Amal Elsana Alh'jooj (Arabic: أمل الصانع الحجوج; Hebrew: אמל אלסאנע אלחג'וג'; born 1972)[1] is a Bedouin feminist, peace activist, and community organizer known for her grassroots work promoting universal access to rights and social justice in the Global South.
[2] She has organized movements and civil society projects around the issues of minority rights in Israel, particularly for women and indigenous peoples.
[6] Although she was unsuccessful, her father praised her writing skills, and Elsana Alh'jooj has recognized this event as her first "formal attempt to stand up for women's rights".
[2][6] At age 15, she was arrested during "a protest against Israel’s policy toward Palestinians at her high school",[1] and subsequently spent a night in jail.
[1] While in jail, one police officer encouraged her to pursue her education to better drive change, a sentiment which inspired her future activism.
[2] After finishing her master's degree in 1999, she returned to Israel, where she resolved to begin building bridges between Israeli and Palestinian communities, particularly through women.
[5] Elsana Alh'jooj founded the Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation (AJEEC) in 2000 as a division of the Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development (NISPED),[2] which she co-directed alongside Vivian Silver as AJEEC-NISPED from 2005 to 2012.
[7] Elsana Alh'jooj founded PLEDJ | Canada in 2020, a research and training non-profit that networks global indigenous and marginalized knowledges to mobilize social justice and address international conflict.
[8] In 2023, Alh'jooj published a memoir, Hope is a Woman's Name, about her work as an activist navigating interwoven patriarchal and nationalist systems of oppression.