Our Leadership

Board of Directors

Jonathan Kuttab is a co-founder of the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq

Jonathan Kuttab

Jonathan Kuttab is a co-founder of the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq and co-founder of Nonviolence International. A well-known international human rights attorney, Jonathan practices in the US, Palestine and Israel. He serves on the Board of Bethlehem Bible College and is President of the Board of Holy Land Trust. Jonathan was the head of the Legal Committee negotiating the Cairo Agreement of 1994 between Israel and the PLO. After graduating with his Doctor of Jurisprudence (JD) from Virginia Law School, and practicing for a couple of years on Wall Street, Jonathan returned home to Palestine. Jonathan was visiting scholar at Osgoode Law School at York University in Toronto in 2017. Jonathan is a resident of East Jerusalem, and is a partner of Kuttab, Khoury and Hanna Law Firm in East Jerusalem.

Ali Mallah is an anti-war and community activist.

Ali Mallah

Ali Mallah is an anti-war and community activist.

He is on the National Steering Committee of the Canadian Peace Alliance, the coordinating committee of the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War, is on the steering committee of the Syria Solidarity Movement, is a board member of the Centre for Social Justice and is a union activist.

He is a former Vice-President of the Canadian Arab Federation, and is on the Board of Directors of Alternatives Canada, Urban Alliance on Race Relations and the Anti-Racism Task force.

John Philpot is an experienced international defence attorney

John Philpot

John Philpot is an experienced international defence attorney before international criminal courts (ICC, ICTR) and in Canada. He has been active in Africa, Latin America and Europe as well as in Canada. Member Barreau du Québec 1984-present John is an accredited attorney at the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) and at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). He also is an accredited attorney at the International Criminal Court, The Hague and at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. He is a member of the International Criminal Court Bar Association (ICCBA) since its inception in 2015. John also is a member of the Coordinating Committee of the Coalition BDS Québec, and President of the Rwandan Political Prisoners Support Network.

Karen Rodman is a human rights advocate

Karen Rodman

Karen Rodman is a human rights advocate, and serves as executive director of Just Peace Advocates. She is also founder of Palestine Just Trade. Karen was ordained as a United Church of Canada minister in 2015 and has served as a human rights volunteer observer in Palestine through the World Council of Churches. Karen is retired from senior management leadership with the Ontario Public Service, after over a three-decade career. Karen brings many years of experience leading organizations, stakeholders and partners through times of change, through engagement, relationship building and capacity building. She hold a B.Sc. in Agriculture, a Master of Divinity and a Master of Rural Extension Education.

The founding directors of Just Peace Advocates included Karen Rodman, Jonathan Kuttab and Zahia El Masri.