adopt a cat.

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Eero Yli-Vakkuri

Eero Yli-Vakkuri is a performance artist from Helsinki whose work focuses on public spaces. He is advancing sustainable design through campaigns, workshops and artistic presentations. He prefers to work in groups and to develop antidisciplinary collaborations with specialists from different fields.

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Hanna Niittymäki

Hanna Niittymäki is a Peace Educator and former Special needs teacher. She co-operates with several NGOs and other actors, but her home base is in the peace movement and especially in The Finnish Peace Committee. Peace has been Hanna’s thing since childhood and it is in her agenda to make it the thing for
many others as well.

Helga West

Helga West is a civic activist and theologian from Deatnu River Valley, Sápmi. She works on literature, issues of colonialism, and reconciliation in the fields of both art and science.

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Hichem Naami

Hichem Naami was born in Tunisia, and has a double nationality, Tunisian and Palestinian, as his father is Palestinian. He would love to introduce himself as an artist, because he believes that art in its purest form is resistance. He studied arts and literature in Tunisia and graduated in sport and physical education. He is a well-known filmmaker in Tunisia. He came to Finland with his wife and son in 2023, and has a long-term idea to make change in Finland as a filmmaker and through content creation on social media.

Janette Kotivirta

Janette Kotivirta is a doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki. Her research engages with the politics of forestry expansion in Uruguay, Finnish complicity in it and its translational resistance. Currently she is active in Students for Palestine Finland. She continues her work for environmental justice with Debt for Climate.

Koko Hubara

Koko Hubara is a Finnish–Israeli–Yemeni author, writer, journalist and doctoral researcher. Since 2015, Hubara has worked in the fields of literature, journalism, research and within the third sector with questions related to decolonization, intersectional feminism, and antiracism. Koko Hubara is a founding member of Ruskeat Tytöt ry and the anti-Zionist network Nahlieli – Jews for Justice in Palestine.

Lina Jarallah

Lina Jarallah is a Finnish-Palestinian activist, yoga teacher and sound healer with a deep concern for the lack of equality, justice, and truth in the world. From a young age, witnessing the impact of the occupation on her family in East Jerusalem, and visiting other parts of Palestine throughout her life has developed into a sensitivity towards the struggles of oppressed indigenous people.

Sedeer el-Showk

Sedeer el-Showk (he/they, born at 338 ppm) is a writer, scientist, and tinkerer. Their politics are anti-capitalist and anti-colonial. He is on the board of Helsinki Left, helped start Scientist Rebellion Finland, and is in Elokapina. Sedeer joined Sumud in October 2023 and has been helping coordinate the demonstrations in Helsinki since November 2023.

Staff

Ida-Emilia Reini, Executive Director

Ida-Emilia Reini is a literature researcher and anthropologist, specialized in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Can be found taking blurry film photos or rowing a boat on the tranquil waters of Näsijärvi lake.

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Lili De Paola, Coordinator

Lili De Paola holds master’s degrees in Middle Eastern Studies and Finnish Language. In her studies, she has focused on Saudi Arabia as well as Palestine/Israel.

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XXA, organisation assistant

Our organization’s assistant, who goes by the pseudonym XXA, considers being both Stateless and Palestinian as their superpowers. They unapologetically advocate for Palestinian rights and try their best to amplify the voices of marginalized communities.